Customer Reviews

Complete Short Stories (Penguin Classics)

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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.

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.

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.

When it comes to short stories with true grace into the human spirit, I can think of only a few greats, William Faulkner, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Andre Dubus, D.H. Lawrence, and Graham Greene (there are many short story writers who are superb in their field of telling stories, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahri, T.C. Boyle, and the such, but they're focuses are limited, and rarely concern the endeavor of the human spirit--Alice Munro definitely has her moments). Greene's work surpasses much of what is available today, there is an immediacy even to his most intimate stories. Two Gentle People for example, a story of two people far in their prime in life, who meet sitting on a park bench, and watching a wounded bird, start a conversation. This conversation leads to dinner. But what can they really do? They are both married. They both love the people they're married to. It is a tragedy and a love story, it is a friendship, and truly one of the purest writings out there. The Destructors, made even more famous for it's use in Donnie Darko, as the scapegoat for parents to get a teacher fired, and get a book banned.

The Destructors is a story far greater than it's story. It is a story about construction as much as it is about destruction. The creation of chaos. It is something altogether beautiful and horrifying, supple and bitter, a story that doesn't leave your mind even after you've left it. His stories illuminates the human experience.

I highly recommend this book. I still remember the day I ordered it and the day I received it, right after Christmas, 4 years previously, infatuated after reading Power and Glory, The End of the Affair, and The Quiet American, I wanted more, and I got more, a lot more. These collected stories are an important pieceo f the body of his work, they are some of the best stories I have read. I hope you too can enjoy them.

Graham Greene is one of the twentieth century's greatest English novelists, essayist and short story authors. Greene is famous for such classic novels as "The Power and the Glory"; "Our Man in Havana"; "The Third Man"; "The End of the Affair"; "The Comedians" and several other stellar works of his genius. Greene (1904-1991) is not as well known for his superb short stories penned over a long literary career. Though a long ago English major in college we were never asked to read one of his amazingly perceptive short stories which I consider a major omission!
The Penguin Edition contains all 49 of his stories in its interest filled 600 pages. Greene had an ability to write about the human drama in all its diversity. His work is informed by the Roman Catholic belief and morality which he embraced.
Among such gems in this collection are:
The Destructors-boys in a suburban gang:
The News in English-an unforgettable tale about an English spy on German radio during World War II
Dear Dr. Falkenhelm- a darkly humorous tale about a Canadian Father Christmas and the loss of childhood illusion.
Cheap in August-A love story set in a tropical clime in which an elderly gent hooks up with a bored middle age woman.
Under the Garden-a surreal story about strange beings who live under the garden in an apocalyptic vision of things to come.
May We Borrow Your Husband?-sexual shenanigans with the improbably named female character "Poopy"
An Appointment with the General-A reporter interviews a Latin American rebel leader.
Graham Greene is a superb stylist of the English Language. His stories are often ironic, witty, sad and penetrative of the human heart's emotional gamut. If you only know Greene through his novels or films of his works then you should luxuriate your mind in these wonderful stories
from the fertile pen of a brilliant English author!

I consider this writer as a mix between Chekov and Gorki, his knowledge of the human soul and his extraordinary way to describe it, makes him one of the most important writers of the 20th century

I am enjoying reading these short stories. Graham Green is an excllent writer. I like to know what other people think about a book befor I buy it. I have only read a few stories so far and already there are some I want to reread. What I like most about this book , since I am such a slow reader, is that it dose not take me long to read a complete story. Another book I purched from Amazon, "The End of the Affair" also by Graham Green is a sad but beautiful love story. You can count on Amazon for the best in reading.

Carmel, Milford, Connecticut

This collection of short stories spans Graham Greene's career, from the 1920s to 1990. Many pick up on the same themes prevalent in his novels, especially the experience of World War II in Britain, life in Africa, Mexico, and the non-western world, and, to a lesser extent, the struggle of the reflective person with faith.

I hadn't read much of Greene's short fiction, and this gave me a chance to see a different side of him. Short stories give him a chance to focus tightly on particular personality traits or particular tensions -- it's something I think he's really good at. This is the kind of fiction that makes you think as well as entertains.

There were a few surprises for me in this collection. In particular, the short story, Under the Ground, presented a kind of disquieting surreal experience -- something I wasn't used to from Greene's novels, which tend to live in noirish themes or in the tension of political or religious faith. It turns out that that story is part of a collection with a running surreal theme, something I hadn't seen in his novels.

The quality of the stories run from the finely finished to the sketchy, but that's okay. This is another side of Greene that's well worth trying out.

If you have long or short flights, take this book along. You will be amused, gratified, humored and kept awake by the meanderings of Graham Greene.