Most Popular Books by Graham Greene

Meticulously chosen and engagingly annotated, this selection of letters many of them seen here for the first time gives an entirely new perspective on a life that combined literary achievement, political action, espionage, exotic travel and romantic entanglement. In several letters, the individuals, events or places described provide the inspiration for characters, episodes or locations found in his later fiction. The correspondence describes his travels in Mexico, Africa, Malaya, Vietnam, Haiti, Cuba, Sierra Leone, Liberia and other trouble spots, where he observed the struggles of victims and victors with a compassionate and truthful eye. The volume includes a vast number of unpublished letters to authors Evelyn Waugh, Auberon Waugh, Anthony Powell, Edith Sitwell, R.K. Narayan and Muriel Spark, and to other more notorious individuals such as the double-agent Kim Philby.

A tormented, alcoholic priest is pursued by an idealistic lieutenant during an anti-clerical persecution in Mexico.

The “strikingly original” debut novel by the masterful British author is “a perfect adventure” of love and smuggling on the English coast (The Nation). Francis Andrews is a reluctant smuggler living in the shadow of his brutish father’s legacy. To exorcise the ghosts of the man he loathes, Andrews betrays his colleagues to authorities and takes flight across the downs. It’s here that he stumbles upon the isolated cottage of a beguiling stranger named Elizabeth—an empathetic young woman who is just as lonely, every bit the outsider as he, and reconciling a troubling past of her own. Andrews, a man on the run from those he exposed, believes he’s found refuge and salvation. But when Elizabeth encourages him to return to the courts of Lewes and give evidence against his accomplices, the treacherous and deadly repercussions may be beyond their control. “The ultimate strengths of [Graham] Greene’s books is that he shows us the hazards of compassion,” a theme that would find its earliest expression in The Man Within, his first published novel (Pico Iyer).

Maurice Castle is a high-level operative in the British secret service during the Cold War. He is deeply in love with his African wife, who escaped apartheid South Africa with the help of his communist friend. Despite his misgivings, Castle decides to act as a double agent, passing information to the Soviets to help his in-laws in South Africa. In order to evade detection, he allows his assistant to be wrongly identified as the source of the leaks. But when suspicions remain, Castle is forced to make an even more excruciating sacrifice to save himself. Originally published in 1978, The Human Factor is an exciting novel of espionage drawn from Greene’s own experiences in MI6 during World War II, and ultimately a deeply humanistic examination of the very nature of loyalty. This edition features a new introduction by Colm Tóibín. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

During World War II a group of men is held prisoner by the Germans, who determine that three of them must die. This is the story of how one of those men trades his wealth for his life--and lives to pay for his act in utterly unexpected ways.

After a man is almost killed in a bombing raid, the married woman with whom he has been having an affair breaks away from him.

An assistant police commissioner in a West African coastal town lets passion overrule his honor

Relates the story of the politically motivated kidnapping of Charlie Fortnum, a minor British functionary in Argentina.

A collection of four stories comprising ` Under The Garden'' (A short novel); `A Visit to the Morin''; Dream of a Strange Land'' and `A Discovery in the Woods''. In these four stories Graham Greene, one of the master of modern English fiction, has allowed himself the liberty of fantasy, myth, legend and dream. The results are, quite simply, superb.

When Graham Greene died in 1991, at the age of 86, his reputation as a great Catholic writer was assured. His books reflected an awareness of sin and confronted discomfiting themes with a sombre eye. The British Catholic journal The Tablet provided Greene with a forum for both his works-in-progress and his sometimes unorthodox religious views. For the first time, Graham Greenes Tablet contributions are collected in one volume. Much of the journalism has not been seen for fifty years.

Discover Graham Greene’s blackly comic and timely espionage thriller, set amid the vice and squalor of pre-revolutionary Havana. ‘British Intelligence being sent up something rotten’ Daily Telegraph Wormold is a vacuum cleaner salesman in a city of power cuts. His adolescent daughter spends his money with a skill that amazes him, so when a mysterious Englishman offers him an extra income he''s tempted. In return all he has to do is carry out a little espionage and file a few reports. But when his fake reports start coming true, things suddenly get more complicated and Havana becomes a threatening place. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

