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Graham Greene

Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer, and critic whose works frequently examined moral ambiguity, human frailty, and the tension between faith and doubt, often through Catholic lenses.^[1] Regarded as one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century, he authored over 25 novels, distinguishing between serious works and lighter "entertainments" such as thrillers, while drawing from personal experiences including extensive travels to conflict zones and a brief stint in British intelligence during World War II.^[2] Greene converted to Catholicism in 1926, a faith that profoundly shaped novels like The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), and The End of the Affair (1951), where protagonists grapple with sin, redemption, and divine judgment amid personal and political turmoil.^[3] His political novels, including The Quiet American (1955) and The Human Factor (1978), presciently critiqued colonialism, communism, and espionage, reflecting his own observations in places like Vietnam, Cuba, and Africa.^[4] Greene received numerous accolades, such as the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Heart of the Matter, and was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature multiple times, though his personal life—marked by chronic depression, serial infidelities, and a strained family—contrasted sharply with the ethical rigor of his fiction.^[5]^[6]

Early Life

Childhood and Family Background (1904–1918)

Henry Graham Greene was born on 2 October 1904 at St John's House, Chesham Road, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, the fourth of six children born to Charles Henry Greene and Marion Raymond (née Greene).^[7]^[8] His parents were first cousins, both descending from the Anglo-Irish Greene family, which had produced several notable figures in public service and literature.^[8]^[9] Charles Henry Greene (1862–1948) served as headmaster of Berkhamsted School, a prominent public boarding school founded in 1541, from 1896 until his retirement in 1924; the family resided in school accommodations, immersing young Graham in an educational environment from infancy.^[10]^[11] Marion Raymond Greene (1872–1959), who managed the household amid the demands of boarding school life, maintained connections to extended family, including literary relations such as a distant tie to Robert Louis Stevenson through her lineage.^[12]^[13] Greene's siblings included elder brother Raymond Greene (1901–1982), a physician and mountaineer who reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1933 as a member of the Johnson expedition; elder sister Alice Marion; younger brother Hugh Carleton Greene (1910–1987), who later became Director-General of the BBC; and two others, providing a sibling dynamic marked by intellectual pursuits and public achievement.^[8]^[12] The family's middle-class stability, rooted in educational tradition, offered Greene early exposure to disciplined routines and literary discussions, though personal tensions emerged later in adolescence.^[11] During his early years up to 1918, Greene experienced a conventional Church of England upbringing within this insular school community, fostering initial interests in reading and imaginative play amid the Hertfordshire countryside.^[7]

Education, Bullying, and Formative Experiences (1918–1925)

Greene attended Berkhamsted School from childhood, residing initially as a boarder in St. John's House, where his father Charles Greene had been appointed headmaster in 1911.^[14]^[15] Despite this position, Greene endured relentless bullying from peers, who resented him as a perceived extension of school authority and nicknamed him a "Judas" for his familial ties.^[16]^[17] This hostility exacerbated his innate sensitivity, leading him to frequently skip classes, seek solace in avid reading, and once flee the school altogether.^[11]^[18] By 1920, at age 16, the accumulated trauma triggered a severe depressive episode and multiple suicide attempts, including instances of self-harm and, as Greene recounted in his autobiography A Sort of Life, playing Russian roulette with a .22 revolver on at least six occasions to test fate amid profound boredom and despair.^[19]^[10] His parents responded by arranging six months of psychoanalysis in London—a rare intervention for an adolescent at the time—under the guidance of a therapist who emphasized dream interpretation, which Greene found therapeutic and intellectually stimulating.^[20]^[21] Following this treatment, he returned to Berkhamsted as a day student, completing his schooling in 1922 and emerging with a deepened preoccupation with psychological introspection that would inform his writing.^[16] In 1922, Greene matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, to read modern history, supported by a scholarship examination in which he performed adequately but not exceptionally. His undergraduate years, ending with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925, were marked less by academic rigor than by extracurricular literary activities: he edited The Oxford Outlook, contributed verse, and self-published his debut poetry collection Babbling April that year.^[7]^[22] These experiences of institutional alienation, personal crisis, and nascent creativity solidified Greene's outsider perspective, fostering the themes of moral isolation and existential risk recurrent in his novels.^[11]

Religious Conversion and Personal Struggles

Conversion to Catholicism (1926)

In 1925, shortly after graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, Graham Greene, then an agnostic raised in a low-church Anglican family, began corresponding with Vivien Dayrell-Browning, a Catholic convert who had critiqued an error in one of his book reviews published in The Oxford Outlook, where he served as sub-editor.^[7] Their exchange evolved into discussions on Catholicism, prompting Greene to undergo religious instruction and read works by authors such as G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, which he later described in his autobiography A Sort of Life as awakening an intellectual fascination with the faith's doctrines on sin, grace, and damnation.^[23]^[24] Greene's conversion was not solely pragmatic, despite coinciding with his engagement to Vivien—whom he married in 1927—but stemmed from a deliberate engagement with Catholic theology amid his personal ennui and skepticism toward secular humanism, as he contrasted his prior "vague agnosticism" with the faith's structured worldview in A Sort of Life.^[25] He was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church in February 1926, selecting Thomas—referencing the doubting apostle rather than Aquinas—as his baptismal name, an act witnessed privately without Vivien's presence and marked by a sense of anticlimax rather than ecstasy.^[26]^[27] This rite formalized his entry into the Church at age 21, though biographers note his immediate post-conversion adherence was inconsistent, blending sincere belief with lingering doubts that persisted lifelong.^[28] The conversion profoundly shaped Greene's worldview, providing a framework for exploring moral ambiguity and human frailty in his subsequent fiction, yet he resisted being pigeonholed as a "Catholic novelist," emphasizing in later reflections that the faith offered tools for realism rather than piety.^[29] Critics have debated its authenticity, with some attributing it partly to marital expediency, but Greene's own accounts underscore a causal progression from curiosity through instruction to sacramental commitment, unmoored from his earlier irreligiosity.^[30]^[25]

Mental Health, Gambling, and Psychoanalysis

Greene suffered from recurrent depression during his school years at Berkhamsted, intensified by bullying from peers who nicknamed him derogatorily and isolated him socially.^[16] This culminated in a nervous breakdown around age 16 in 1920, during which he made several suicide attempts, including repeatedly playing Russian roulette alone with his brother's revolver to escape profound boredom and emotional numbness.^[31] ^[32] He later reflected in his 1971 autobiography A Sort of Life that these acts stemmed from a desire to recapture vivid sensory experience through mortal risk, a pattern biographers attribute to underlying bipolar tendencies manifesting as restlessness and self-destructive impulses rather than mere adolescent rebellion.^[19] In response to these episodes, Greene's parents—a progressive step for 1920—arranged six months of psychoanalysis in London, beginning that year when he was 16.^[33] The treatment was conducted by Kenneth Richmond, an unqualified lay analyst with literary connections rather than formal medical training, focusing on uncovering repressed emotions tied to family dynamics and school traumas.^[34] Greene credited the sessions with alleviating his acute boredom, likening their effect to developing a photographic negative, though he questioned their depth and permanence; the intervention enabled his return to Berkhamsted as a day boy, averting full withdrawal from education.^[32] This early thrill-seeking evolved into a persistent attraction to gambling, especially roulette, as a controlled echo of Russian roulette's stakes, where loss promised sensory revival.^[35] Greene frequented European casinos, such as those in Monte Carlo and Nice, integrating the activity into his lifestyle and fiction, as in the 1955 novella Loser Takes All, where obsession with a betting system mirrors real risks he courted without evident financial ruin but as antidote to ennui.^[36] Biographers link this habit to his bipolar fluctuations, framing it as causal extension of adolescent patterns rather than isolated vice, though he managed it alongside prolific output without documented addiction-level losses.^[32]

Marriages, Affairs, and Family Dynamics

Greene married Vivienne Dayrell-Browning on 15 October 1927 at St Mary's Church in Hampstead, London, after converting to Catholicism the previous year to facilitate the union with the devout Catholic secretary.^[37]^[38] The couple had two children: a daughter, Lucy Caroline (later known as Caroline), born in 1933, and a son, Francis, born in 1936.^[38]^[39] The marriage faced strain from Greene's recurrent infidelities and his nomadic lifestyle, culminating in separation around 1947 when he left the family home.^[40]^[41] Vivien, adhering to Catholic doctrine against divorce, refused to dissolve the marriage, and they remained legally wed until Greene's death in 1991, though he provided financial support intermittently.^[40]^[42] Greene later described himself as a "bad husband," reflecting on the emotional toll, while Vivien pursued independent interests, including collecting antique dollhouses.^[43]^[40] A pivotal affair began in 1946 with Catherine Walston, an American married to British farmer and peer Harry Walston, whom Greene met through shared Catholic circles.^[44]^[45] The intense, intermittent relationship, marked by Greene's pleas for her to leave her husband—which she declined—lasted until the late 1950s and directly inspired his 1951 novel The End of the Affair, portraying a wartime liaison fraught with jealousy, faith, and separation.^[44]^[46]^[47] Following the Walston affair's end, Greene entered a long-term companionship with Yvonne Cloetta, a married Frenchwoman he met in 1950 in Libreville, Gabon; their discreet relationship endured for 33 years until his death, providing domestic stability amid his travels, though it remained non-marital due to his unresolved union with Vivien.^[48]^[42] Greene's pattern of serial affairs contributed to familial estrangement, with limited documented involvement in his children's lives post-separation, as his peripatetic existence prioritized writing and foreign engagements over domestic ties.^[32]^[49]

