The Key to Rebecca
Encyclopedia
The Key to Rebecca is a novel by British
author Ken Follett
. Published in 1980 by Pan Books
(ISBN 0792715381), it was a noted bestseller that achieved popularity both in the United Kingdom
and worldwide. The code mentioned in the title is an intended throwback from Follett to Daphne du Maurier
's famed suspense novel Rebecca
.
, Follett had discovered the true story of the Nazi spy Johannes Eppler
(also known as John W. Eppler or John Eppler) and his involvement in Operation Salaam
, a non fiction
account of which was published in 1959. This was to form the basis of Follett's The Key to Rebecca, Eppler being the inspiration behind the character Alex Wolff, and he spent a year writing it, more than the time he took to write his previous novels Eye of the Needle and Triple. This true story was also later to form the basis behind Michael Ondaatje
's Booker Prize-winning 1992 novel The English Patient
and the 1996 Academy Award-winning film of the same name
starring Ralph Fiennes
. Len Deighton
's "City of Gold" is also laid against much of the same background.
Many plot elements in the novel are based on actual historical details.
The real-life Eppler, like Follett's fictional Alex Wolff, had grown up in Egypt after his mother had remarried to a wealthy Egyptian, and thus had a mixed German and Arab cultural heritage, greatly facilitating his ability to penetrate British-ruled Egypt. Like Follett's spy, Eppler was based at a houseboat on the river Nile
, got help from a nationalist-inclined belly dancer
in his espionage work, and used a system of codes
based on Daphne du Maurier
's book Rebecca
– which provided the title of Follett's book. And Eppler did request assistance from the Cairo-based Free Officers Movement
, who were at the time nominally pro-Axis in the belief that they would 'liberate' Egypt from the British, and specifically from the young Anwar Sadat
.
Sadat plays an important role in the book, and the scene of his arrest by the British is largely derived from Sadat's own autobiography – though the British officer who actually arrested him was not Follett's protagonist, Major William Vandam – a completely fictional character.
However, Wolff is a far more formidable character than the actual Eppler, who "deliberately sabotaged his own radio, because he wanted to enjoy himself and live with a Jewish prostitute". In contrast, Follett's Wolff - though having a sensual and pleasure-loving side - is completely dedicated to his mission, driven by a curious mixture of German nationalism, Egyptian nationalism and an overwhelming personal ambition. Like the German spy Faber in Follett's earlier Eye of the Needle, he is supremely intelligent, competent and resourceful, and utterly ruthless - ever ready to kill anyone perceived as threatening him, and preferring to do it silently with a knife. However, towards the end of the book Wolff displays an increasing sadistic streak absent from Follett's earlier spy.
Among other things, Wolff is credited with having crossed the Sahara into Egypt by himself on camel back, rather than being ferried there as was the actual Eppler. To enable Wolff to carry out such an epic feat, Follett provides him with a Bedouin
background. Thus Wolff is thoroughly conversant with three distinct cultures; Nazi Germany, the Egyptian urban elites and the desert-dwelling tribes - the last two as distant from each other as they are from the first.
Another major departure is to make Wolff's espionage of far greater strategic significance than Eppler's ever was, making the very outcome of the war – or at least of the North African campaign – hinge on it, and fictionally crediting some of Rommel's main battle victories to information provided by Wolff, having gained access to secret battle plans carried by a Secret Intelligence Service
officer.
A departure from cryptologic sense occurs in Follett's title conceit: the "key" or code sequence used to render the Axis spy's messages unreadable by the Allies without it. The author has it as a written down device, available for capture by the wily Major Vandam, but the actual code key imagined by Follett is so simple that a real agent would have simply memorized it, not had it written down for anyone to get hold of. To have it as a mnemonic "key" would have required a different method for the book's climax, either involving a "Blenchy Park" type codebreaker trick (some early "computer" perhaps) or by Vandam pressuring Wolff to reveal it (unlikely give the obstinate history of the Nazi-Bedouin character).