A famous architect struggling with a crisis of faith escapes to a leper colony in the Congo, in Graham Greene’s “greatest novel” (Time). Querry is a world-renowned architect noted for his magnificent churches, each designed not for the glory of God, but for the satisfaction of self. Suddenly infected with indifference, he has abandoned his pursuit of pleasure. Now he has reached the end of desire at the end of the world—a colony of lepers in the remote jungles of Africa. Here, under the guidance of Doctor Colin, a fellow atheist, Querry’s consideration of the sick could be something close to a cure for his own suffering. So too, it first seems, could a local plantation owner’s lonely and abused wife—Querry’s unlikely confessor. But when Querry reluctantly agrees to build a hospital and his good intentions brand him a modern-day saint, all the intrusive and dangerous piety of civilization returns. And this time it could be inescapable. From “the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man’s consciousness and anxiety” comes Graham Greene’s celebrated novel about the consequences of conviction, the sickness of the soul, and the tenuous endurance of the human spirit (William Golding).

The detective, Mather, searches for a professional assassin, who unknowingly has kidnapped Mather''s fiancee

The story of Fowler, the world-weary British journalist, and Pyle, the idealistic and naive "quiet American" who blindly applies his academic theories to a political situation in Vietnam which he doesn''t quite grasp.

Victor Baxter is a young boy when a secretive stranger known simply as “the Captain” takes him from his boarding school to live in London. Victor becomes the surrogate son and companion of a woman named Liza, who renames him “Jim” and depends on him for any news about the world outside their door. Raised in these odd yet touching circumstances, Jim is never quite sure of Liza’s relationship to the Captain, who is often away on mysterious errands. It is not until Jim reaches manhood that he confronts the Captain and learns the shocking truth about the man, his allegiances, and the nature of love. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by John Auchard. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

This noir classic by the “superb storyteller” is the basis for the movie named the best British film of all time by the British Film Institute (The New York Times). Almost-broke pulp author Rollo Martins sets out for Vienna after receiving an invitation from his old friend Harry Lime, who might have a financial opportunity for him. But when he arrives, he’s shocked to learn that Lime is dead in what appeared to be an accident—and that his pal had been under investigation for racketeering. That raises questions some questions for Martins, so he starts combing the postwar ruins of the Austrian capital to find out for himself what happened to Harry Lime . . . The Third Man is one of the best-known works by Graham Greene, author of The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, and The End of the Affair—famed for his complex, philosophical novels, and compelling tales of crime, espionage, and suspense. “The most ingenious, inventive and exciting of our novelists . . . A master of storytelling.” —V. S. Pritchett, The Times (London) “Greene had wit and grace . . . and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature.” —John LeCarre “In a class by himself.” —William Golding An enormously popular writer who was also one of the most significant novelists of his time.” —Newsweek

Strangers in Port-au-Prince are united in the corruption, fear, and revolt of Duvalier-era Haiti in “the most interesting novel of [Greene’s] career” (The Nation). Haiti, under the rule of Papa Doc and his menacing paramilitary, the Tontons Macoute, has long been abandoned by tourists. Now it is home to corrupt capitalists, foreign ambassadors and their lonely wives—and a small group of enterprising strangers rocking into port on the Dutch cargo ship, Medea: a well-meaning pair of Americans claiming to bring vegetarianism to the natives; a former jungle fighter in World War II Burma and current confidence man; and an English hotelier returning home to the Trianon, an unsalable shell of an establishment on the hills above the capital. Each is embroiled in a charade. But when they’re unsuspectingly bound together in this nightmare republic of squalid poverty, torrid love affairs, and impending violence, their masks will be stripped away. “While Mr. Greene . . . specialized in chronicling the moral and political murkiness he encountered in the third world . . . nowhere did he produce a more topical or damning work of fiction than [in The Comedians]” (The New York Times). Banned in Haiti, and condemned by Papa Doc Duvalier, it was adapted by Greene into a 1967 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

In Greene’s “magnificent tour-de-force among tales of international intrigue,” rival agents engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse in prewar England (The New York Times). D., a widowed professor of Romance literature, has arrived in Dover on a peaceful yet important mission. He’s to negotiate a contract to buy coal for his country, one torn by civil war. With it, there’s a chance to defeat fascist influences. Without it, the loyalists will fail. When D. strikes up a romantic acquaintance with the estranged but solicitous daughter of a powerful coal-mining magnate, everything appears to be in his favor—if not for a counteragent who has come to England with the intent of sabotaging every move he makes. Accused of forgery and theft, and roped into a charge of murder, D. becomes a hunted man, hemmed in at every turn by an ever-tightening net of intrigue and double cross, with no one left to trust but himself. Written during the height of the Spanish Civil War, Graham Greene’s “exciting . . . kaleidoscopic affair” was the basis for the classic 1945 thriller starring Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall (The Sunday Times).

