The Captain and the Enemy - Softcover

Graham Greene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0582060249 ISBN 13: 9780582060241

Publisher: VIKING, 1991

Synopsis

1988 Novel by Graham Greene

About this title

About the Author

Graham Greene (1904-1991), whose long life nearly spanned the length of the twentieth century, was one of its greatest novelists. Educated at Berkhamsted School and Balliol College, Oxford, he started his career as a sub-editor of The Times of London. He began to attract notice as a novelist with his fourth book, Orient Express, in 1932. In 1935, he trekked across northern Liberia, his first experience in Africa, recounted in A Journey Without Maps (1936). He converted to Catholicism in 1926, an edifying decision, and reported on religious persecution in Mexico in 1938 in The Lawless Roads, which served as a background for his famous The Power and the Glory, one of several “Catholic” novels (Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair). During the war he worked for the British secret service in Sierra Leone; afterward, he began wide-ranging travels as a journalist, which were reflected in novels such as The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Comedians, Travels with My Aunt, The Honorary Consul, The Human Factor, Monsignor Quixote, and The Captain and the Enemy. In addition to his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, two books of autobiography—A Sort of Life and Ways of Escape—two biographies, and four books for children. He also contributed hundreds of essays and film and book reviews to The Spectator and other journals, many of which appear in the late collection Reflections. Most of his novels have been filmed, including The Third Man, which the author first wrote as a film treatment. Graham Greene was named Companion of Honour and received the Order of Merit among numerous other awards.

From AudioFile

Graham Greene's last published novel offers clues to the autobiographical motifs running through Greene's long career: the horrors of prep school, the loneliness of childhood, the mysteries of basement rooms, the difficulty of finding love. Jim Baxter is removed from his school by a mysterious figure called the Captain; years later, they meet again in Noriega's Panama amid political turmoil. Kenneth Branagh reads the book effectively; his low-key characterizations are lucid and believable. The sure pacing and clarity of Branagh's delivery make one wish his talents had been applied to a richer Greene novel, rather than this slim finale to a great career. G.H. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: VIKING
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0582060249
• ISBN 13: 9780582060241
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192