The Portable Graham Greene (Penguin Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Graham Greene (Author), Philip Stratford (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2005

In a range of work including novels of literary suspense that test both their protagonists’ souls and their readers’ nerves to the breaking point, Graham Greene explored a territory located somewhere on the border between despair and faith, treachery and love. This volume includes the complete novels The Heart of the Matter and The Third Man, along with excerpts from ten other novels; short stories; selections from Greene’s memoirs and travel writings; essays on English and American literature; and public statements on issues that range from repression in the Soviet Union to torture in Northern Ireland to the paradoxical virtue of disloyalty.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Graham Greene (1904–1991) began to attract notice as a novelist in 1932 with his fourth book, Orient Express. He converted to Catholicism in 1926, a transformation that influenced several “Catholic” novels, including Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair. During World War II he worked for the British secret service in Sierra Leone; afterward he began wide-ranging travels as a journalist, reflected in such novels as The Quiet American and Travels with My Aunt. As well as his many novels, Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, two books of autobiography, two biographies, and four books for children.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 558 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (January 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143039180
• ISBN-13: 978-0143039181
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Portable Graham Greene, April 14, 2002

By 

Benjamin (Minneapolis,MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Portable Graham Greene: Revised Edition (Viking Portable Library) (Paperback)

Most authors attempt to write stories that will impress upon the reader some idea or emotion in order to bring about change. Graham Greene writes stories that, rather than impose the idea upon the reader, pull a reaction out of the reader whether he wants to react or not. The stories he tells shock the reader and cause him to question how people or a situation could possibly be as it is. Often, the reader is a little disturbed and upset after reading Greene?s stories. There seems to be no point to them, but they shake the reader and draw out his feelings.
A prime example of Greene?s shock story is ?The End of the Party.? In only a few pages Greene sketches out two young boys, and immediately the reader sympathizes and almost loves them. And then at the end of the story, when one is dead and the other is left devastated and confused, one cannot help but feel devastation and confusion right along with Peter. There is no explanation as to why such a small fright killed Francis, or why Francis? fear still beats inside Peter?s chest, and so the reader feels ?off? and disturbed, and questions the whole story looking for some trace of meaning.
Apparent in his stories is the idea that life is precious and extremely valuable. ?The Wedding Reception? makes this point very bluntly and doesn?t leave much for the reader to guess at. At the end of the story Daintry simply states, ?A man?s dead. He?s irreplaceable too.? Even though this theme doesn?t seem apparent in ?A Shocking Accident,? it is present if one considers the confusion they have at Jerome?s tearless and emotionless response to the death of his father. And then again the puzzlement they experience as Jerome and later his bride-to-be ask about the pig. To the reader the accident is so trivial and senseless, and kills Jerome?s father long before his time, leaving a wasted life behind. The reactions of the reader should cause him to think about what devalues life so in the eyes of the characters.
This theme is again apparent in The Third Man. Harry Lime is willing to illegally distribute a watered down form of penicillin that kills people so that he can have a lot of money. As I read this, Lime?s complete lack of compassion for other humans struck me as hideous. I had a hard time accepting that anyone could be so cold and evil. However, Greene was able to draw me into the scene and make Lime?s cold-heartedness believable. As a matter of fact, Greene handles such hard to believe issues quite well. There is never a sense that the story is too far out to be true. His characters are vivid and his settings are real. I was transported quickly to the worlds of his stories, and was disappointed when I had to leave.
Greene?s style is smooth, yet not simple. The reader must pay attention to what is being read or he may miss important details and key events in the story. His plots are far from shallow, and a lot of wisdom and insight can be gathered from the things he writes. However, his Christianity is very low key. There are very few allusions to God and Christianity in his writing. However, I think that this is what gives depth to his writing; he is not displaying his values in neon lights. Rather they are a part of the story in the same way that they should be a part of a person.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greene is Greene is Greene, May 22, 2010

By 

Little Tank "LT" (Metro Washington D.C., USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Portable Graham Greene (Penguin Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

It may not actually be "portable" (it's a chunky book), but it is a worthy volume of Graham Greene. Penguin does a fine job, as it often does, and if you want to get into Greene, this is a good book with which to do just that. He may be depressing for some, enlightening for others, but always fascinating and intriguing.