The Honourable Schoolboy is a 1977 novel by John le Carré. It's the second book of the The Quest for Karla trilogy, itself part of Le Carré's wider series of Spy Fiction novels centred around the British secret service known as 'The Circus'.
After the events of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the Circus is falling apart. Soviet spymaster Karla managed to insert a mole deep into the organisation, and Karla's agent wasn't detected for many years. Veteran spy George Smiley, pulled out of retirement, led the investigation and, finally, removed the mole - Smiley's reward, such as it is, is that he's now in charge and trying to rebuild the organisation.
The Circus needs a victory to restore the government's faith. Smiley, determined to bring down Karla, wonders if the mole's activities might inadvertently hint at Karla's schemes elsewhere. And so a plan slowly takes shape, sending British agent Jerry Westerby to Hong Kong, where the USSR, the west and communist China all have their own schemes in play...
- Accidental Pun: Jerry Westerby first meets Tiu, Drake Ko's bodyguard, while Jerry's posing as a journalist at a racetrack. In every subsequent encounter, Tiu calls him "horse-writer". As he only speaks broken English, he doesn't realize that it sounds like a pun on "horse rider".
- Alas, Poor Villain: Drake Ko was involved in a long line of violent crimes and dodgy businesses over the years, and his mission was quite hostile to Smiley's interests. But at the end of the day, all he really wanted to do was bring his little brother home safely. It's hard not to shed a tear when the CIA grab his brother Nelson away from him, just moments after finally getting to see him again.
- The Alleged Car: Jerry Westerby has to take a nail-biting flight in a tattered, rusty, and practically collapsing plane.
- Animal Motifs: Horses come up quite frequently. One of Jerry Westerby's neighbours in Italy is a horse-breeder, Jerry is said to be skilled at handling horses, Drake Ko owns a racehorse named after his younger brother, Tiu repeatedly calls Jerry "horse-writer" after he gets into a racetrack by pretending to write an article about the race, Smiley's management of the Circus is compared to "carrying [a] horse up the hill", at least one crumbling Circus building is figuratively called "an old horse put out to grass", and the Dwarf jokingly guesses that "Big Moo's wife's horse has the hiccups" when Luke announces that he has news in the opening scene. Two of the chapters are also titled "Mr. George Smiley's Horse" and "More About Horses". Possibly coincidentally, the opium trade figures heavily into the plot; "horse" is a common slang term for "heroin".
- As You Know: Ample doses of this, as there's usually a lot of complicated backstory without which the plot makes no sense.
- Ascended Extra: Jerry Westerby has a brief role in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as one of the old Circus operatives who Smiley interviews for clues about the Mole's identity, but he reappears as the central protagonist of The Honourable Schoolboy when Smiley assigns him to investigate Karla's funds in Hong Kong. It turns out that the Mole overlooked him because he was only an occasional Circus agent, making him one of the few field agents whose identity wasn't leaked to the Soviets.
- Bilingual Bonus: There's a fair amount of untranslated French.
- Bittersweet Ending: Operation Dolphin has succeeded. But the Americans have made off with Nelson Ko instead of sharing him with the Circus. Drake Ko's schemes to reunite himself with his brother have come to naught. Fawn assassinates Jerry Westerby (possibly just because Jerry attacked him earlier). And George Smiley has been forced out...again.
- Broken Bird: Elizabeth Worthington
- Disproportionate Retribution: Fawn drags a would-be wristwatch thief from his car, then climbs out to break both of the boy's arms, to Guillam's horror.
- Double-Meaning Title: The Honourable Schoolboy. Most obviously, the title refers to Jerry "The Schoolboy" Westerby and his stringent sense of duty in a time of great cynicism. Jerry is also the son of a minor English nobleman, and can justifiably call himself "The Honourable Gerald Westerby".