Follett's gaffe undermines a central aspect of the story for aficiandos of the cryptographic complexities that were ostensibly the basis of the novel. The resulting abrupt denouement of the book suffers from this odd "intelligence" defect.
, garnering an initial printing of 100,000 copies within days and having been serialized in several magazines, even before any reviews had been published. Positive reviews of the novel cited its depth in historical detail, and accurate depictions of Cairo
and the Egyptian
desert in World War II. Follett noted that it was due to the success of The Key to Rebecca that he had believed he had truly been successful.
and starring David Soul
as Alex Wolff and Cliff Robertson
as Maj. William Vandam. It was filmed in Tunisia
and was shot as a two-part, four-hour TV movie; syndicated as part of the Operation Prime Time package, the first part aired in New York City
on WPIX
on April 29, 1985, with the second part airing on May 9, 1985. (Dates varied by station.) Produced by Taft Entertainment
in association with Castle Comb Productions, it was later shown in the United Kingdom
, Scandinavia
and several other countries in which the novel had been popular.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Ken Follett
Ken Follett
Ken Follett is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels. He has sold more than 100 million copies of his works. Four of his books have reached the number 1 ranking on the New York Times best-seller list: The Key to Rebecca, Lie Down with Lions, Triple, and World Without End.-Early...
. Published in 1980 by Pan Books
Pan Books
Pan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
(ISBN 0792715381), it was a noted bestseller that achieved popularity both in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and worldwide. The code mentioned in the title is an intended throwback from Follett to Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
's famed suspense novel Rebecca
Rebecca (novel)
Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
.
Creation, basis and development
While undertaking research for his bestselling novel Eye of the NeedleEye of the Needle
Eye of the Needle is a spy thriller novel written by British author Ken Follett. It was originally published in 1978 by the Penguin Group titled Storm Island. This novel was Follett's first successful, bestselling effort as a novelist, and it earned him the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the...
, Follett had discovered the true story of the Nazi spy Johannes Eppler
Johannes Eppler
Johannes Eppler, also known as Hans Eppler, John Eppler, and Hussein Gaafer, was a World War II Abwehr spy, a German who had been raised in Egypt by his Egyptian stepfather. Eppler was arrested in July 1942 and is the subject of MI5 file KV 2/1467...
(also known as John W. Eppler or John Eppler) and his involvement in Operation Salaam
Operation Salaam
Operation Salaam was a 1942 World War II military operation under the command of the Hungarian aristocrat and desert explorer László Almásy...
, a non fiction
Non Fiction
"Non Fiction" is a single released by The Pillows on September 14, 2005. The B-side "Heart Is There" is a cover of the Nine Miles song of the same name. An alternate version of "My Girl" later appeared on the album My Foot.-Tracks:...
account of which was published in 1959. This was to form the basis of Follett's The Key to Rebecca, Eppler being the inspiration behind the character Alex Wolff, and he spent a year writing it, more than the time he took to write his previous novels Eye of the Needle and Triple. This true story was also later to form the basis behind Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
's Booker Prize-winning 1992 novel The English Patient
The English Patient
The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned English accented Hungarian man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian-Italian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British Army as they live out...
and the 1996 Academy Award-winning film of the same name
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
starring Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
. Len Deighton
Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
's "City of Gold" is also laid against much of the same background.
Many plot elements in the novel are based on actual historical details.
The real-life Eppler, like Follett's fictional Alex Wolff, had grown up in Egypt after his mother had remarried to a wealthy Egyptian, and thus had a mixed German and Arab cultural heritage, greatly facilitating his ability to penetrate British-ruled Egypt. Like Follett's spy, Eppler was based at a houseboat on the river Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, got help from a nationalist-inclined belly dancer
Belly dancer
A belly dancer is one who performs a belly dance. The phrase may also refer to:*"Belly Dancer" , a single by R&B singer Akon*"Belly Dancer" , a hip hop song*The Belly Dancer, a 2001 Turkish drama film...
in his espionage work, and used a system of codes
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...
based on Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
's book Rebecca
Rebecca (novel)
Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
– which provided the title of Follett's book. And Eppler did request assistance from the Cairo-based Free Officers Movement
Free Officers Movement
In Egypt, the clandestine revolutionary Free Officers Movement was composed of young junior army officers committed to unseating the Egyptian monarchy and its British advisors...
