A Perfect Spy

by John le Carré

Ronnie Cornwell

Grimmelshausen’s Simplicissimus,

Grimmelshausen

philology,

In life, says Proust, we end up doing whatever we do second best. What Pym might have done better, I shall never know. He accepted the Firm’s offer. He opened his Times and read with a similar detachment of his engagement to Belinda. That’s me taken care of, then, he thought. With the Firm getting one half of me and Belinda the other, I’ll never want for anything again.