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Espionage fiction is a type of fiction in which spies play the central character. Espionage is ‘the systematic use of spies to get military or political secrets’ (http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Espionage ). Throughout the pre World War One era, espionage fiction began to gain popularity as it was in these texts that political secrets of the Western world were revealed. As these stories developed the themes of the stories became complex instead of just good vs. evil. These themes included things like darkness and corruption and, among other things, assisted in creating audience appeal within the sub-genre.

Spy texts first began to gain popularity in the pre World War One era when they were used to reveal the secrets behind the politics of the Western world. It was in the pre World War One era that the first intelligence agencies appeared. (REF). This greatly appealed to audiences as espionage fiction used protagonists from similar agencies. It was also around this time that there was a lot of international tension from the approaching world war. As such espionage fiction sought to reveal the generally concealed conspiratorial affairs in the Western world at the time. (REF). This is evident in the first spy fiction novel created in 1821 by James Fennimore Cooper and entitled “The Spy”. It is in this novel that the main protagonist Harvey Birch is a spy for George Washington during the American Revolution. (REF). This would have appealed to audiences as it looks at political affairs of America through the eyes of a spy. As the character is close to the President, information about internal political conflicts that wouldn’t normally be revealed, are uncovered. It was texts such as ‘The Spy’ that appealed to audiences as the political affairs discussed in the novel were similar to those of the pre World War One era. Following ‘The Spy’, Sherlock Holmes was introduced in 1887 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (REF). The series of short stories became...