The Heart of the Matter / Orient Express / A Burnt Out Case / The Third Man / The Quiet American / Loser Takes All / The Power and the Glory

by Graham Greene

The Heart of the Matter ; Orient Express ; A Burnt-out Case ; The Third Man ; The Quiet American ; Loser Takes All ; The Power and the Glory

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Henry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.
Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. The Power and the Glory won the 1941 Hawthornden Prize and The Heart of the Matter won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Best of the James Tait Black. Greene was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. Several of his stories have been filmed, some more than once, and he collaborated with filmmaker Carol Reed on The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949).
He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivienne Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He died in 1991, aged 86, of leukemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery in Switzerland. William Golding called Greene "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety".

Reviews

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene Grandiose chef d'oeuvre, one of my absolute favorites This masterpiece raises so many meaningful, fundamental issues that I am somewhat overwhelmed. There are many layers to it and that is probably the case with all majestic works. At the first, easy level, the story is wonderful and it might be that which has captured all my attention the first time I have read the book. It offers multiple pleasures. One of which is that the new reading strategy pays off so well. I still intend to read new works, but there have been many misfires in the past few years. So it is reassuring to rediscover classic works like this one. Graham Greene was a catholic author, like Flannery O'Connors, another favorite of mine. Seeing what marvelous novels have come out from under his pen and that of another believer makes me think again about God. God might be the main personage of this excellent work and that of all the others that I know by Greene. Although, on second thought, Our Man in Havana and Travels with My Aunt might not include Him at the center. Scobie , deputy commissioner in one of the British colonies is the terrestrial hero. However, God is towering over him, his wife Louise and determines the course of the action. A priest says that major Scobie may have loved only God. He cares for his wife, but I don't think that he really loves her. Having said that I again feel the need to amend it, if not altogether contradict it and myself. As I stated from the beginning of the note, this is a complex, intriguing book that escapes me at some levels. If Scobie doesn't love his spouse, then who can claim that he loves anyone. Because in order to make her happy he commits all kinds of brave acts that go against his religion and make him compromise with the law. And he has always been an honest man and incorruptible policeman. He falls in love with another, much younger woman, Helen, that I prefer to the other female character. But even here, I don't get it...why doesn't he go away with her? And we go back to the main personage... God, almighty, all knowing. As a catholic, he could not marry again. Scobie, or Henry, or Ticky as his wife keeps calling him, in spite of the fact that he loathes the nickname, is thirty years older than Helen, who had just been through an ordeal. We have here a classic conflict between Passion and Rationality. Scobie is torn apart and caught in the middle of conflicting passion for Helen, duty towards God and Louise, not to mention his duty as an important policeman. Nathaniel Branden is of the opinion that religion has a terribly negative impact on believers and the fate of Henry Scobie appears to support the claim made in the book Psychological Effects of Religion . As an ironical twist, or maybe a sign of God, I am now reading 24 Heures dans la Vie d'une Femme The plot here appears to be the opposite of The one from The Heart of the Matter. Grandiose masterpiece!

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book strikes me as one that people can write great literary analyses of, not because it's old and stodgy and has been classified as a classic perfect for 6th graders, a la The Red Pony but because it's got the sort of action and complex characters that lend themselves to being written about. It wasn't always a page turner, for sure, since it's about one honest man's descent into lies and corruption, and personally I liked Scobie and wasn't always in the mood to witness his self-destruction, but I could never keep away from it for long.

One reason for that is Graham Greene's beautiful writing style and prose. I was listening to this book, and if it weren't for needing to get away from the depressing themes, I could have listened all day just for the language. It is generally clear, simple language, but I was always amazed at how he used it to tell the story so well, and there were times when his word choice was absolutely stunning to me. I'd repeat lines over and over in my head, only to miss the next few things being said.

I don't usually give a nod to the reader, but I have to give Michael Kitchen credit for an excellent reading as well. It's saying something that I remember his name at all without having the cd case in front of me. I wish more readers could be like him, natural and with just enough emotion rather than dramatic and with squeaky female voices.

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heart of the Matter 3/5
Stamboul Train 3/5
A Burnt-out Case 5/5
The Third Man 4/5
The Quiet American 4/5
Loser Takes All 3/5
The Power & the Glory 3/5 (must admit I cannot recall reading this at all, so will reread one of these days).

Overall 4/5.

[Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Third Man:

Broken postwar Vienna is translocated to a cold and barren winter in the heart of Greeneland in this short, pithy novella, a rare example of the book and the movie being equally great. I only knock a star off due to the occasional clumsiness of the first-person narrative device. Sometimes it confuses, and Greene frequently falls into the trap of allowing Calloway to provide far more detail than he could possibly know about situations he is relating secondhand. But even an imperfect Greene is better than most writers' best. He remains, for me, the master.

[penelopewanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually I'm not sure if this is my book or not.. I'm actually only reading The Third Man, but I happen to have it in a collection of Graham Greene novels. As there's no photo shown here and I don't have the book in front of me, I can't say if this is my collection or not.

Looks like it might be the right one. I had picked this up a long time ago and couldn't get into it. This time I had less difficulty reading it, but I must say, my memory of the film is much better than the book. We'll try this with my Matura class, and see if they can relate- at anyrate lots to discuss about the state of Europe (and Vienna) just after the war.

[Twonko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stamboul Train is one of my favourite novels and I just re-read it. Again. G Greene conjures up an image of bleak inter-war Europe just like Steinbeck does with the US-Mexican border. You can feel the cold in one and the sun in the other. Fantastic.

[Beth Shields-Szostak]

BOMC edition