Professional Beginnings

Journalism and Early Publications (1920s–1930s)

Greene entered journalism after graduating from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1925, initially serving as a sub-editor at The Times of London from 1926 to 1930.^[50]^[51] His responsibilities involved copy-editing and night desk work, which provided financial stability while he pursued literary ambitions amid personal challenges including depression and a recent conversion to Catholicism.^[50] His earliest publication was the poetry volume Babbling April, issued by Basil Blackwell in Oxford in 1925, comprising 32 pages of verse reflecting youthful themes but receiving limited attention.^[52] During his tenure at The Times, Greene completed and published his first novel, The Man Within, in 1929; its favorable critical reception, praised for psychological depth and narrative tension, prompted him to leave journalism in 1930 for full-time authorship.^[50] He followed this with The Name of Action later in 1930, also composed while at the newspaper, exploring themes of political intrigue in a fictional Central American setting.^[50] In the early 1930s, Greene's output shifted toward "entertainments"—fast-paced thrillers blending suspense with moral undertones—including Rumour at Nightfall (1931), set during the Spanish Civil War, and Stamboul Train (1932), serialized as Orient Express and featuring a train journey across Europe amid espionage and betrayal. It's a Battlefield (1934) examined urban despair and labor unrest in London, while England Made Me (1935) critiqued Anglo-German business ties pre-World War II. These works, though commercially modest initially, honed Greene's style of embedding ethical dilemmas within genre conventions, drawing from his journalistic observation of human frailty and geopolitical tensions. By mid-decade, he supplemented novel-writing with freelance reviewing, including film criticism for Night and Day from 1937, where a scathing 1937 piece on Shirley Temple led to a libel suit against the magazine.^[53]

Travel Experiences and Their Influence

Greene's travels, often undertaken as a journalist and novelist seeking authentic material, profoundly shaped his fiction by providing vivid settings, political insights, and moral dilemmas drawn from direct observation. His journeys exposed him to colonial decay, religious persecution, and geopolitical tensions, which he transmuted into narratives blending reportage with imaginative reconstruction. These experiences, beginning in the 1930s, informed both his "entertainments"—lighter spy thrillers—and his more serious Catholic-themed novels, emphasizing human frailty amid exotic backdrops.^[54] In February 1935, Greene embarked on a four-week expedition through Liberia's unmapped interior, trekking approximately 350 miles from Sierra Leone to Grand Bassa, accompanied by his cousin Barbara Greene.^[55] The arduous journey, reliant on local carriers and navigating red-clay terrain, yielded Journey Without Maps (1936), a travelogue critiquing Liberia's American-style colonialism and tribal primitivism while reflecting Greene's fascination with isolation and the "heart of darkness."^[56] This trip influenced his depictions of Africa in later works, such as the chaotic settings in A Burnt-Out Case (1960), where leprotic colonies echoed Liberian hinterlands, underscoring themes of alienation and failed redemption.^[36] Greene's 1938 journey to Mexico, motivated by reports of anti-Catholic persecution under the Cristero War's aftermath, took him through the states of Chiapas and Tabasco, regions of enforced secularism and clerical suppression.^[57] Documented in The Lawless Roads (1939), the account detailed encounters with corrupt officials, ruined churches, and resilient believers, highlighting the government's "socialist" cabarets and revolutionary hypocrisy.^[58] These observations directly inspired The Power and the Glory (1940), featuring a fugitive "whiskey priest" evading capture in a hostile landscape mirroring Tabasco's ban on public worship, thus embedding Greene's post-conversion Catholic realism into fictional moral ambiguity.^[59] Subsequent travels extended this pattern: Greene's 1951–1952 visits to French Indochina amid the First Indochina War informed The Quiet American (1955), portraying Saigon's intrigue and critiquing naive American intervention through the lens of a jaded British journalist.^[60] Trips to Cuba in the late 1950s fueled Our Man in Havana (1958), satirizing espionage absurdities under Batista's regime, while a 1963 stay in Haiti under François Duvalier's terror shaped The Comedians (1966), exposing Tonton Macoute brutality.^[61] Collectively, these expeditions authenticated Greene's "Greeneland"—a recurrent world of seedy hotels, moral compromise, and ideological folly—prioritizing empirical encounter over ideological abstraction.^[62]

Espionage and Political Engagements

Intelligence Work with MI6 (1940s–1950s)

In 1941, Graham Greene was recruited into the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, commonly known as MI6) by his younger sister Elisabeth, who was already an employee of the agency.^[63]^[64] His entry into intelligence work came amid World War II, following his prior experience as a fire warden in London and his established career as a novelist.^[64] Greene underwent training and was promptly posted to Freetown, Sierra Leone, a strategic Allied convoy assembly point on the West African coast, where he served for over a year starting in late 1941.^[64]^[9] In Sierra Leone, Greene's primary duties centered on counter-espionage operations, including the interception and examination of ships' cargoes bound for Axis powers to detect smuggled diamonds, documents, and other contraband that could aid German efforts.^[64] He also monitored Vichy French forces in neighboring French Guinea, attempting to recruit agents into those territories amid the challenges of colonial intrigue and limited resources.^[64]^[63] These tasks involved sifting through passengers' correspondence and managing a small team in a humid, disease-ridden environment, which Greene later described as monotonous yet ripe with moral ambiguities that influenced his postwar fiction, such as The Heart of the Matter (1948).^[64] By 1943, Greene returned to London, where he worked in Section V under supervisor Harold "Kim" Philby, focusing on Portuguese operations against German Abwehr activities in the Iberian Peninsula.^[63] Greene resigned from MI6 abruptly in May 1944, reportedly to preempt a promotion to head the Iberian section following Philby's advancement to counterintelligence oversight, though official records cite no scandal or misconduct.^[65]^[66] His wartime service provided firsthand exposure to espionage's ethical dilemmas, including betrayal and bureaucratic inefficiency, themes recurrent in his later works.^[63] In the 1950s, Greene maintained informal contacts with SIS, occasionally passing intelligence gleaned from his journalistic travels to regions like Vietnam and Malaya, but he held no official role after his 1944 departure.^[67]^[68] These post-resignation ties reflected his enduring interest in global conflicts rather than structured agency employment.^[69]

Interactions with Kim Philby and Cold War Loyalties

Greene and Philby first collaborated during World War II, with Greene serving in MI6's counter-espionage operations in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from August 1941 to 1943, under Philby's supervisory role in Section V.^[70]^[64] Their professional ties strengthened upon Greene's return to London in 1943, where he worked directly under Philby at MI6 headquarters, handling Iberian desk intelligence amid wartime deceptions.^[9]^[71] This period fostered a personal friendship, with Greene later describing Philby as possessing a rare integrity, even as whispers of Soviet sympathies circulated in intelligence circles.^[63] The relationship persisted into the Cold War, tested by Philby's exposure as a Soviet mole. Following the 1951 defections of fellow Cambridge spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, Philby faced interrogation but was initially cleared; Greene, among others in MI6 alumni, vouched for his character based on long acquaintance.^[72] When definitive evidence emerged in 1963, prompting Philby's flight to Moscow on January 23, Greene refused to condemn him outright, publicly stating he had known Philby for over two decades and questioning the moral absolutism of treason accusations.^[73] In his 1968 introduction to Philby's memoir My Silent War, Greene framed the spy's double life as a principled stand against fascism, rooted in Philby's experiences in the Spanish Civil War, and argued that betrayal stemmed from ideological commitment rather than personal vice, rendering strict moral judgments "singularly out of place."^[63]^[74] Despite Philby's defection confirming his role in compromising Western operations—allegedly contributing to the deaths of at least 30 agents—Greene maintained intermittent contact, exchanging letters through the 1970s and 1980s.^[75] He visited Philby in Moscow twice: first in September 1986, and again in February 1987 for a private dinner at Philby's apartment, their first face-to-face since 1963.^[76]^[77] These encounters, amid Philby's declining health (he died on May 11, 1988), underscored Greene's prioritization of personal loyalty over geopolitical rupture, though biographers note Greene's private reservations about Soviet realities, informed by his own travels and Catholic worldview skeptical of atheistic totalitarianism.^[78]^[79] Greene's stance reflected broader ambiguities in his Cold War alignments: a convert to Catholicism who critiqued both superpowers' moral failings, he lambasted American interventionism in novels like The Quiet American (1955) while sympathizing with anti-colonial struggles often aligned with communist forces, yet his defense of Philby—whom he portrayed as an "honest traitor"—drew accusations of naivety or bias from British establishment figures, who viewed it as excusing betrayal that endangered lives.^[72]^[73] This fidelity to a Soviet asset, despite Greene's resignation from MI6 in 1944 (possibly amid internal suspicions or to pursue writing freely), highlighted a loyalty to individual conviction over institutional or national demands, contrasting with the era's dominant anti-communist consensus.^[9]^[79]

