Complete Short Stories (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Graham Greene (Author), Pico Iyer (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2005

Affairs, obsessions, ardors, fantasy, myth, legend and dream, fear, pity, and violence—this magnificent collection of stories illuminates all corners of the human experience. Previously published in two volumes—Collected Short Stories and The Last Word and Other Stories—these forty-nine stories reveal Graham Greene in a range of contrasting moods, sometimes cynical and witty, sometimes searching and philosophical. Each one confirms V. S. Pritchett’s statement that Greene is “a master of storytelling.”

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Graham Greene (1904-1991) was a prolific novelist, short story writer, travel writer and children's book writer. Many of his novels and short stories have been successfully adapted to the movie screen, including The Third Man (directed by Orson Welles), The End of The Affair, and The Quiet American

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (January 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143039105
• ISBN-13: 978-0143039105
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A kaleidoscope of human faiths, September 26, 2005

By 

HORAK (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Short Stories (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This edition features all the short stories written by the author. Here is a small selection of those I've enjoyed most.
In "Under The Garden" William Wilditch, after spending a long time abroad, is now visiting the family house, Winton Hall, which he hasn't seen since his childhood and where his brother George lives. After the first night, Wilditch finds it difficult to distinguish between memories and fantasy, fact and dream. He remembers a dream he had as a child when he entered a dark cave on the island in the middle of the pond in the garden. In that cave he met two rogues: Javitt, a sententious old man who had lived there for many years with a mute woman, Mary.
In "A Visit To Morin" a narrator, Dunlop, remembers admiring a French author called Pierre Morin who was controversial in the 1950s because he was accused of Jansenism while others called him an Augustinian. Dunlop spots Morin at a Midnight Mass in a village near Colmar. After introducing himself to the author, he is invited to his house where they have an astonishing conversation during which Morin reveals to Dunlop that long after he ceased to believe in God, he still remains a carrier of belief through his books.
A patient suffering from leprosy in "Dream Of A Strange Land" in Switzerland is driven to a desperate action because he can't get his doctor's help. Indeed the doctor's house has been transformed into a casino to accommodate the Herr General, now too weak to travel to Monte Carlo. Not only does the patient think he went to the wrong house but he thinks he is in the wrong country as well, Germany probably...
In "A Discovery In The Woods" a group of strange children with short and uneven limbs who move like crabs decide that they should enter a new territory in search of blackberries. Thus they leave the confines of their village, Bottom, and they discover an enormous house resembling a giant stranded fish which seems to have been thrown up among the rocks to die.
An "old sterile thing" is the way the American woman in "Beauty" is described. She is desperately calling after her Pekinese dog Beauty in the night. But Beauty left her mistress for a well deserved nocturnal ramble in the dirt of the city.
Madame Volet in "Chagrin In Three Parts" lost her husband to Emmy with whom he fell in love. Her friend Madame Dejoie tries to console her by suggesting that satisfaction can be achieved if only one can discover in oneself "the capacity for love" for another woman!
Henry Cooper in "The Overnight Bag" travels on a BEA flight from Nice to London carrying in his BOAC overnight bag what he claims to be his wife's "dead baby".
In "Mortmain" Philip Carter's new marriage to Julia is jeopardised by a series of notes hidden in their apartment by his former wife Josephine.
Mary Watson in "Cheap In August" is taking a holiday in Jamaica where she meets an unhappy and lonely American, Henry Hickslaughter. Because Mary really went on holiday to look for an adventure she can't help feeling that her attachment to the old man is cheap in the same way as everything is cheap in Jamaica in August.
A young woman author appraised by her publisher for her "power of observation" turns out to have no power of observation whatsoever in "The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen".
In "Awful When You Think Of It" a man on a train has an imaginary dialogue with a fellow passenger's baby and he tries to picture what kind of adult that baby will become.
"Doctor Crombie" portrays a school doctor living at the beginning of the 20th century who is convinced that there is a correlation between sexual intercourse and cancer: "Almost one hundred percent of those who die of cancer have practised sex" he claims!
In "Two Gentle People" Marie-Claire Duval and Henry Graves meet in the Parc Monceau in Paris, then have dinner together only to realise that the hour came too late in both their lives...
A wonderful collection of short stories by one of the greatest British authors of the 20th century.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complicated, compelling reading, December 30, 2005

By 

Patricia J. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Short Stories (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

This volume contains such a wide range of themes that I don't know how to categorize it. There are stories about faith, stories about childhood, stories about adulthood, science fiction stories, sex farces, horror stories. They're all compelling and beautifully, tastefully written. "Under the Garden," about a dying man tunneling back into his childhood fantasies, has become one of my favorite short stories of all time. It's shocking that such a terrible human being could be so insightful, not just into the minds of people but also into the foibles of his own writing (he once famously placed second in a Graham Greene parody contest).

I came to Graham Greene late, after almost two decades of mistakenly thinking he was Margaret Atwood's husband Graeme Gibson, by means of watching the movies The Quiet American, The End of the Affair, and Donnie Darko. I'm very glad I did.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars They Span Most of the Century, the Globe, and the Genres, September 7, 2007

By 

Stephanie DePue (Carolina Beach, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Complete Short Stories (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Graham Greene's long life and prolific writing career nearly spanned the twentieth century. Unusually enough, the British author's work was both greatly honored, and greatly popular. He wrote "The Power and the Glory," "The End of the Affair," and "Our Man in Havana," among other noteworthy novels; he also published two short story collections. These stories are all here, dated, at least, from 1929 through 1963. They cover many genres: fantasy, mystery, spy, crime, romance, and are set in many places; England, the Continent of Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, Latin America. They also provide an unusually close view of the work of their prominent, polished writer.

The best known and once most notorious of them is probably "May We Borrow Your Husband," set on the off-season French Riviera. It's narrated in the first person by a man who sounds a lot like its author grown older, and concerns a pair of predatory English interior decorators who set out to seduce a confused, handsome young English bridegroom on his honeymoon. The narrator, who is fond of the young bride, watches the proceedings, feeling himself unable to intervene.

Another well-known story is "Cheaper in August," that chronicles the odd business of an August Caribbean affair between a middle-aged Englishwoman, married to an American academic, and a much older, not particularly attractive American remittance man. "Across the Bridge" is a strong story of an English financier fugitive, trapped in Mexico; it's also narrated by a figure much like its author. "Under the Garden,"an outstanding, rare fantasy tale, written fairly early in Greene's career, gives us many hints of the work that's to come. "The News in English" is a powerful World War II spy tale. "The Destructors" is a tough early story about the crowning achievement of an English gang of teenagers.

If you would like an introduction to the work of Graham Greene, or you already love the longer works of this estimable writer, you'll find these stories worthwhile reading.