Graham Greene: A Study in Short Fiction (Studies in Short Fiction Series) - Hardcover

Michael, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805783423 ISBN 13: 9780805783421

Publisher: Twayne Publishers, 1992

Synopsis

Series Editors: Gary Scharnhorst, University of New Mexico and Eric Haralson, State University of New York, Stony Brook. This is the only series to provide in-depth critical introductions to major modern and contemporary short story writers worldwide. Each volume offers: a comprehensive overview of the artists short fiction-including detailed analyses of every significant story; interviews, essays, memoirs and other biographical materials -- often previously unpublished; a representative selection of critical responses; and a comprehensive primary bibliography, a selected bibliography of important criticism, a chronology of the artists life and works and an index.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Ranking among the most widely read English writers of the twentieth century, Graham Greene achieved success with novels like Brighton Rock (1938) and The End of the Affair (1951). Less attention has been devoted to his short stories, however, despite his clear mastery of that art form. In them, Greene treats the same themes--evil, irony, and ambiguity, among others--but with a greater coherence and more striking purity. The extensive travel and other personal experiences that render his novels so captivating also reflect themselves in his short fiction. One of these experiences was his treatment at the hands of bullies while he attended the Berkhamsted School, an ordeal leading Richard Kelly to view the bulk of Greene's writings as an attempt to work out the trauma of this boyhood abuse. To support his position, Kelly goes back to the uncollected stories Greene wrote as a schoolboy and then as a student at Oxford. Kelly uses these tales as a stepping stone to a thorough examination of the later short fiction, from The Basement Room (1935) to The Last Word (1990). Those readers already familiar with Greene will find Kelly's insightful links between the stories and the novels very enlightening, and novices will be able to discuss and reread Greene's works with a much greater sense of command. This, the first book-length study of Graham Greene's short fiction, will prove indispensable to anyone interested in the writer.

Edition details

• Publisher: Twayne Publishers
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0805783423
• ISBN 13: 9780805783421
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 164