Sympathies Toward Communist Regimes

Greene briefly joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1925 while a student at Balliol College, Oxford, maintaining membership for approximately four weeks as a youthful experiment, which later drew scrutiny from U.S. authorities under the McCarran Act during his travels.^[80]^[81] This early association reflected a transient attraction to leftist ideals amid post-World War I disillusionment, though Greene later described it as a lark without deep ideological commitment.^[81] In his 1955 novel The Quiet American, Greene portrayed the Vietnamese communists, specifically the Viet Minh, as having a legitimate claim to resistance against French colonialism and emerging U.S. interventionism, critiquing American idealism as naive and destructive.^[82] The work, informed by Greene's 1951-1952 reporting in Indochina, assigned moral weight to the communist insurgency's anti-imperialist struggle, contrasting it with Western efforts he saw as prolonging conflict.^[83] Greene's on-the-ground observations, including witnessing Viet Minh operations, led him to predict communist victory as inevitable absent a viable third force, a view that aligned with sympathy for their nationalist dimensions over liberal alternatives.^[84]^[85] Greene developed strong affinities for Fidel Castro's regime following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, visiting the island multiple times and praising Castro's social reforms as a counter to Batista's U.S.-backed dictatorship.^[86] In essays and interviews, he depicted Castro as a "comradely father figure" revered by Cubans for nationalist achievements, initially framing the revolution as non-ideological before endorsing its socialist turn.^[87]^[88] Greene's 1958 novel Our Man in Havana, written pre-revolution, satirized British intelligence but post-1959 served as a lens for his approval of Castro's anti-American stance, with Greene defending the leader against Western critics into the 1980s.^[74]^[67] Toward Eastern Bloc states, Greene's engagements were more ambivalent, marked by visits to Poland in 1955 and the Soviet Union in 1957 and 1959, where he observed resilient Catholic patriotism under communism but also expressed reservations about totalitarianism.^[89]^[90] He admired certain Polish Catholics' pragmatic collaboration with the regime as a survival tactic, yet in 1969 urged Western writers to boycott Soviet publications in solidarity with dissident authors like Solzhenitsyn, signaling disenchantment with Moscow's repressive apparatus.^[74]^[91] Greene's Catholic identity positioned him as anti-communist in principle, rejecting Stalinist atheism, but his anti-imperialist outlook fostered tolerance for third-world communist revolutions as bulwarks against Western dominance, as seen in later endorsements of figures like Ho Chi Minh and the Sandinistas.^[84]^[92]^[93] This duality—principled opposition to ideological communism coupled with pragmatic sympathy for its anti-colonial manifestations—drew accusations of fellow-traveling from conservative critics, who noted his reluctance to fully condemn regimes until their flaws became undeniable.^[74]^[94]

Literary Career

Early and Entertainment Novels (1930s–1940s)

Greene's early novels of the 1930s marked a transition from his debut The Man Within (1929) to more commercially oriented thrillers, which he retrospectively labeled "entertainments"—plot-driven suspense stories emphasizing action, espionage, and moral ambiguity over profound character introspection. These works, often set against interwar political unrest, featured simplified protagonists and rapid pacing to appeal to a broad readership, though Greene acknowledged in later reflections that such distinctions grew indistinct, with entertainments subtly incorporating thematic depth akin to his literary output.^[95]^[96] Stamboul Train (1932), his breakthrough entertainment, unfolds aboard a luxury express from Ostend to Istanbul, intertwining fates of passengers like a Jewish businessman smuggling currants, a cash-strapped chorus girl, a jaded journalist, and a convicted murderer evading capture. The fragmented narrative captures 1930s European fragmentation, with undertones of antisemitism and communism, and achieved strong sales, leading to a 1934 film adaptation that boosted Greene's profile.^[97]^[98] In A Gun for Sale (1936), professional assassin Raven—scarred by a harelip and nursing grievances against a cruel society—executes a minister of war but discovers his payment consists of traced banknotes, sparking a cross-country pursuit involving a munitions magnate's scheme to provoke conflict. The novel's bleak portrayal of betrayal and fleeting human connection drew acclaim for its taut suspense and social critique, solidifying Greene's reputation for blending genre conventions with realist edge.^[99]^[100] The Confidential Agent (1939), penned in six weeks during marital strain, follows a unnamed agent from a war-torn European state who arrives in England to secure arms, navigating deceit, seduction, and violence amid fascist undertones. Its hasty composition yielded uneven prose but effective atmosphere, with contemporary reviewers noting its reflection of Spanish Civil War echoes, though it received cooler critical notice than predecessors.^[101] The Ministry of Fear (1943), composed in London during the Blitz, tracks Arthur Rowe, a man recently released from psychiatric care, who wins a village fete cake concealing microfilm vital to Nazi spies, thrusting him into a web of fifth-column intrigue and identity confusion. The story's exploration of guilt, propaganda, and wartime psychosis garnered praise for psychological acuity, distinguishing it as an entertainment probing deeper existential fears.^[102]^[103] Collectively, these 1930s–1940s entertainments provided Greene financial independence, with sales exceeding those of his initial efforts like The Name of Action (1930) and Rumour at Nightfall (1931)—latter-day disavowed for stylistic flaws—and laid groundwork for thematic motifs of power, isolation, and ethical compromise in his subsequent oeuvre.^[104]^[105]

Catholic-Themed Works and Moral Ambiguity (1940s–1950s)

During the 1940s and 1950s, Graham Greene published novels that prominently featured Catholic doctrine as a lens for examining human frailty, sin, and the possibility of redemption amid moral complexity. These works, often set against backdrops of political oppression or personal turmoil, depicted protagonists whose faith coexisted with grave ethical lapses, reflecting Greene's view of grace operating independently of human merit.^[3] Although Greene resisted the label of "Catholic novelist," insisting his themes arose from personal conviction rather than proselytizing, his narratives consistently probed the tension between doctrinal absolutes and ambiguous human motivations.^[106] The Power and the Glory (1940), set during Mexico's Cristero-era persecutions, centers on an unnamed "whiskey priest"—a fugitive cleric burdened by alcoholism, fatherhood from an illicit liaison, and fear of martyrdom—who administers sacraments despite his failings. The novel contrasts his self-loathing with the persistence of divine grace, as he performs a final confession before execution, underscoring Greene's belief that sanctity emerges not from perfection but from perseverance in weakness.^[107] Initially placed on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books in 1953 for allegedly portraying priests too sympathetically toward sin, it was later cleared, highlighting debates over its orthodoxy.^[107] Moral ambiguity permeates the priest's internal conflicts, where fear and vice do not preclude salvific potential, challenging rigid interpretations of Catholic morality. In The Heart of the Matter (1948), Greene shifts to colonial Sierra Leone, where police commissioner Henry Scobie, a devout Catholic, succumbs to pity-driven deceptions: he maintains a loveless marriage while engaging in adultery and accepts bribes to alleviate others' suffering, culminating in suicide. Scobie's tragedy illustrates Greene's exploration of how compassion can lead to mortal sin, with the novel questioning whether his final despair precludes salvation, as Catholic teaching deems suicide an unpardonable act barring grace.^[108] Critics noted the work's portrayal of faith as burdensome, amplifying ambiguity in outcomes—Scobie's kindnesses coexist with betrayals, leaving readers to weigh pity against divine justice without resolution.^[106] The End of the Affair (1951), drawing from Greene's own extramarital relationship with Catherine Walston, recounts writer Maurice Bendrix's obsessive affair with Sarah Miles, which abruptly ends during a World War II bombing; a miracle heals Bendrix, prompting Sarah's secret recommitment to Catholicism. The narrative delves into intertwined hatred, jealousy, and reluctant faith, with Sarah's vow to God amid infidelity exemplifying Greene's theme of grace irrupting into flawed lives.^[109] Bendrix's atheistic narration heightens moral ambiguity, as conversion arises not from virtue but from crisis, critiquing self-justification while affirming divine intervention's unpredictability.^[110] These novels collectively reject simplistic heroism, portraying Catholicism as a framework for enduring ethical gray zones rather than escaping them.

Later Novels and Adaptations (1960s–1980s)

