Monsignor Quixote (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

~ (Author), John Auchard (Introduction)
Key Phrases: purple socks, Father Quixote, Father Herrera, Father Leopoldo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Graham Greene's best novel." - Spectator

"A powerful late work... a mixture of entertainment and deep human awareness." - Malcolm Bradbury

"Monsignor Quixote is important in showing what may be the last stage of the novelist's long argument with himself about the needs, nature and effect of faith." - TLS --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

A morally complex and mature work from a modern master

IN THIS later novel by Graham Greene—featuring a new introduction—the author continues to explore moral and theological dilemmas through psychologically astute character studies and exciting drama on an international stage. The title character of Monsignor Quixote is a village priest, elevated to the rank of monsignor through a clerical error, who travels to Madrid accompanied by his best friend, Sancho, the Communist ex-mayor of the village, in Greene’s lighthearted variation on Cervantes.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (September 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143105523
• ISBN-13: 978-0143105527
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #68,833 in Books (See Bestsellers 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 Greene vs Greene, January 19, 2002

By	A. Rohlev (Los Alamos, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Monsignor Quixote (Hardcover)

As someone says on the cover of my edition, the dialogue between the Catholic priest and the Marxist mayor is really Greene talking to Greene. The wonderful Mr. Greene. Rather left leaning in his time and a converted Catholic, one might expect a little propaganda on the subject. But no, Mr. Greene has the honesty, and the intellectual insight, to describe both the strengths and the flaws of these two religions. And of course their common link: a strict, overpowering, bureaucracy. For Father Herrera and the Bishop are not unlike thousands of other aparatchiks, hungry for power and blindly following the faith.

On the other hand the Monsignor and the Mayor are a bit faithless, allowing for, in some cases thankful for, the existence of doubt. They are tolerant. And it is this tolerance that brings them together and allows their friendship to blossom. Tolerance....and a good deal of wine. In the end, of course, the bureaucrats win and both the Mayor and the Monsignor must escape.

This is one of Mr. Greene's lighter novels, lighter even than "Travels with my Aunt". The characters are relaxed, the scenes are picturesque and slow, and there is enough nice dry humor you make you laugh out loud. It's the Greene equivalent of Champagne, light, pleasant and mildly intoxicating. This compared to his other novels which are straight vodka. Highly recommend.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don Quixote and Sancho will live on, January 24, 2001

By	Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Monsignor Quixote (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)

A small-town priest (Toboso, where Don Quixote's beloved comes from) meets an Italian bishop, who promotes him to the degree of Monsignor. Before assuming his new responsibilities, he and the Marxist ex-mayor of Toboso, "Sancho" decide to take the car and travel around Spain. As they go along, they have several adventures and discuss about their respective views on religion and life. Although it is not a pretentious or "profound" novel, it touches the subjects of tolerance and, above all, the possibility of people being friends even if they have disagreements on their basic views of the world and the humankind. Or, if not friends, at least people can coexist peacefully. It really surprised me how much this book reminds me of another fine literary work -in my view, superior to this one- which constantly and funnily elaborates on this same subject: "The world of Don Camillo", by Giovanni Guareschi. This one is about a small village in post-war Italy, where Don Camillo, the local priest, and Pepone, the communist mayor, interact through the years. I have reviewed it for Amazon.com, and I think the basic conclusion if similar to that of Monsignor Quixote. Summarizing, this novel by Graham Greene is really good, not so much for the "literature" it has, but for the meaning and significance of its subject. It is a pity that few people read it. Moreover, it is yet another proof that Cervantes' masterpiece is and will remain alive, with good writers going over and over to its central characters, structure and theme.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Don and Sancho Ride Again!, July 17, 2000

By	Melvin Pena (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monsignor Quixote (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)

Graham Greene is simply fantastic. This is a novel I waited a long time to read. I actually read Cervantes' "Don Quixote" first, in the very edition Greene cites, J.M. Cohen's translation in the Penguin Classics, so that I could pay adequate respect to Greene, and the spirit of his work.

Persecuted by self-doubt at being promoted to the clerical rank of monsignor, Father Quixote, a parish priest of El Toboso, and 'Sancho' Zancas, the former mayor of the town, go for a holiday before undertaking the next phase of their lives. In a novel concerned with trying to differentiate between fact and fiction, certainty and doubt, the two must leave the shelter of comfortable, structured belief and challenge each other's resolve, as well as gauge the world's response to those beliefs. Over the course of their adventures, they drink bottle upon bottle of wine and talk about their lives and their belief systems, Catholicism and Marxism, respectively.

In "Monsignor Quixote", Greene does a marvelous job creating complex, realistic, and emotionally involving characters. His Quixote and Sancho are indeed what one might expect if Cervantes' characters had descendants living in the mid-20th century. The novel, like that of Cervantes, achieves its brilliance through dialogue, with little attention to physical descriptions, aside from what is absolutely necessary to form an image.

I do not recall the last time so short a work (it is barely over 200 pages) gave me such cause to laugh, weep, and think so deeply. Though Greene's tone may favour Catholic sentiment, it is far from orthodox, and fit for a literate and thoughtful audience. My only problem with the novel upon finishing it was that it was not much, much longer.