View source for Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel

{{Short description|1966 novel by Anthony Burgess}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
|name         = Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel
|image        = burgessti.jpg
|caption      = First edition (publ. [[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]])
|author       = [[Anthony Burgess]]
|cover_artist =
|country      = United Kingdom
|language     = English
|genre        = [[Spy novel]]
|publisher    =
|release_date = 1966
|media_type   = [[Printing|Print]]
|pages        = 256
|isbn         =
}}
'''''Tremor of Intent: An Eschatological Spy Novel''''' (1966), by [[Anthony Burgess]], is an English espionage novel.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/780728804 Worldcat.org]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QgsOhAaIgXoC&dq=Tremor+of+Intent:+An+Eschatological+Spy+Novel+new+york+times+books&pg=PP27 Google Books]</ref>
Burgess conceived it as a reaction both to the heavy-handed and humourless spy fiction of [[John le Carré]], and to [[Ian Fleming]]'s [[James Bond]], a character Burgess thought an imperialist relic. The subtitle "An [[Eschatological]] Spy Novel" refers to Burgess's idea of the Cold War as a hostile symbiosis, an "ultimate conflict" for which [[Good and evil|Good and Evil]] are inadequate terms. In Burgess's view the [[Eastern Bloc|Soviet bloc]] and the [[Western Bloc|West]] formed a [[yin and yang]]-type [[duoverse]]. In ''[[You've Had Your Time]]'', the second volume of his autobiography, he confesses that the title of the novel occurred to him one [[Hangover|hungover]] morning when his hand began shaking and his wife said, "That is [[intentional tremor|tremor of intent]]."
The novel has confused some readers and critics because it straddles the dichotomies between serious fiction and comic fiction, and between popular genre storytelling and metaphysical philosophy. It's also an example of one of Burgess's experiments in combining musical forms with literature: its structure is based on [[sonata form]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shockley |first1=Alan |title=Music in the Words: Musical Form and Counterpoint in the Twentieth-Century Novel |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |oclc=1001968147 |url=http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1001968147 |access-date=22 August 2022}}</ref>
The subtitle "An Eschatological Spy Novel" appears on the dust cover of the first American edition, but does not appear on the title page of the novel.<ref>Burgess, Anthony, Tremor of Intent, W W Norton, New York, 1966 Dust cover and title page.</ref> The British first edition, published by [[William Heinemann]], does not include the subtitle on the dust cover or the title page.
The uncorrected proofs of the novel state where and when the novel was written: "[[Etchingham]], June 20-August 30, 1965."<ref>Burgess, Anthony, Tremor of Intent,(Uncorrected Proof) William Heinemann, London, 1966 p. 240.</ref>
Anthony Burgess later wrote a screenplay for the James Bond film ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (film)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]'' (1977) featuring characters from the novel, but it was rejected in favor of [[Richard Maibaum|Richard Maibaum's]] script.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Field|first=Matthew|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/930556527|title=Some kind of hero : 007 : the remarkable story of the James Bond films|date=2015|others=Ajay Chowdhury|isbn=978-0-7509-6421-0|location=Stroud, Gloucestershire|oclc=930556527}}</ref>
==Plot summary==
The amoral Agent Hillier of [[MI6]] journeys to the city of Yarylyuk aboard the passenger ship ''[[Poly-Olbion|Polyolbion]]'', on a mission to infiltrate a conference of Soviet scientists and return to the [[United Kingdom]] with his childhood friend Roper, who has defected to the [[Soviet Union]]. En route Hillier meets the sexually precocious sixteen-year-old Clara, the voluptuous [[femme fatale]] Miss Devi and the shadowy tycoon Theodorescu.
==References==
<references />
==External links==
*[http://www.anthonyburgess.org/products-page/books/tremor-of-intent-2 Anthonyburgess.org]
{{burgess}}
[[Category:Novels by Anthony Burgess]]
[[Category:1966 British novels]]
[[Category:British spy novels]]
[[Category:Heinemann (publisher) books]]
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