Greene's A Burnt-Out Case (1960) depicts Querry, a renowned architect suffering a spiritual crisis, who flees to a remote leper colony in the Belgian Congo, where he confronts isolation, leprosy as metaphor for spiritual decay, and ambiguous redemption amid colonial decay.^[111] The novel drew from Greene's travels to African leper colonies, reflecting his recurring interest in faith's erosion.^[112] In The Comedians (1966), set during François Duvalier's reign in Haiti, cynical hotelier Mr. Brown encounters an American vegetarian idealist, a confidence trickster, and political violence, exposing regime brutality through moral ambiguity and survival tactics; the book was banned in Haiti for its unflattering portrayal.^[113] ^[114] Greene's depiction critiqued authoritarian terror without endorsing revolution, aligning with his skeptical geopolitics. Travels with My Aunt (1969) shifts to lighter "entertainment" mode, following retired banker Henry Pulling on picaresque European jaunts with his eccentric, adventuress aunt Augusta, blending farce, smuggling, and reflections on staid bourgeois life versus bohemian vitality.^[115] The 1970s saw The Honorary Consul (1973), where in Paraguay-Argentina borderlands, defrocked priest-turned-guerrilla Father León kidnaps alcoholic British consul Charley Fortnum—mistaken for a U.S. ambassador—unleashing betrayals, illicit affairs, and theological doubts amid revolutionary futility.^[116] Greene favored this work for its exploration of flawed human loyalties over ideology.^[117] The Human Factor (1978), an espionage tale, centers on MI6 officer Maurice Castle, whose leaks to Soviet agents stem from personal gratitude for aiding his South African wife's escape from apartheid, highlighting bureaucratic paranoia, racial injustices, and the "human" motivations eroding Cold War certainties; Greene aimed to eschew spy thriller violence for psychological depth.^[118] ^[119] Later novellas included Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party (1980), narrating crippled narrator Alfred Jones's entanglement with sadistic millionaire Dr. Fischer, who hosts degrading "bomb parties" to probe guests' greed, culminating in a fatal test of avarice versus dignity.^[120] Themes evoke misanthropic experiments on human vice, with Fischer as godlike tormentor.^[121] Monsignor Quixote (1982) reimagines Cervantes via Father Quixote, improbably elevated to monsignor, and communist ex-mayor Sancho's road odyssey across Spain, debating faith, Marxism, doubt, and authority through humorous dialogues amid Franco-era remnants.^[122] The novel probes reconciliation of belief systems without resolution, reflecting Greene's late ecumenism toward ideological foes.^[123] Adaptations proliferated: Our Man in Havana (1959 novel) filmed in 1960, but later included The Comedians (1967, dir. Peter Glenville, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, capturing Haitian dread); Travels with My Aunt (1972, dir. George Cukor, with Maggie Smith as Augusta, emphasizing comedic escapades); The Human Factor (1979, dir. Otto Preminger, focusing on Castle's quiet betrayal); and The Honorary Consul (1983, dir. John Mackenzie, with Michael Caine as Fortnum, underscoring personal over political stakes).^[124] ^[125] These films often amplified dramatic elements, though Greene critiqued some for diluting nuance.^[126] Doctor Fischer and Monsignor Quixote received TV adaptations in 1985, preserving intimate scales.^[127]

Writing Style, Themes, and Critical Analysis

Stylistic Techniques and Narrative Approach

Greene's prose style is characterized by its spareness and economy, employing functional language that emphasizes clarity, tension, and precise detail over elaborate ornamentation or sensuous appeal.^[128] This approach aligns with his integration of thriller conventions, including motifs of betrayal, intrigue, sudden plot reversals, and perilous chases, which propel the narrative while underscoring psychological depth.^[128] In works such as The Power and the Glory (1940), he deploys linguistic markers and shifts in focalization to illuminate character interiors and thematic layers, creating a multifaceted portrayal that resists reductive interpretations.^[129]^[130] Narrative perspective in Greene's novels frequently alternates between third-person limited and omniscient viewpoints, or incorporates first-person narration as in The End of the Affair (1951), where the protagonist Bendrix's subjective lens filters events, blending comic contrasts in language use with explorations of doubt and faith.^[131]^[132] These choices enable multiple vantages on protagonists' actions and motives, fostering ambiguity and averting facile moral judgments by presenting events through divergent psychological prisms.^[133] Non-linear structures, including flashbacks and dream sequences, further disrupt chronology, as seen in The Heart of the Matter (1948), where such devices reveal subconscious turmoil and the interplay of pity, despair, and redemption.^[134] Irony permeates Greene's technique, manifesting as dramatic reversals that highlight human frailty and ideological contradictions, evident in short stories like "The Destructors" (1954), where detached cynicism underscores post-war societal decay through the gang's methodical destruction masked as play.^[135] His dialogue is characteristically terse and idiomatic, advancing plot momentum while exposing underlying tensions and character authenticity, often laced with understated wit that amplifies thematic irony.^[136] Overall, these strategies manipulate reader engagement by subverting expectations—drawing from genre experimentation to fuse entertainment with ethical inquiry—while reflecting Greene's broader socio-political observations through controlled narrative restraint.^[137]^[138]

Recurrent Themes: Sin, Redemption, and Geopolitics

Greene's fiction recurrently examines sin as an inescapable human condition, often portrayed through protagonists whose moral failings—adultery, despair, or complicity in violence—stem from egotism and lead to isolation from grace. Influenced by his 1926 conversion to Catholicism, Greene depicts sin not as abstract but as visceral, with characters confronting damnation's reality in works like Brighton Rock (1938), where the gangster Pinkie Brown rejects redemption through prideful adherence to a distorted moral code, culminating in eternal separation from God.^[139] In The Power and the Glory (1940), the "whiskey priest" embodies flawed sanctity, evading capture in anti-clerical Mexico while burdened by alcoholism and fathering an illegitimate child, yet achieving martyrdom that underscores redemption's availability amid unrelenting sin.^[128] Greene's treatment emphasizes that presumed innocence masks deeper corruption, as seen in The Heart of the Matter (1948), where colonial policeman Henry Scobie's extramarital affair and eventual suicide reflect a theology where despair equals self-damnation, though grace persists independently of human effort.^[140] Redemption in Greene's narratives arises not from moral perfection but from acknowledgment of sin's totality, often requiring submission to divine will over personal desires. This motif recurs in A Burnt-Out Case (1960), where architect Querry, fleeing fame and seeking anonymity in a Congolese leper colony, confronts his spiritual leprosy—emotional numbness and loss of faith—finding partial restoration through service and confrontation with mortality.^[141] Critics note Greene's Catholic framework posits redemption as paradoxical: sinners like the priest in The Power and the Glory or Scobie attain it through failure, aligning with doctrines of unmerited grace, though Greene avoids didacticism by leaving outcomes ambiguous, reflecting his view of faith as a "birthmark" shaping but not resolving human frailty.^[142]^[143] Geopolitical elements infuse these personal moral struggles, with Greene situating characters in imperial decline or Cold War flashpoints to amplify sin's consequences amid power's corruptions. Novels like The Quiet American (1955), set during the 1954 French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, critique American interventionism through Alden Pyle, whose idealistic terrorism in Vietnam embodies naive hubris leading to civilian deaths, forcing British narrator Thomas Fowler to weigh complicity in violence against detachment.^[144] This moral ambiguity extends to Our Man in Havana (1958), where spy James Wormold fabricates intelligence in pre-Castro Cuba, satirizing espionage's absurdities while exposing how geopolitical machinations erode personal integrity.^[145] In The Comedians (1966), Haiti under François Duvalier's 1957–1971 regime serves as backdrop for hotelier Mr. Brown, whose survival amid torture and voodoo symbolizes sin's entwinement with political terror, where redemption eludes those entangled in ideological binaries without transcendent anchors.^[146] The interplay of sin, redemption, and geopolitics reveals Greene's causal view: political ideologies exacerbate individual failings, yet offer no salvation, as in The Honorary Consul (1973), where a kidnapping in 1970s Argentina by Paraguayan guerrillas forces English teacher Eduardo Plarr to navigate loyalty amid revolutionary violence, underscoring moral relativism's pitfalls in anti-imperial struggles.^[145] Greene's protagonists, often journalists or officials in colonies from 1930s Mexico to 1980s Panama, embody "the dangerous edge of things," where geopolitical realism—empires' hypocrisies and interventions' unintended atrocities—mirrors internal damnation, redeemable only through humble recognition of limits.^[147] This framework critiques both Western paternalism and local tyrannies without endorsing relativism, prioritizing empirical observation of power's human costs over ideological purity.^[144]^[145]

Criticisms of Moral Relativism and Ideological Conflicts

Critics of Greene's Catholic-themed novels, such as The Power and the Glory (1940), argued that his portrayal of morally flawed protagonists exemplified a dangerous relativism that undermined absolute Catholic doctrine on sin and sanctity. The novel depicts a "whiskey priest"—an alcoholic cleric who has fathered an illegitimate child—as achieving martyrdom despite his vices, which the Holy Office of the Vatican condemned in 1953 for potentially glorifying human weakness over divine grace and blurring the distinction between holiness and habitual sin.^[148] This censure, documented in Vatican archives, reflected concerns that Greene's emphasis on the priest's inner redemption despite outward failings encouraged a subjective moral calculus rather than strict adherence to ecclesiastical standards on priestly purity.^[149] Similarly, The Heart of the Matter (1948) drew rebuke from Cardinal Bernard Griffin, who summoned Greene to Westminster Cathedral in 1948 for its sympathetic treatment of adultery and suicide, portraying these acts not as unequivocal evils but as tragic outcomes of scrupulous conscience, thus risking the normalization of personal moral autonomy over objective sin.^[23] In Greene's geopolitical works, detractors contended that his narratives fostered ideological moral equivalence, equating the flaws of Western liberal interventions with the atrocities of communist regimes, thereby eroding clear ethical distinctions in Cold War conflicts. In The Quiet American (1955), Greene's depiction of the idealistic American agent Alden Pyle as unwittingly enabling terrorist bombings mirrors communist violence, which conservatives criticized as relativizing U.S. anti-communist efforts by implying no substantive moral difference between democratic nation-building and totalitarian terror.^[150] This view gained traction in U.S. political discourse, with President George W. Bush in 2006 referencing the "Graham Greene argument" to decry defeatist analogies between Vietnam-era interventions and contemporary operations, arguing that such portrayals ignored the absolute stakes of ideological struggle against communism. Greene's personal comparisons of Catholicism and communism—acknowledging crimes by both but praising their shared commitment to transcendent belief—further fueled accusations from figures like those in First Things that he downplayed communism's atheistic totalitarianism in favor of a relativistic sympathy for underdogs, as evident in his favorable reporting from Havana in 1954 and later defenses of Castro's regime.^[151]^[84] These critiques extended to Greene's broader oeuvre, where moral ambiguity in ideological clashes was seen as prioritizing individual angst over principled judgment, potentially excusing sympathy for oppressive systems under the guise of nuanced realism. Conservative literary analysts, such as those examining Greene's flirtations with communist parties in his youth and adulthood endorsements of regimes in Vietnam and Cuba, argued that this approach conflated geopolitical realism with ethical indifference, as in his 1950s essays equating French colonial errors with Viet Minh extremism without condemning the latter's ideological foundations.^[84] Such positions, while defended by Greene as anti-imperialist candor, were faulted for inverting causality in conflicts—attributing Western hubris as the root evil while soft-pedaling communist intentionality—thus contributing to a cultural narrative that handicapped firm opposition to totalitarianism during the Cold War.^[151]

