The Confidential Agent: An Entertainment (Twentieth-Century Classics) (Paperback)

by Graham Greene (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (December 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140185380
• ISBN-13: 978-0140185386
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #883,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Surprise-filled tale of a mission, July 4, 2000

By	Stephen O. Murray "Stephen O. Murray" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This quirky thriller begins in bleakness and continues through a trail of failures and deaths in a very foggy England, culminating in a parody happy ending. D., a former professor who specialized in _The Song of Roland_ and has survived imprisonment, the death of his beloved wife, and years of civil war, has been sent to contract coal by a government that is not specifially identified as the Spanish Republic beset by a civil war in which the anti-government side has the support of what is not specifically identified as Nazi Germany. He runs into L., the rebel forces' agent many times. He inspires fierce loyalty from two Englishwomen, and dodges bullets, double-crosses, a major explosion, the police, and trumped-up murder charges. There are farcical interludes at an Entrenationo (Esperanto) school and dangerous whiffs of precocious female sexuality (something of a Greene leitmotif). It is an odd book, with the multiple failures of D's mission oddly exhilirating. Some have read it as anti-Semitic. I don't think that it is, but a charge of derogating Asians could more convincingly be made.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good Greene, March 17, 2000

By	Al (Ilkley, Yorkshire) - See all my reviews

Graham Greene actually manages to come up with a reasonably happy ending, bit of a shock, but then he doesn't delve so deeply into the human mind as in some of his other books.

The story revolves around the attempt by one man to buy some coal, not much of a premise, but Greene manages to build up a fair level of tension in the story, and although the love interest side of the novel isn't that beleiveable, the emotions of the central character are brilliantly portrayed.

Not as brilliant as some of his other work, but excellent reading on train into work material.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pulpy, July 7, 1998

By A Customer

The Confidential Agent is unlike Greene's other works because it leaves the reader satisfied instead of strongly disturbed. While this makes reading it an enjoyable experience, it also makes the book not much more memorable than supermarket pulp. If you would like to see a less psychological, more action-oriented side of Graham Greene, purchace The Confidential Agent.