, who were at the time nominally pro-Axis in the belief that they would 'liberate' Egypt from the British, and specifically from the young Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
.
Sadat plays an important role in the book, and the scene of his arrest by the British is largely derived from Sadat's own autobiography – though the British officer who actually arrested him was not Follett's protagonist, Major William Vandam – a completely fictional character.
However, Wolff is a far more formidable character than the actual Eppler, who "deliberately sabotaged his own radio, because he wanted to enjoy himself and live with a Jewish prostitute". In contrast, Follett's Wolff - though having a sensual and pleasure-loving side - is completely dedicated to his mission, driven by a curious mixture of German nationalism, Egyptian nationalism and an overwhelming personal ambition. Like the German spy Faber in Follett's earlier Eye of the Needle, he is supremely intelligent, competent and resourceful, and utterly ruthless - ever ready to kill anyone perceived as threatening him, and preferring to do it silently with a knife. However, towards the end of the book Wolff displays an increasing sadistic streak absent from Follett's earlier spy.
Among other things, Wolff is credited with having crossed the Sahara into Egypt by himself on camel back, rather than being ferried there as was the actual Eppler. To enable Wolff to carry out such an epic feat, Follett provides him with a Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
background. Thus Wolff is thoroughly conversant with three distinct cultures; Nazi Germany, the Egyptian urban elites and the desert-dwelling tribes - the last two as distant from each other as they are from the first.
Another major departure is to make Wolff's espionage of far greater strategic significance than Eppler's ever was, making the very outcome of the war – or at least of the North African campaign – hinge on it, and fictionally crediting some of Rommel's main battle victories to information provided by Wolff, having gained access to secret battle plans carried by a Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
officer.
A departure from cryptologic sense occurs in Follett's title conceit: the "key" or code sequence used to render the Axis spy's messages unreadable by the Allies without it. The author has it as a written down device, available for capture by the wily Major Vandam, but the actual code key imagined by Follett is so simple that a real agent would have simply memorized it, not had it written down for anyone to get hold of. To have it as a mnemonic "key" would have required a different method for the book's climax, either involving a "Blenchy Park" type codebreaker trick (some early "computer" perhaps) or by Vandam pressuring Wolff to reveal it (unlikely give the obstinate history of the Nazi-Bedouin character).
Follett's gaffe undermines a central aspect of the story for aficiandos of the cryptographic complexities that were ostensibly the basis of the novel. The resulting abrupt denouement of the book suffers from this odd "intelligence" defect.
Reception and success
The Key to Rebecca immediately attained bestseller status, becoming a main selection of the Book of the Month ClubBook of the Month Club
The Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order book sales club that offers a new book each month to customers.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
, garnering an initial printing of 100,000 copies within days and having been serialized in several magazines, even before any reviews had been published. Positive reviews of the novel cited its depth in historical detail, and accurate depictions of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
and the Egyptian
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
desert in World War II. Follett noted that it was due to the success of The Key to Rebecca that he had believed he had truly been successful.
Film adaptation
In 1985, The Key to Rebecca was adapted into a film, directed by David HemmingsDavid Hemmings
David Edward Leslie Hemmings was an English film, theatre and television actor as well as a film and television director and producer....
and starring David Soul
David Soul
David Soul is an American-British actor and singer, best known for his role as Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the television programme Starsky and Hutch . He gained British citizenship in 2004.-Early life:...
as Alex Wolff and Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
as Maj. William Vandam. It was filmed in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and was shot as a two-part, four-hour TV movie; syndicated as part of the Operation Prime Time package, the first part aired in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
on April 29, 1985, with the second part airing on May 9, 1985. (Dates varied by station.) Produced by Taft Entertainment
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....
in association with Castle Comb Productions, it was later shown in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
and several other countries in which the novel had been popular.