Recognition, Awards, and Nobel Prize Consideration

Major Literary Honors and Rejections

Greene was appointed Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966, recognizing his contributions to literature.^[152] In 1986, he received the Order of Merit, one of Britain's highest civilian honors, limited to 24 living recipients at any time.^[50] He was awarded the Shakespeare Prize in 1968 by the Hamburg Foundation for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences and the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society in 1981, honoring authors whose works address human rights and freedom.^[152] Despite these distinctions, Greene was repeatedly shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature but never awarded it, with nominations occurring at least in 1966 and 1967.^[152] Archival records indicate he was a leading contender in 1967, supported by the Swedish Academy's chairman, yet the prize went to Miguel Ángel Asturias; speculation attributes the omission to Greene's popular "entertainments," perceived genre elements, or his politically charged themes that divided critics.^[153] Swedish Academy members later expressed regret over his exclusion, citing his extensive body of work exploring moral and geopolitical conflicts.^[154] Greene rejected several honors, declining the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1956 and a knighthood, preferring to avoid formal ties to the establishment.^[155] His early career involved publisher rejections for unpublished manuscripts, including a first novel attempt around 1925 deemed immature, though his debut "The Man Within" (1929) succeeded after prior efforts were abandoned or withdrawn by Greene himself, such as "The Name of Action" (1930) and "Rum Rum" (1932), which he later suppressed as failures.^[16]

Reasons for Nobel Prize Omission

Greene was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on numerous occasions, including in 1967 when Swedish Academy archives indicate he was a leading candidate supported by the committee's chairman, yet the award went to Miguel Ángel Asturias.^[153] Similar near-misses occurred in other years, such as 1974, when the prize was controversially awarded to two Swedish Academy members, Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson, who had mutually nominated each other, overlooking Greene alongside figures like Vladimir Nabokov and Saul Bellow.^[156] A primary speculated factor in Greene's exclusion was the mismatch between his worldview and the Swedish Academy's prevailing ideological preferences, which leaned toward left-wing perspectives.^[157] Greene's conservative-leaning politics, evident in his critiques of ideological excesses and sympathies for anti-communist causes in works like The Quiet American (1955), clashed with the Academy's tendency to favor authors aligned with progressive or internationalist causes.^[157] Critics have attributed this to a broader pattern of political bias in Nobel selections, where deviations from establishment leftist norms in academia and European intellectual circles disadvantaged candidates like Greene.^[154] Greene's prominent Catholic themes, exploring sin, redemption, and moral absolutism in novels such as The Power and the Glory (1940) and The Heart of the Matter (1948), likely contributed to reservations among Academy members oriented toward secular or relativistic outlooks.^[92] This was compounded by perceptions of Greene's dual engagements with Catholicism and occasional leftist flirtations, including reported sympathies for communist regimes in Cuba and Vietnam, which may have alienated purists on both sides.^[92] Some observers also cited casual antisemitism in Greene's personal writings and class-based prejudices, though these were contextualized as reflective of mid-20th-century British elite norms rather than disqualifying anomalies.^[158] Additionally, the Academy's evolving emphasis on geographic diversity and non-Western perspectives in the late 1960s onward may have diminished Greene's prospects as a British author, prioritizing "global" figures amid criticisms of Eurocentrism.^[153] Despite regrets expressed by some Academy members—such as one noting in 1980 that Greene's name "would have adorned our list very well"—these institutional dynamics ensured his consistent omission until his death in 1991.^[154]

Final Years and Death

Later Travels and Writings (1980s–1991)

In the 1980s, Greene resided primarily in a modest apartment in Antibes, France, where he had lived since the mid-1960s, continuing his pattern of reflective seclusion amid Mediterranean surroundings.^[159] This period marked a shift toward more introspective and autobiographical works, alongside novels exploring moral dilemmas in contemporary settings, though his output slowed due to age and health concerns.^[160] Greene published Ways of Escape in 1980, a memoir detailing his lifelong wanderlust and literary inspirations, serving as a companion to his earlier A Sort of Life (1971).^[2] That same year, he released the novel Doctor Fischer of Geneva or the Bomb Party, a dark satire on wealth and human depravity centered on a Swiss millionaire's manipulative dinner games, drawing from Greene's observations of European elites.^[161] In 1982, Monsignor Quixote appeared, a modern reimagining of Cervantes' Don Quixote featuring a Spanish priest and a communist ex-mayor on a road trip through Spain, blending theological debate with political allegory amid post-Franco transitions.^[161] Greene's travels in this decade included visits to Panama, where he developed a friendship with General Omar Torrijos, inspiring the 1984 memoir Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement, which chronicled Torrijos' leadership, the Panama Canal negotiations, and Greene's skepticism toward U.S. foreign policy influence in Latin America.^[162] He also published The Tenth Man in 1985, a previously written 1944 novella about a prisoner of war's bargain with fate during Nazi occupation, released after decades in a studio vault.^[161] The decade closed with The Captain and the Enemy in 1988, a semi-autobiographical novel based on Greene's own youthful experiences, depicting a boy's life under the care of enigmatic figures evading authorities in London and Argentina.^[161] By late 1990, amid reported health issues and security concerns, Greene relocated from Antibes to Corseaux, Switzerland, near Lake Geneva, where he spent his final months.^[163] This move aligned with his ongoing interest in reflective writing, though no major new works emerged before his death on April 3, 1991, in nearby Vevey from leukemia and respiratory failure.^[164]

Health Decline and Legacy Reflections

In his later years, Greene resided primarily in Antibes, France, and Vevey, Switzerland, where his health progressively declined. He had successfully undergone surgery for intestinal cancer in 1979, experiencing no long-term complications from that procedure.^[165] However, by 1990, he developed a severe blood disease—later identified as leukemia—that confined him to treatment and led to his death on April 3, 1991, at age 86 in Vevey.^[50]^[51] His daughter confirmed the cause as a blood disease, with hospital officials noting the condition's rapid advancement in his final months.^[166] Reflecting on his career in a 1989 interview conducted in Antibes, Greene characterized himself as a "Catholic agnostic," underscoring that belief remained "the problem" at the core of his literary explorations of faith, sin, and redemption.^[160] He distanced his work from strict Catholic orthodoxy, disputing doctrines such as the existence of the devil, angels, or eternal hell, while interpreting purgatory as an earthly state of ongoing remorse and envisioning any afterlife as dynamically active rather than static.^[160] Greene expressed skepticism toward survival after death, deeming it an insoluble mystery impervious even to ecclesiastical authority, yet voiced a personal hope for intermittent remembrance amid life's distractions.^[46] These late insights affirmed his self-perception not as a doctrinal propagandist but as a chronicler of human moral ambiguity, consistent with the tensions in novels like Brighton Rock that had branded him a "Catholic writer" despite his protests.^[160]

Enduring Legacy

Influence on Literature and Espionage Fiction

Graham Greene's espionage fiction, categorized by him as "entertainments," marked a departure from escapist thrillers by incorporating moral ambiguity, psychological realism, and geopolitical critique, transforming the genre into a medium for examining human frailty and ideological failures.^[167] Works like The Quiet American (1955), which presaged U.S. involvement in Vietnam through its portrayal of naive interventionism, and Our Man in Havana (1958), a satire on intelligence absurdities, demonstrated how spy narratives could probe ethical dilemmas without glorifying agents.^[168] This fusion elevated espionage from pulp adventure to literary commentary, influencing the postwar evolution of the form.^[167] Greene's impact on subsequent spy novelists is evident in John le Carré, who cited him as a major inspiration for depicting intelligence work as morally corrosive and bureaucratically dehumanizing, as in le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963).^[169]^[170] Le Carré's focus on betrayal and disillusionment built upon Greene's precedents, shifting the genre toward cynical realism over heroism, a shift also seen in Len Deighton's works.^[171] Greene's own MI6 service during World War II, including postings in Sierra Leone and post-war Vienna, lent authenticity to these portrayals, underscoring causal links between lived espionage and narrative innovation.^[54] Beyond espionage, Greene's influence permeates modern literature through his terse style and recurrent motifs of sin, redemption, and flawed faith, which provided a template for authors addressing personal ethics amid global turmoil.^[172] His ability to weave thriller pacing with theological depth encouraged writers to prioritize character-driven moral inquiry over formulaic plots, as reflected in ongoing scholarly analysis of his techniques for contemporary fiction.^[172] This legacy persists in reassessments viewing Greene's oeuvre as a bridge between genre constraints and profound humanism.^[95]

