Pierre Boulle probes with a sharp scalpel the psychological anatomy of a spy - a man who sacrifices his country, his honor, and even his own life to an heroic image. In a story of intrigue and adventure as ingenious and gripping as anything in The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Mr. Boulle takes us from the aristocracy of British Intelligence and the German Secret Service to such ungentlemanly pursuits as torture, murder, and long-simmered revenge. The action revolves around Cousin - an intellectual author who prides himself on his own objectivity but who actually sees the world through the dreams of his own imagined superiority. World War II gives Cousin the chance to show that superiority by volunteering for espionage - a job, he feels, that is for gentlemen, and the arduous responsibilities of which only an aristocrat can assume. The heroic image to which Cousin sacrifices everything - including, at last, himself - is his own. A NOBLE PROFESSION is Boulle at his best - a sardonic, ironic, brilliant performance that adds a new and shining portrait to this master storyteller's wryly etched gallery of false heroes, charlatan saints, and vengeful patriots.