Life of Graham Greene, 1955-1991

by Sherry, Norman (Author)

• ISBN13: 9780143036135
• ISBN10: 0143036130
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-29
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

Twenty-seven years in the making, Norman Sherry’s magisterial biography of Graham Greene captures the life and character of one of the twentieth century’s most important literary figures. The final, eagerly anticipated volume follows Greene, still an agent for the British government, from pre-Revolutionary Cuba and the Belgian Congo to adulterous interludes in Capri and Antibes. Based on unparalleled access to letters, diaries, and Greene himself, this book gives us the writer at the height of his fame, in the company of such literary luminaries as T. S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, Ian Fleming, and Ernest Hemingway. With insight and eloquence, Sherry reveals Greene’s obsessions, feelings, and craft, bringing to a close what Margaret Atwood has called the definitive biography.”

Author Biography

Norman Sherry is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of Conrad-'s Eastern World, Conrad-'s Western World, Charlotte and Emily Bront+½, and Jane Austen.

Table of Contents

Finding Greene	xv
The Way It Was: 1904-1955	xxiii
PART 1 Novelist as Playwright
1 1991: Our Man Dying	3	(4)
2 His Noble Head of Hair (The Delilah Twist)	7	(4)
3 Greene on Broadway	11	(9)
4 Secrets of The Potting Shed	20	(15)
PART 2 Little Miss Lolita
5 Is It Pornography?	35	(16)
PART 3 Affairs Won
6 Love's Blind Dance	51	(10)
7 Actress in the Wings	61	(12)
PART 4 Spy Mission: More Clouseau than Bond
8 Cursing the Dragon	73	(16)
PART 5 Affairs Lost
9 I Only Have Eyes for You...and You	89	(13)
10 Lovers Come Tumbling Down	102	(11)
PART 6 From London Books to Cuban Crooks
11 Publishing Redux	113	(17)
12 Heroes and Heroines	130	(11)
13 Some Fidelistas, a Film and a Firing Squad	141	(12)
PART 7 Entering Father Damien Country
14 Another Escape Route	153	(11)
15 In Search of a Character	164	(12)
16 Down Tributaries of the River Congo: Happy Priests and a Gloomy Wanderer	176	(10)
17 The Trouble with Being Querry	186	(11)
18 Parkinson's Disease	197	(12)
PART 8 The New Master of Farce
19 Graham's Final Success in the Theatre	209	(14)
PART 9 Incessant Wanderer
20 Round the World in Forty-Five Days	223	(12)
21 I Shall Arise and Go Now	235	(12)
22 Crossing the Shadow-Line	247	(18)
PART 10 Intimations of Mortality
23 Death Is a Mole	265	(18)
PART 11 Carving Two Failures
24 A Flop of Biblical Proportions	283	(18)
25 More Naked Than the Law Allows	301	(12)
PART 12 Voodoo Doc's Republic of Fear
26 Prelude in Blood	313	(10)
27 Killing Is My Pleasure	323	(14)
PART 13 Coming Up Close to Creativity
28 Two Shades of Greene	337	(7)
29 To Haiti by Sea	344	(15)
30 The Real Mr Jones	359	(20)
PART 14 The 'Priest Thing'
31 He's Over the Wall	379	(24)
PART 15 Farewell and a Kiss
32 Bonjour la France ('Twas a Bad Year for Pigs)	403	(18)
33 Le Petit Chat	421	(24)
34 Warming Up to the Cold Scots	445	(15)
35 Confessions Near an Egyptian Shore	460	(17)
PART 16 A Weird Speech and a Zany Aunt
36 The Virtue of Disloyalty	477	(12)
37 A Strange Dottoressa	489	(18)
PART 17 A Masterpiece from the Old Fox
38 How Not to Snatch a Diplomat	507	(18)
39 'As Mystery-Laden as Life Itself'	525	(12)
40 The Ultimate Story	537	(24)
PART 18 Torrijos and Buying Bullets
41 My Pal the General	561	(13)
42 That Old Goat and the Dictator in a Hammock	574	(15)
43 Dashing Around Central America...	589	(12)
PART 19 The Girl with the Coral Harp Bracelet
44 His True Love Dies	601	(28)
PART 20 Going Out with a Bang
45 Angry Old Man	629	(13)
46 Toe to Toe with the French Mafia	642	(19)
PART 21 Windmills of Doubt
47 Sancho and the Saint	661	(21)
48 The Lamb and the Lion: What Did Greene Believe?	682	(27)
PART 22 Accolades and Black Eyes
49 Raise the Plague Flag!	709	(14)
50 Kudos in a Bundle	723	(17)
51 A Kinder, Gentler Moscow	740	(13)
52 Boxing with Burgess	753	(14)
PART 23 Final Hurrahs
53 Greene's Last Stand	767	(13)
54 Hugh and Elisabeth	780	(7)
PART 24 1991: Our Man Dead
55 Our Man Dead	787	(16)
Leaving Greene	803	(4)
Appendix 1	807	(8)
Appendix 2	815	(6)
Acknowledgments	821	(8)
Notes	829	(38)
Selected Bibliography — by David Leon Higdon, PhD, Horn Professor of Literature, Texas Tech University	867	(22)
Index	889