Scholarly Reassessments and Controversies

Scholarly reassessments of Graham Greene's oeuvre often delineate an early phase dominated by Catholic-inflected explorations of sin, guilt, and redemption in novels such as Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), and The End of the Affair (1951), contrasting with a later emphasis on geopolitical intrigue. Critics like Joseph Feeney, S.J., portray Greene as a "great God-questioner," whose works reflect moral fervor amid doubt, prioritizing human failure over didacticism.^[23] ^[24] However, reassessments highlight tensions in his orthodoxy; Greene professed Catholicism post-1926 conversion but abstained from communion for nearly 30 years due to adulterous affairs, self-identifying as a "non-practicing Catholic."^[173] Church authorities contested depictions of immorality, as in the 1953 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith critique of The Power and the Glory, prompting Cardinal Bernard Griffin to summon Greene, who refused revisions; Evelyn Waugh similarly deemed A Burnt-Out Case (1961) incoherent.^[23] ^[24] Political controversies center on Greene's equivocations, particularly in The Quiet American (1955), which scholars reassess for presciently critiquing U.S. interventionism in Vietnam through the naive idealist Alden Pyle, yet accused of moral relativism by blurring lines between American "dynamism" and terrorism.^[174] Greene's expressed preference for ending his days in the Soviet Union over the U.S., admiration for traitor Kim Philby (including a 1980s visit and foreword to My Silent War), and support for figures like Fidel Castro and Nicaraguan Sandinistas fueled charges of fellow-traveling, despite his Catholicism.^[173] In Monsignor Quixote (1982), he paralleled priestly and Marxist doubt against poverty, reflecting enduring communist sympathies that intersected uneasily with faith, as conservative critics argue his anti-Americanism overlooked totalitarian realities.^[173] ^[175] Early personal controversies, such as Greene's 1937 Night and Day review of Wee Willie Winkie, described nine-year-old Shirley Temple's appeal as harboring "adult" suggestiveness in her "neat and well-developed rump," inciting a libel suit from Twentieth Century Fox; damages were awarded, forcing Greene to flee briefly to Mexico.^[176] Later feuds, including with Anthony Burgess—who accused Greene of class prejudice and incomplete Church embrace—underscored scholarly divides over whether personal detachment undermined his moral inquiries.^[175] Defenders like Darcy O’Brien maintain such flaws irrelevant to Greene's stylistic precision and canonical status in depicting human frailty.^[175]

