Loser Takes All (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) [Paperback]

Graham Greene (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1993 | Series: Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin

Bertram had no belief in luck. An unsuccessful assistant accountant, he was planning to get married for the second time - quietly. But Dreuther, a director of Bertram's firm, whimsically switches the honeymoon to Monte Carlo. Here Bertram's gambling system works - changing his life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A great writer who spoke brilliantly to a whole generation.” – Alec Guinness --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Bertram is not a believer in luck. An unambitious accountant, his plans for his second marriage are typically quiet: St. Luke?s then two weeks in Bournemouth. But he comes to the attention of Dreuther, the director of his company, who changes Bertram?s plans for him: wedding and honeymoon in Monte Carlo, on board his private yacht. Inevitably Bertram visits the casino, and loses. But then his system starts working, and his trouble really begins. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (May 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140185429
• ISBN-13: 978-0140185423
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick and Fun, June 6, 2005

By 

brewster22 "brewster22" (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loser Takes All (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

This slight Graham Greene novel is really more of a long short story--I read virtually the entire thing on a two-hour flight to New York City. But Greene is still able to infuse his story and characters with the moral significance that infuses all of his work. What happens in this novel really seems to *matter* in a way that it wouldn't in the hands of another author. Greene was great at making the most innocuous of situations feel full of portent; it's as if the character's moral fate will be decide once and for all by whether or not they take that last trip to the gaming table, or have that last drink, or go through with that meaningless one-night stand. It's this quality of Greene's that make his "entertainments" so satifsying to literature lovers: they have all of the attributes of the most thrilling page-turner, but the reader doesn't have to feel like he needs to sacrifice a love for style and substance in order to enjoy it.

Not one of Greene's most profound works, but very entertaining.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Clever Thought Experiment, June 14, 2002

By 

mp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loser Takes All (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

Graham Greene's 1955 novella, "Loser Takes All," is a clever thought experiment in which love, morality, and ethics are all brought to bear on the early days of a married relationship. One of Greene's most appealing moves in the book is his delineation of character. The people who populate the novella are character types struggling to become characters - to find individuality and meaning in a world whose sole virtue seems to be money.

"Loser Takes All" begins in Monte Carlo. An English couple, Bertram, a fortyish accountant with a dead end career; and Cary, his twentyish fiance are on the verge of marriage - but they've been sidetracked. Initially planning on a small church service, Bertram is called into a meeting with his abstracted and unapproachable boss, Dreuther. Although Bertram isn't well-off, Dreuther talks him into moving his marriage plans to Monte Carlo, where Dreuther will rendezvous with them, and bring them back to England on his yacht. The action of the novella shows how this change of plans affects absolutely everything in Bertram and Cary's lives.

This is a short work, but it is packed with important and compelling themes. Greene was an absolute craftsman of language and situation, and the major themes that his longer works explore are found even in this short entertainment. Human relationships are central to the novella - the central relationship between Bertram and Cary is affected by Bertram's relationship with Dreuther, Dreuther's with 'another' of the firm's shareholders, Blixon. Greene asks how sympathies are constructed and maintained in good times and in bad.

Money and chance are also extremely important to the overarching theme of gambling and roulette. Characters like Bertram and character types like Phillippe and Bird's Nest illustrate the tensions in viewing life's progression as a matter of necessity or one of chance. Again, "Loser Takes All" is a short work, and is valuable as a kind of synopsis of the issues Greene's impressive literary corpus consistently engages with. The three star rating is because, in the context of Greene's body of work alone, "Loser Takes All" is a good piece, but not a great one.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever Story, October 7, 2002

By 

momwith2kids (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loser Takes All (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

Obviously Graham Greene is a great storyteller. There's a lot of sarcasm in his writing, which I love. This is about a mediocre accountant, Bertram, marrying for the second time to a women much younger than himself. They are both stranded in Monte Carlo, and much to his new wife's chagrin, he becomes obsessed with a gambling system which starts to work for him. "Loser Takes All" has a good twist at the end. Actually, I was surprised by the end of this book, not only by what happened, but how the tone seemed to change completely. I fully expected something different.

Maybe the story itself didn't interest me all that much. I wouldn't say it was fantastic or anything. It was all right. Still, this was the first Graham Greene book I've read, and I'm sure it won't be the last.