- Enemy Civil War: The antagonism between the Soviet Union and Communist China is a major plot point in The Honourable Schoolboy. Karla, being Karla, has a valuable agent planted in China.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Drake Ko. Though it's debatable whether he's truly "evil", he's in league with Russian intelligence, and he has at least been party to a few violent crimes over the years. But his unconditional love for his younger brother Nelson is a major redeeming quality, and it turns out that most of his supposed hostile actions against the West were done to protect his brother.
- Face–Heel Turn: Deconstructed, thanks to the Grey-and-Gray Morality. Jerry Westerby ultimately goes rogue and tries to help Drake Ko smuggle his brother Nelson - a Soviet mole - out of China. However, Westerby only does it because he wants to save Ko's lover from getting caught in the crossfire, and Ko's only real crime is looking out for his beloved brother.
- The Hero Dies: At the end of The Honourable Schoolboy, Jerry Westerby goes into a dangerous situation to try to rescue his love interest, who is tangled up with the bad guys, and is killed. It underscores his status as the "honourable schoolboy" of the title, too straightforwardly honest to survive in the murky world of espionage.
- Heroic BSoD: After he finds his friend Luke murdered, Jerry Westerby spends the rest of The Honourable Schoolboy in this state.
- Idiot Ball: In The Honourable Schoolboy, there's extensive in-universe discussion of whether or not Smiley is carrying one when it comes to Jerry Westerby's obsession with Elizabeth Worthington.
- I'd Tell You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You: Ricardo explains his monologuing problem to Jerry: "You confuse me, Voltaire. If I tell you too much, I have to shoot you. I'm a very talkative person, you follow me? I get lonely up here, it is my disposition always to be lonely. I like a guy, I talk to him, then I regret myself. I remember my business commitments, follow me?"
- In-Series Nickname: Jerry Westerby is "The Schoolboy". His mentor Bill Craw is "The Old Craw".
- Manly Tears: Smiley, after two informants are killed during a rescue attempt.
- Meaningful Name: Drake and Nelson Ko were both named after famed British sailors—which is fitting, since they're descended from the "boat people" of Shantou, who historically ran Chinese trade with the West. Drake Ko ultimately enlists the aid of a fleet of Chinese junk ships to smuggle his brother out of China.
- Murder by Mistake: Luke for Jerry Westerby.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Peter Guillam keeps having this problem when he tries to explain to George Smiley that Sam Collins and Martello are probably conspiring against him. At the end of the novel, Guillam begins to wonder if Smiley knew all along, and allowed himself to be done in.
- Old Master: The Old Craw, for the Foreign Correspondents. Smiley himself gradually becomes this after stepping into Control's shoes as Chief of the Circus.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Several members of the Foreign Correspondents' Club - the Dwarf, Deathwish the Hun, and the Canadian Cowboy - are only ever referred to by their nicknames.
- Out of Focus: Smiley fades into the background for much of the book as Jerry Westerby steps into the spotlight.
- Put on a Bus: Bland, along with the Circus' resident Soviet defectors Kaspar and DeKursky, are sent on a mission that ends badly. This leads to all three getting fired.
- Red Herring: Several characters naturally assume that Karla wants to infiltrate the British colony of Hong Kong with Chinese aid—or even to outright wrest it from British control. In truth, his plan is a bit less ambitious. He wants Drake Ko's help in smuggling Ko's brother Nelson—a loyal Soviet mole—out of Communist China.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Nelson Ko only appears - very briefly - in one of the very last scenes of the novel, but he's mentioned constantly before that, and nearly all of the novel's plot indirectly revolves around him. It turns out that Drake Ko only gets involved with Karla in order to smuggle him out of Communist China.
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The Honourable Schoolboy was published in 1977, two years after the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia, but it takes place in 1974 at the height of the Cambodian Civil War. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy technically counts as well (it was published in 1974, but takes place in 1973), but recent historical events have little bearing on the plot.
- Verbal Tic: Jerry Westerby's "Super" (with optional "Gosh") and Martello's "ah".
- What Does She See in Him?: Jerry Westerby and Elizabeth Worthington. Jerry is upfront with himself about the attraction: he has fallen for her because she's a "loser."