This autobiographical essay is a sequel to "A Sort of Life". It describes the conception, the writing and the publishing of each of Greene''s books - interspersed with accounts of his travels in Kenya and Vietnam, and the portraits of a few of his closest friends.

Greene''s account of a five year personal involvement with Omar Torrijos, ruler of Panama from 1968-81 and Sergeant Chuchu, one of the few men in the National Guard whom the General trusted completely. It is a fascinating tribute to an inspirational politician in the vital period of his country''s history, and to an unusual and enduring friendship.

A master of twentieth century fiction, Graham Greene looks back on his life. This volume also includes several key interviews from throughout his long, fruitful career. Graham Greene led one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century. The son of a Hertfordshire headmaster, he quickly discovered a love for writing, beginning a career that would last a lifetime. Greene''s fascination with global politics took him around the world, to places that would become the settings for many of his most famous novels: Mexico (The Power and the Glory), Sierra Leone (The Heart of the Matter), and Haiti (The Comedians) - among dozens of other far-flung locations. He produced masterpieces throughout his life, many of which now stand as indisputably canonical: Brighton Rock, The End of the Affair, and The Quiet American to name but a few.

Arthur Rowe, on an aimless afternoon stroll through wartime London, drops into a charity bazaar, has his fortune told, guesses the weight of a prize cake, and finds himself groping his way down the obscure and unmarked corridors of the Ministry of Fear. As it happens, Mr. Rowe has for some time been incapable of being frightened, and the Ministry staff has shown bad judgment in admitting him. It is their only diplomatic blunder, and it proves to be fatal.

Kriminalroman. En kærlighedshistorie udspiller sig i toget, mellem hvis passagerer også er en morder på flugt og en politisk flygtning i livsfare

"It''s a Battlefield is both a suspense story and a serious novel, tense and probing. The keynote is set in a quotation from Kinglake at the beginning of the volume: ''In so far as the battlefield presented itself to the bare eyesight of men, it...was made up of nothing except small numberless circlets...each separate gathering...went on fighting it''s own little battle in a happy and advantageous ignorance of the general state of the action....'' these ''circlets'' began with the killing of a policeman at a political rally in Hyde Park. Drover, a bus driver with Communist leanings, had struck the blow when he thought the policeman was going to injure his wife. The Minister would like to grant a reprieve, but thousands of laborers were on the verge of a crippling strike; a reprieve would indicate weakness on the part of the Minister. On the other hand, if Drover were executed and the workers retaliated it would cost the country millions of pounds -- and the Minister would probably lose the next election. Then in one way or another Drover''s family and dozens of figures on the outside became involved in the drama; in one way or another each life was changed."--

"A Catholic tours Mexico and finds little to his liking, and plenty to condemn. The anti-Catholic movements have prejudiced him in advance, and he travels down from Texas, with a chip on his shoulder, looking for things to criticize. He succeeds in getting plenty to feed his distaste and he pours it all forth in this volume, -- places, people, travel accommodation, scenery, food, lodgings -- he was acutely miserable throughout. Stringent antidote to usual enthusiasm for Mexico and things Mexican. Particular market -- the Catholics who want food for their wrath."--Kirkus

Pinkie, a boy gangster in pre-war Brighton, is a Catholic dedicated to evil and damnation. In a dark setting of double crossing and razor slashes, his ambition and hatreds are horribly fulfilled, until Ida determines to convict him for murder.

His mind crowded with vivid images of Africa, Graham Greene set off in 1935 to discover Liberia, a remote and unfamiliar republic founded for released slaves. Now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, "Journey Without Maps" is the spellbinding record of Greenes journey. Crossing the red-clay terrain from Sierra Leone to the coast of Grand Bassa with a chain of porters, he came to know one of the few areas of Africa untouched by colonization. Western civilization had not yet impinged on either the human psyche or the social structure, and neither poverty, disease, nor hunger seemed able to quell the native spirit. BACKCOVER: One of the best travel books [of the twentieth] century. Norman Sherry "Journey Without Maps" and "The Lawless Roads" reveal Greenes ravening spiritual hunger, a desperate need to touch rock bottom within the self and in the humanly created world. "The Times Higher Education Supplement"

A collection of ten stories, the first written in 1923 and the last in 1988. These will be arranged in chronological order reversed and there will be a short preface by the author. These stories have been previously published in a selection of magazines and newspapers (the two most recently in the ''Independent'').