The Polish Officer (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Alan Furst
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: September 11, 1939-December 1, 1941
- Setting: Europe, mainly Poland, France, and the Ukraine
- Principal Characters: Captain Alexander de Milja, Colonel Anton Vyborg, Helena de Milja, Boris Lezhev, Genya Beilis, Freddi Schoen, General Fedin, Janina, Madame Roubier, Jeanne-Marie, Razakavia, Shura
- Genres: Long fiction, Spy fiction
- Subjects: Love or romance, World War II, Nazism or Nazis, Espionage or spies, Jews and Gentiles
- Locales: France, Poland, Ukraine
Alan Furst’s The Polish Officer belongs to the genre of the spy novel, but it is a spy novel with depth. While providing the standard spy-novel action and characters, Furst avoids the James Bond comic-book effect and instead leans in the direction of such masters of the genre as Graham Greene and John le Carré. The depth in his work comes from the aura of a certain time and place that he creates. If the ability to create or evoke a world—say, Victorian or Edwardian England or Sigmund Freud’s Vienna—is the mark of a true novelist, then Alan Furst has it.
The world...
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