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Need a new writer? Send for a supersub - The Times
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[59]
Amazon.com: The Lawless Roads (Penguin Classics)
He converted to Catholicism in 1926, an edifying decision, and reported on religious persecution in Mexico in 1938 in The Lawless Roads, which served as a ...
[60]
In the footsteps of Saigon's Quiet American, 70 years on
May 19, 2025 · Unearthing the Vietnamese city that the English author knew and described in The Quiet American, which turns 70 this year.
[61]
Graham Greene and Cuba: Our man in Havana? - Academia.edu
Graham Greene's novel 'Our Man in Havana' is often perceived merely as a comedic parody of the spy genre; however, it also subtly reflects his political ...
[62]
Graham Greene - New World Encyclopedia
His travels led him to François Duvalier's Haiti, where he set his 1966 novel, The Comedians. Greene became so well-known in Haiti that the proprietor of the ...<|separator|>
[63]
Agents of Betrayal - | Lapham's Quarterly
The two first met and became friends while employed as operatives in MI6. Recruited into the agency in 1941 by his own sister and posted to Sierra Leone, Greene ...
[64]
6 People You Didn't Know Were WWII Spies - History.com
Graham Greene: The acclaimed novelist who worked for Britain's MI6. The ... MI6, the British secret intelligence service, in 1941. He was stationed for ...Missing: 1940s | Show results with:1940s
[65]
[PDF] Graham Greene and the MI6: The Iberian Connection
Sep 18, 1975 · During his time as an SIS agent between 1941 and 1944, Greene appears to have devoted himself more to Portugal than to Spain, although the two ...
[66]
The Spy Story Behind The Third Man - Scholarly Publishing Collective
Dec 1, 2020 · All major figures involved had a background in intelligence, from the author Graham Greene ... Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6) ...<|separator|>
[67]
Graham Greene: On Kim Philby, John le Carré, and the Spying Game
In 1941, Green's sister recruited him into MI6 and he was posted to Sierra Leone during the Second World War. Spy writer John le Carré - another MI6 veteran- ...Missing: Freetown | Show results with:Freetown
[68]
Haunted by „The Third Man” | Lucruri care nu pot fi spuse altfel
Apr 30, 2017 · There is also the fact that, after resigning in 1944 from the secret service, Greene kept his ties there for many years, informally passing ...
[69]
https://www.academia.edu/101294439/Graham_Greene_and_MI6_the_Iberian_connection
[70]
Family Life, Friends, and Espionage: The Graham Greene Papers ...
Mar 9, 2016 · Greene was positioned in Sierra Leone and worked with Kim Philby, an SIS agent who was secretly spying for the Soviet Union.
[71]
Literature: Graham Greene and the Spies
Dec 3, 2020 · Richard Greene (no relation) takes Kim Philby as his starting point, and his lecture explores the story of Graham Greene's involvement with MI6 ...
[72]
https://www.spyscape.com/article/graham-greene-on-kim-philby-john-le-carre-and-the-spying-game
[73]
Kim Philby and the Age of Paranoia | The Stacks Reader
Graham Greene would turn out to be Kim Philby's final fool. Many in Britain have never forgiven Greene his defense of Philby, still an unhealed wound in England ...
[74]
The (Mis)Guided Dream of Graham Greene - First Things
Nov 1, 1999 · Greene had always been interested in Catholicism, and when he married Vivienne Dayrell Browning, a Catholic convert, he converted as well.<|control11|><|separator|>
[75]
Loyal to a traitor - Prospect Magazine
The 1980s correspondence between old friends Graham Greene and Kim Philby will soon be released. The artist remained loyal to his muse.
[76]
Graham Greene Papers 2 - Georgetown University Archival Resources
Greene visited Philby in Moscow in 1986 and 1987. Greene also wrote the introduction for Philby's book, My Silent War.
[77]
Graham Greene's showdown with Soviet spy Kim Philby: A Splinter ...
Apr 16, 2021 · In February 1987, the novelist Graham Greene met the Soviet spy Kim Philby for dinner. The latter had been the former's supervisor and friend ...
[78]
A Splinter of Ice: when Greene met Philby - The Tablet
Greene met Kim Philby, a former MI6 colleague living in exile in Moscow, for the first time since Philby had fled to the Soviet Union under threat of exposure.<|separator|>
[79]
the life of graham greene - The New York Times Web Archive
Greene's agonized affair with Catherine Walston forms the basis of a study of war on another front, where the soul struggles with its Maker.
[80]
One hundred years ago in 1925 Graham Greene, as a ... - Facebook
Jun 19, 2025 · Tellingly, as regards his life-long commitment to his former Secret Intelligence Service boss, Graham Greene in his Foreword to Philby's My ...Graham Greene's literary works and achievements - Facebookgraham greene, ho chi minh and mr chips - FacebookMore results from www.facebook.com
[81]
Graham Greene: Our Man in Antibes - Rolling Stone
Mar 9, 1978 · At nineteen, for a lark as he puts it, Mr. Greene joined the Communist party for four weeks while at Oxford which caused him great trouble only ...
[82]
In Our Time No Man Is a Neutral - The New York Times
When Graham Greene grants primary justice to the Communist cause in Asia, and finds insupportable its resistance under the leadership of America, he raises ...<|separator|>
[83]
Vietnam and the West Theme in The Quiet American | LitCharts
Ho Chi Minh led local communist forces from the north (Vietminh) in a fight for independence. America began to aid the local southern government in order to end ...
[84]
A “Catholic Fellow-Traveler”? Graham Greene and Communism
Oct 4, 2012 · “As a Catholic I must admit to being anti-totalitarian and anti-Communist, and I cannot see very much to choose between Mr. Stalin's Communism ...
[85]
A Quiet American in Vietnam | The Russell Kirk Center
Feb 11, 2018 · He was also an American innocent determined to organize a Vietnamese “Third Force” between French colonialism and communism. His efforts, to put ...
[86]
The comical, true-life story behind “Our Man in Havana”
Mar 21, 2019 · Ever anti-American, Greene approved when Fidel Castro overthrew Batista, Washington's client, in 1959; he admired Castro's social reforms ...
[87]
From Cuba to Greeneland: Graham Greene's long relationship with ...
Jun 12, 2019 · Greene found that Cubans revered Castro as a tough yet “comradely father figure”, whose overthrow of Batista had been nationalist, not socialist ...
[88]
GRAHAM GREENE AND CUBA: A COMMITMENT - jstor
Castro (whom Greene usually calls simply Fidel, noting that "not even his opponents call this man by his surname"), and it was his interest in Fidel.
[89]
Catholic Temper in Poland - The Atlantic
English novelist and ardent Roman Catholic‚ GRAHAM GREENE returned from an extended visit in Poland last autumn with these impressions of how a patriotic and ...
[90]
THE QUIET AMERICAN IN MOSCOW - Graham Greene
Aug 7, 2019 · Greene had visited Moscow in 1957 with his son Francis and two years later was evidently keen to make a return visit. In March 1959 he wrote to ...Missing: Bloc | Show results with:Bloc
[91]
Greene Urges Boycott of Soviet - The New York Times
G Greene (GB) urges fellow novelists to refuse permission for USSR to pub their books as gesture of solidarity with Soviet writers.
[92]
Beyond Marx and Jesus: Is Death the Only Prize That Now Awaits ...
May 1, 1988 · “I've always felt a strong pull toward the Communist party,” Greene says. ... sympathy for individual Communists.” He traces the history of ...
[93]
The (Mis)Guided Dream of Graham Greene – CERC
In his later years Greene flirted (and more than flirted) with the Soviets, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, and the Sandinistas, up to the very moment that communism ...
[94]
Graham Greene Against the World | The New Republic
Mar 10, 2021 · In the early 1950s, Greene wrote open letters of support for Charlie Chaplin, who had been targeted by McCarthy; and he publicly confessed ...<|separator|>
[95]
Graham Greene's 'Entertainments' and The Problem of Writing from ...
Apr 11, 2018 · If the Entertainments are, as Greene suggests, meant simply to entertain by immersing the reader in a message-less tale, this paragraph is a ...
[96]
Graham Greene on the Novel: An Interview - Mara Marietta
After that, novels and entertainments resembled each other more and more. Brighton Rock, for instance, started in my mind as a thriller. From the first sentence ...
[97]
Graham Greene | Stamboul Train | Slightly Foxed literary review
A disparate group of English people thrown together on a rail journey across a snowy Europe in the early 1930s. Their characters are trenchantly and vividly ...
[98]
B-Sides: Graham Greene's “Stamboul Train” - Public Books
Apr 2, 2020 · Strangers share a 1932 train ride from Belgium to Istanbul, a journey that reveals the dark changes already sweeping the continent.
[99]
'A Gun for Sale' by Graham Greene - Reading Matters
Apr 12, 2021 · First published in 1936, A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene is an oppressively dark crime novel about a British assassin who becomes a wanted man ...
[100]
A review of A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene - Compulsive Reader
Apr 4, 2005 · Graham Greene's fifth novel, originally published in 1936, remains a compelling thriller. When Raven, a paid assassin, kills the Czech Minister for War, he ...
[101]
Behind the Smoke Screen | David Lodge
5–6 day deliveryJun 8, 1995 · (Random House will publish an American edition of Shelden's biography, Graham Greene ... The Confidential Agent (completed in six weeks) in ...
[102]
The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene (1943) - Books & Boots
Nov 8, 2014 · The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene (1943). If you believed in God – and the Devil – the thing wasn't quite so comic. Because the Devil ...
[103]
Reading (in) Graham Greene's The Ministry of Fear (1943) | Novel
May 1, 2024 · This essay offers a transgeneric reading of Graham Greene's 1943 novel The Ministry of Fear, first tracing the emergence of spy fiction from invasion fiction.
[104]
[PDF] Ambler and Greene, Literature and Entertainments
“entertainments”of this period are : Stamboul Train. (1932); A Gun for Sale (1936); The Confidential Agent. (1939); The Ministry of Fear (1943); The Third Man.
[105]
Entertainments | A Study in Greene - Oxford Academic
Oct 31, 2023 · A Gun for Sale is a gripping thriller though of a very literary kind, full of quotations from, or allusions to, poems and plays.
[106]
Graham Greene: The Ambiguity of Death - Religion Online
Greene's notion of life as a moral drama is reflected in his treatment of death and dying in the novels. His main characters usually meet sudden and violent ...
[107]
Revisiting Graham Greene's 'The Power and the Glory' During Lent
Feb 14, 2016 · Graham Greene's 1940 novel was condemned by the Vatican, but its flawed protagonist offers a deeper way to think about faith.
[108]
On Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter (1948)
Oct 9, 2022 · Thus while Greene is clearly writing about the kind of moral dilemma a deeply believing Catholic Christian might face, he ends by pointing the ...
[109]
Book Club: Graham Greene's "The End of the Affair" - Word on Fire
He went through some later years as a 'lapsed Catholic' but returned to the Church near the end of his life. ... It is a book of very adult themes (adulterous sex ...
[110]
Introduction | Catholicism in Graham Greene's The End of the Affair
Liberal Catholics championed him as a reformer, an author who would restore humanity, compassion, and mercy to the too-strict, heartless Church. Traditional ...
[111]
A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene - Goodreads
Rating 3.9 (5,357) A famous architect struggling with a crisis of faith escapes to a leper colony in the Congo, in Graham Greene's “greatest novel” ( Time ).
[112]
Graham Greene, The Major Novels: A Centenary - by Kevin McGowin
Apr 3, 1991 · Greene wrote two major novels in the 1960s, beginning the decade with A Burnt-Out Case, a novel that should be discussed with the other four ...<|separator|>
[113]
Drinking, dancing and death | Books | The Guardian
Dec 16, 2005 · Greene's novel about a world-weary hotelier in the darkest days of the Duvalier dictatorship was inevitably banned in the country.Missing: 1966 | Show results with:1966
[114]
The Comedians by Graham Greene (1966) - Books & Boots
Jan 20, 2015 · The Comedians is Greene's longest novel (287 pages in the Penguin edition) and among his most enjoyable. The tone is equable, the style concise and expressive.
[115]
Graham Greene - Fantastic Fiction
A Burnt-Out Case (1960) The Comedians (1966) Travels with My Aunt (1969) The Honorary Consul (1973) The Human Factor (1978) Doctor Fischer of Geneva (1980)
[116]
Book Review: The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene
May 28, 2024 · We meet the priest who becomes a kidnapper, the novelist residing in a city that doesn't read, the alcoholic honorary consul who knows his ...
[117]
Greene: The Honorary Consul - The Modern Novel
It deals with the religious doubts of a priest or, in this case, a former priest who, as a good Greene Catholic hero, is not as former as he would like to ...
