Graham Greene Fictions, Faith and Authorship

by Brennan, Michael G.

• ISBN13: 9781847063380
• ISBN10: 1847063381
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-20
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This major new reconsideration of Graham Greene's writings, from the 1920s until the 1980s, focuses both on his best known novels and his less familiar works, including his short stories, plays, poetry, film scripts and reviewing, journalism and personal correspondence. It explores the major issues of Catholic faith and doubt, particularly in relation to his portrayal of secular love and physical desire, and examines the religious and secular issues and plots involving trust, betrayal, love and despair. Although Greene's female characters have often been underestimated, Brennan argues that while sometimes abstract, symbolic and two-dimensional, these figures often prove central to an understanding of the moral, personal and spiritual dilemmas of his male characters. Finally, he reveals how Greene was one of the most generically ambitious writers of the twentieth century, experimenting with established forms but also believing that the career of a successful novelist should incorporate a great diversity of other categories of writing. Offering a new and original perspective on the reading of Greene's literary works and their importance to English twentieth-century fiction, this will be of interest to anyone studying Greene.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface 1. The Writer in Search of a Career: 1923-1929 2. The Man of Letters: 1930-1935 3. The Making of a Literary Reputation: 1936-1938 4. Missionary Zeal and the Established Writer: 1939-1943 5. The Certainty of Doubt: 1944-1954 6. The Writer in Search of New Directions: 1955-1965 7. The Disguise of Tragi-Comedy: 1966-1973 8. The Self-Reflective Writer: 1974-1991 Bibliography Index