Greene: Collected Short Stories: 21 Stories (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) (Paperback)

by Graham Greene (Author) "It was on the eve of August Bank Holiday that the latest recruit became the leader of the Wormsley Common Gang..." (more)
Key Phrases: borrow your husband, ginger pop, dark walk, Herr Professor, Doctor Crombie, Madame Volet (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (April 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140186123
• ISBN-13: 978-0140186123
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #664,324 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Story-teller, June 3, 2004

By	Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Graham Greene just doesn't get the recognition he deserves as a short story writer. As a novelist, his reputation has been well-established, fortunately. This collection, which incorporates "Twenty-One Stories", "A Sense of Reality", and "May We Borrow Your Husband" is a fine sampler of Greene's abilities in the shorter genre. Many of the elements that feature so prominently in his novels also figure in these stories: the spontaneity of violence; ruthless polictics; looming secrets; greed; and the complex situations that life drops on you.

Here are some brief looks at my favorite stories:

"The Destructors" is Greene's examination of horrific, calculated vandalism in the extreme, made even more horrifying by the coolness with which it is carried out.

An event in a man's past comes back to haunt him in "The Blue Film". Strangely, the haunting specter doesn't frighten him so much as saddens him.

"The End of the Party" is a harrowing tale of identical twins playing hide and seek at a party. The ending paragraph left goosebumps on my skin for days.

Other stories, such as "A Shocking Accident" and "May We Borrow Your Husband" are superb examples of this great story teller's talents.

For those who have never read Graham Greene, "Collected Short Stories" ought to be your starting point.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good place to enter to Greeneland., December 23, 1998

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

The plots of these stories are real enough to keep them believable, but they are not quite a product of normal life, which makes them interesting. These stories along with most of his other works put the reader in a place that has been called Greeneland. Like Greenland it is a real place on earth but it is different from any other and few people have experienced it. These stories come from the mind of a man who traveled the world and accurately observed its inhabitants in the mid part of this century. Greene also experienced much of what he saw and his stories are not written from a disinterested point of view. His style is very often brilliant (The Blue Movie),his topics are current, and his themes are universal.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our man in greene!, May 2, 2001

By	Ariadna "whydoihavetopickone" (Buenos Aires) - See all my reviews

Although I can't recall all the details regarding this book I keep a strong sensation of pleasure when I think of it. Stories are transparent, deep and at times funny. My favorite one is "May we borrow your husband?". Here the author skillfully describes a grotesque situation in wich an homosexual couple attemps by all means to have an encounter with the flamboyant husband of a just married couple. He starts telling the story as a distant witness and as time goes by he gets unwillingly involved in the whole mise en scene. Greene has a mastery to blend irony with deep feelings and awkward situations. The result is wonderful!