[118]
Existential Ennui: The Human Factor by Graham Greene; Book Review
Mar 10, 2012 · Graham Greene's stated aim with The Human Factor "was to write a novel of espionage free from the conventional violence, which has not, in ...
[119]
The Human Factor by Graham Greene (1978) | Books & Boots
Aug 5, 2015 · The plot. Maurice Castle is an anxious, middle-aged man, living in a suburban house in Berkhampsted, commuting every day to his office in St ...
[120]
DR FISCHER OF GENEVA OR THE BOMB PARTY - Kirkus Reviews
7-day returnsA notorious millionaire who gives parties to humiliate and test the infinite greed of a circle of rich, toadying acquaintances.
[121]
Graham Greene: Dr Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party - J-Stage
The theme of the story focuses on the limitless greed of human being and the cruel image of almighty God of a man with power and wealth.
[122]
Monsignor Quixote (1982), by Graham Greene | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog
Jun 17, 2025 · The book is mostly dialogue, and alongside comic exchanges that signify a friendship respectful of one another, Greene (who was famously a ...
[123]
'Monsignor Quixote' - The New York Times
Sep 19, 1982 · THE rejection of dogmatic authority - whether of the church, the party or the state - is the presiding theme of the book, a theme that in one ...
[124]
Graham Greene - Turner Classic Movies - TCM
Filmography · Day for Night (1973) · Brighton Rock (2011) · The Comedians (1967) · Our Man in Havana (1960) · Saint Joan (1957) · The Third Man (1949).
[125]
GreeneLand on Film - The Schleicher Spin
Aug 15, 2009 · The following is a ranking of the Graham Greene book to film adaptations I have seen. The End of the Affair (1999, directed by Neil Jordan, adapted from the ...Missing: 1960s | Show results with:1960s
[126]
10 great Graham Greene adaptations | BFI
Sep 3, 2019 · This Gun for Hire (1942) · Ministry of Fear (1943) · Brighton Rock (1948) · The Fallen Idol (1948) · The Third Man (1949) · The Quiet American (1958).
[127]
DOCTOR FISCHER OF GENEVA OR THE BOMB PARTY BY ...
Sep 15, 2025 · Published in 1980, Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party could be described as a psychological thriller. It was adapted to film in 1984, ...Missing: summary | Show results with:summary
[128]
Analysis of Graham Greene's Stories - Literary Theory and Criticism
Nov 26, 2019 · Greene's paradoxical treatment of his major themes within a theological perspective is best evident in “The Hint of an Explanation.” The story ...
[129]
[PDF] Untitled - the FAU Digital Library! Create, Share, Learn
By analyzing the various narrative techniques and linguistic markers that Greene employs, we achieve greater insight into the overall picture of the novel and ...Missing: literary | Show results with:literary
[130]
Narrative technique in Graham Greene's “The Power and the Glory”
... narrative technique of Graham Greene deserves equal consideration. Greene ... analysis of point of view in fiction (48). This system of modality is the ...
[131]
Analysis of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair
May 25, 2025 · Greene develops a mildly comic class-based contrast between the educated sophistication of Bendrix's use of language and the laboriously ...
[132]
An Approach to Narrative Structure in Graham Greene's _The End of ...
The analysis reveals that Greene's narrative in _The End of the Affair_ employs non-linear temporal dynamics, creating interplay between past and present which ...
[133]
[PDF] Ambiguity and Technique in Three NOvels by Graham Greene
They are not "good" or "bad" characters, but simply human; their wrong actions become mixed with ambiguous motives, and the reader is left with more questions ...
[134]
[PDF] Themes and Narrative Techniques in Graham Greene's The Heart of ...
It treats the following themes: loneliness, alienation and exile; responsibility and pity; love versus pity; despair and damnation; disintegration of character ...Missing: stylistic | Show results with:stylistic
[135]
Tragic Irony in Selected Works by Graham Greene
Nov 22, 2017 · Kazanova, Yuliya (2017) Tragic Irony in Selected Works by Graham Greene. ... It complements contemporary Greeneian scholarship with an analysis ...
[136]
Graham Greene's Narrative Art - jstor
rhetorical techniques reflect his or her themes and literary attitudes. Ohmann's observations provide us with a useful approach to the analysis of ...Missing: stylistic | Show results with:stylistic
[137]
On Betrayal and Male Friendship in Graham Greene
May 28, 2022 · The writer Graham Greene was born here in 1904 when his father was housemaster. As a student, Greene experienced depression.
[138]
Graham Greene's Narrative Strategies: A Study of the Major Novels
In Narrative Strategies Roston focuses upon the Greene's texts themselves and their manipulation of reader response, highlighting the innovative strategies ...Missing: stylistic | Show results with:stylistic
[139]
Catholicism Theme Analysis - Brighton Rock - LitCharts
Jun 8, 2018 · At the heart of Brighton Rock by Graham Greene is the unconventional love story of Pinkie and Rose, whose shared Catholic faith shapes, illuminates, and ...
[140]
[PDF] Morality, Sin and Redemption in the Selected Works of Graham ... - ijrrr
The present piece of work emphatically examines the crucial revolving theme of human morality, sin and redemption, which is an obsessed theme that concerns.Missing: analysis | Show results with:analysis
[141]
[PDF] Portrayal of Sin in the Fictional World of Graham Greene
So the present study focuses upon the sins of human beings; their redemption from such sins which could only be possible by submitting their desires and wills ...
[142]
“Like a Birthmark”: Graham Greene's Catholicism - Christendom Media
Graham Greene's Catholicism was “like a birthmark.” His interest was on the dangerous edge of things, but these core convictions kept his equilibrium.
[143]
Graham Greene: Catholicism in Fiction - jstor
responsible for our own life. These themes of choice, of commitment, of betrayal, enter.
[144]
American versus European Exceptionalism in Graham Greene's The ...
Jun 2, 2021 · This essay argues that by challenging the rectitude of American intervention in Vietnam, The Quiet American is the means by which Greene criticises the ...
[145]
Graham Greene: Political Writer - ResearchGate
This study is the first to provide a detailed consideration of the impact of his political thought and involvements on his writings both fictional and factual.
[146]
“ALL PROPAGATED WITH THE BEST Intentions”: Greene, THE Us ...
Nov 1, 2008 · Graham Greene's The Quiet American is an “epochal novel.” It announces the inception of a new epoch at a decisive historical moment: on ...
[147]
Shades of Greene | Books | The Guardian
Sep 17, 2004 · The Quiet American, his love story set in the chaos of 1950s Vietnam, shows him to be the greatest journalist there ever was.
[148]
How Rome tried to censor Greene's masterpiece - The Guardian
Jul 8, 2001 · Documents uncovered in Rome show that Greene's work came close to being banned in an attempt by the Catholic Church to control a literary talent.
[149]
The Power and the Glory – “a work of singular literary value”
Mar 16, 2022 · “He told the Pope that The Power and the Glory had been condemned by the Holy Office. According to Greene, the Pope asked, 'Who condemned it?' ...
[150]
The Unquiet Graham Greene - The American Conservative
Oct 22, 2007 · Bush's recent reference to Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American ... criticized Greene's suggestion that the “quiet American's” patriotism was ...
[151]
Graham Greene as Moralist - First Things
May 1, 1990 · Philby noted that when Greene addressed a peace forum in the Soviet Union he told his rapt audience that he envisioned a future in which the ...
[152]
Graham Greene | Biography, Books, Famous Works, Catholic, & Facts
Sep 28, 2025 · His first published work was a book of verse, Babbling April (1925), and upon the modest success of his first novel, The Man Within (1929; ...
[153]
Nobel archives show Graham Greene might have won 1967 prize
Jan 8, 2018 · Graham Greene and Jorge Luis Borges were serious contenders for the Nobel prize for literature in 1967, newly opened archives have revealed.
[154]
Why Graham Greene Hasn't Won A Nobel Prize and Solzhenitsyn Has
Dec 27, 1980 · "I regret Graham Greene never got the prize. His name would have adorned our list very well." It began to appear that few academicians are ...
[155]
The ultimate honour - impressive list of those who refused to bow to ...
Dec 21, 2003 · The cook Nigella Lawson, actors Honor Blackman and Alastair Sim, and writers JB Priestley, Graham Greene and Roald Dahl all rejected awards.
[156]
A Comedy of Errors at the Nobel Prize - AMERICAN HERITAGE
In 1974, two Swedish judges awarded the Nobel Prize to each other, passing over Graham Greene, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow.
[157]
Nobels and The Politics Of the Left - The Washington Post
Oct 24, 1982 · There can be no question that a central reason for Greene's rejection is that his politics do not coincide with those of the Swedish Academy, ...
[158]
Why Graham Greene May Never Have Won the Nobel Prize
Feb 7, 2010 · Graham Greene (1904-1991), the gifted British novelist (“The End the Affair,” “Our Man in Havana,” “The Third Man” ), never won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
[159]
https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/02/20/specials/greene-riviera.html
[160]
Reflections : The Author's View of Graham Greene : A 1989 ...
Apr 9, 1991 · In Cornwell's first question about why the writer chose to live in a small apartment in Antibes on the French Riviera, Greene replied: “I ...
[161]
Graham Greene Books In Order
Publication Order of Standalone Novels ; The Man Within, (1929), Description / Buy at Amazon ; The Name of Action, (1930), Description / Buy at Amazon ; Rumour at ...
[162]
[PDF] Travels with Graham Greene
His cause was not always Washington's cause, but then in the '80s there were many Americans who did not agree with Washington fanning the fires of the Cold War ...
[163]
Searching for Graham Greene in Switzerland
May 20, 2022 · Graham Greene had lived in Antibes on the French Riviera from middle of the 1960's until late 1990 when he finally moved to Corseaux. Graham ...
[164]
Graham Greene, 86, Dies; Novelist of the Soul - The New York Times
Apr 4, 1991 · Graham Greene, the British author whose novels of suspense and moral ambiguity plumbed the sordid politics of the modern world and the inner torments of ...
[165]
Graham Greene | Encyclopedia.com
Born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Greene was one of six children of Charles Henry Greene, headmaster of Berkhamsted School, and Marion R. Greene ...Missing: family siblings
[166]
Novelist Graham Greene dead at 86 - UPI Archives
Apr 3, 1991 · Cause of death was given as 'a blood disease' with no further details. The death was confirmed by the British Embassy in Berne, the Swiss ...
[167]
Passages of Arms: Postwar Fictions of Espionage - UC Press Journals
Aug 1, 2023 · Greene and Ambler are generally assumed to be key figures in the development of spy fiction: “Eric Ambler and Graham Greene transformed the spy ...
[168]
Graham Greene – Master of Spy Novels and Moral Dilemmas 🕵️
Sep 24, 2025 · Unlike many thrillers, Greene's spy fiction avoided glamorization. Instead, he portrayed intelligence work as morally ambiguous, filled with ...
[169]
John le Carré: the timeless allure of a true literary great
Dec 14, 2020 · Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene were regularly cited by le Carré as major inspirations. Their lonely characters wearily seek moral reassurances ...
[170]
How the greatest spy of the Cold War inspired Graham Greene and ...
Aug 10, 2019 · For le Carré, Greene was a profound influence, the novelist whose books were a guide as he emerged from a career in MI5 and SIS to become a ...
[171]
Graham Greene: Master of Espionage and Moral Complexity
Jan 11, 2025 · Greene's Legacy in Spy Fiction. Graham Greene's spy novels have influenced generations of writers, including John le Carré and Len Deighton, who ...
[172]
Rock Of Ages: What Graham Greene Can Teach The Modern Novelist
Sep 17, 2021 · There is no greater proof of this touchstone for a novelist than Graham Greene. His books are still selling, often in terms much greater than ...
[173]
https://firstthings.com/graham-greene-as-moralist
[174]
The Disquieting Resonance of 'The Quiet American' - NPR
Apr 21, 2008 · The Quiet American, by Graham Greene, was written in 1955 and set in Vietnam, then the site of a rising local insurgency against French colonial rule.<|control11|><|separator|>
[175]
Graham Greene's novels | The New Criterion
So the news from Bruce Bawer is that Graham Greene has over the years been guilty of flippancy, selfishness, detachment, bordello-hopping, doctrinal impurities, ...
[176]
Graham Greene and Shirley Temple: What to make of the novelist's ...
Feb 12, 2014 · A Flavorpill headline yesterday described the review as slut-shaming, and Greene's vivid description of Temple's “neat and well-developed rump” ...