Enigma (novel)

Enigma

First UK edition
Author Robert Harris
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Historical fiction
Set in WWII
Publisher Hutchinson
Publication date
 4 September 1995
Media type Print (hardback)
ISBN 0091779235 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC 32626914

Enigma is a 1995 novel by Robert Harris about Tom Jericho, a young mathematician trying to break the Germans' "Enigma" ciphers during World War II. Jericho is stationed in Bletchley Park, the British cryptologist central office, and is worked to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. The book was adapted to film in 2001.

Plot summary

Jericho is a doctoral student of the mathematician Alan Turing, at a Cambridge college. When the war starts Turing and other professors disappear, recruited as code breakers by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). Eventually Jericho is also roped in, at the invitation of Atwood, who is professor of ancient history at the same college. At Bletchley, the code breakers are an eclectic academic set, under pressure to break the Enigma code used by German U-boats wreaking havoc on British and American shipping in the Atlantic. The tension is magnified by internal turf rivalry between the Allies over the cryptography effort, with the Americans of the opinion that the chummy common-room efforts of the British operation cannot sustain the decryption speed and volume required to win the Battle of the Atlantic. In the book Turing, who is on a trip to Washington, D.C., is absent from Bletchley.

On a train en route to Bletchley, Jericho happens to meet the attractive Claire Romilly, who works as a clerk at one of the "huts", temporary buildings on the park grounds housing the growing code breaking effort. Jericho helps Claire finish The Times crossword with ease, and the two strike up a friendship. Claire's upper-crust manner reflects what Baxter (a code breaker with leftist views) terms as the organization of Bletchley Park along British class lines. Sensitive transcription is assigned to society debutantes, whereas the more mundane tasks are delegated to young women from working-class backgrounds. As Jericho gets closer to Claire, he also discovers a weakness in U-boat Enigma protocol that leads to the U-boat code's being cracked, thereby establishing his reputation among the code breakers. One night, Jerico wakes to see Claire going through his belongings - at first she attempts to shrug it off, but when he confronts her she reacts in an emotionally wounded manner, which signals the end of Jericho's romance with her. In the following days Jericho desperately attempts to meet Claire once again and slowly tips himself over the edge of a nervous breakdown. He is sent back to his college to recover.

When the Germans change the Enigma naval code book, the Bletchley Park code breakers lose their back door and are forced to bring Jericho back. This is how the book begins. On his return he goes looking for Claire, and although he doesn't find her, he discovers intercepted (but still encoded) signal transcription forms in her bedroom, a serious violation of security procedure.

Thereafter, the plot unravels to answer a series of questions: What are the papers in Claire's bedroom? Is she a spy? How much can Jericho trust Kramer, an American naval officer and one of Claire's many lovers? What is the role of the supercilious upper-crust investigator Wigram? How much does Claire's roommate Hester Wallace know? Are Jericho's hut colleagues Atwood, Pinker, Puck, Baxter ... jealous of him? Will Jericho break the code for a second time as one of the largest convoys steams across the Atlantic pursued by U-boat wolf packs?

Reception

Apart from the plot, the book is notable for its grim descriptions of winter in a war-torn Britain.

The book, though fiction, is criticised by people who were at Bletchley Park as bearing little resemblance to the real wartime Bletchley Park.[1]

Edition

See also

References

  1. ↑ Watkins, Gwen Watkins (2006). Cracking the Luftwaffe Codes. Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-85367-687-1.
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