Graham Greene: A Study Of His Major Novels

Title: Graham Greene: A Study of His Major Novels.

Type: Criticism

Author: Dr. Sunita Sinha.

Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd.

Year of Publication: 2007.

ISBN: 978-81-269-0876-9.

Price: Rs. 450.

Cover: Hard.


Dr. Sunita Sinha is an upcoming talent in the field of English Literary Criticism. Her critical writings consist, among others, %u2018Women Writers in Postwar Canadian Literature-A Critical Study%u2019, %u2018The Secret Of the Charm of W.H. Auden%u2019 in different volumes of Atlantic Literary Review and %u2018Humanism and Affirmation of Man in the Novels of Mulk Raj Anand, in Literary Perspectives- A Journal of Critical Writing in English. Before assessing Dr. Sinha%u2019s critical work, it is worthwhile to have an idea, however brief, about the writings of Greene so as to understand the difficult task that the critic had to face.

Henry Graham Greene (October 2, 1904 %u2013 April 3, 1991) was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.

Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a Catholic novelist rather than as a novelist who happened to be Catholic, Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair, and The Power and the Glory. Works such as The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana and The Human Factor also show an avid interest in the workings of international politics and espionage.

Greene suffered from bipolar disorder which had a profound effect on his writing, and drove him to excess in his personal life. In a letter to his wife Vivien, he told her that he had "a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life", and that "unfortunately, the disease is also one's material".

This, very brief, attempt to crudely summarize the genius of Greene reveals the difficult task that Sunita Sinha was up against in her critical volume. Dr. Sinha seems to embrace in her critical vision a wide range, from Dickens to T.S.Eliot, from Tolstoy to Sartre and from Baudelaire to Henry James in order to bring out the nuances of Greene. Prof. Amitava Roy, an eminent personality in the field of English Literature, inevitably puts his finger on the right place when he comments in the Foreword that %u201Cshe (Dr. Sinha) seems to have read everything worthwhile on Greene till the 1990s, and lists (and utilizes) all of the author%u2019s oeuvre: the Novel and Entertainm,ents from The Man Within (1929) to The Tenth Man (1985), The three Short Story collections, three Travel Books, Collected Essays and Letters, the four plays and the three Autobiographies (A Sort of Life, 1971; Ways of Escape, 1980; Getting to Know the General, 1984).%u201D

Dr. Sinha in exploring the themes and perspectives of Greene%u2019s major novels has, judiciously, divided the book into six chapters. The first chapter, %u2018Different Shades of Greene%u2019, brilliantly sets up the scope of the study and introduces the readers to the fundamental themes of the author %u2014 humanism, religion and morality. The critic makes it clear that Greene cannot be circumscribed only as a Catholic writer and in recovering the religious element, the awareness of the drama of the struggle in the soul carrying the infinite consequences of salvation and damnation, and of the ultimate metaphysical realities of good and evil, sin and grace, could the so-called Catholic novels recover its dramatic power. Suffering and unhappiness are omnipresent in the fallen world Greene depicts, and Catholicism is presented against a background of unvarying human evil, sin and doubt. The second chapter, %u2018The Universe of Pity%u2019 where she critically analyzes The Power and the Glory and The Heart of the Matter; the third chapter, %u2018Cult of The Sanctified Sinner%u2019, where she discusses The End of the Affair and A Burnt-Out Case and the fourth chapter, %u2018The Question of Commitment%u2019 where she highlights on The Quiet American, The Comedians and The Honorary Consul, are reflections on the efflorescence of Greene%u2019s genius as the scholar traces, in a sort of mosaic, the development of different themes in the writer%u2019s creative canon. In the last two chapters, %u2018New Motifs of Thought%u2019 and %u2018The Human Predicament%u2019, the critic looks at the universality of Greene and also posits avenues for post-structuralist studies on the author.

In exploring the perspectives of %u2018Greeneland%u2019, Dr. Sinha suggests that Catholicism's prominence decreased in the later writings. The supernatural realities that haunted the earlier work declined and was replaced with a humanistic perspective, a change reflected in his public criticism of orthodox Catholic teaching. Left-wing political critiques assumed greater importance in his novels, for example, he attacked the American policy in Vietnam in The Quiet American; the tormented believers portrayed were more likely to have faith in Communism than in Catholicism.

Unlike other "Catholic writers" such as Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Burgess, Greene's politics were always left-wing, though some biographers think politics mattered little to him. In his later years, he was a strong critic of American imperialism, and supported the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whom he had met.

It is to Dr. Sinha%u2019s credit that she has brought out, in surprisingly lucid language, the raison d'être of the Cuban genius. One of the most pleasing characteristics of the book is the fact that the author blends profound scholarship with simplicity of presentation. The volume is an easy and charming read for even a beginner on Greene. The manner in which the author reveals how Greene concentrated on portraying the characters' internal lives, the mental, emotional, and spiritual depths is simply artless. In the course of her study, Dr. Sinha also irradiates the stylistic nuances of Greene. She seems to echo Evelyn Waugh who suggested that the literary style of Graham Greene was "not a specifically literary style at all. The words are functional, devoid of sensuous attraction, of ancestry, and of independent life".

Dr. Sinha deserves kudos for her brilliant effort, considering the small compass of the book. The detailed Bibliography attached at the end will surely serve future scholars on Greene.

Graham Greene: A Study of His Major Novels,
By: Dr.Sunita Sinha, Publishers: Atlantic
Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi, 2007

This book of literary criticism is written by Dr. Sunita Sinha, who is known as a good teacher and sound critic. Graham Greene is a prolific writer who is known for his novels and short stories, though he has tried his hands at travelogue, plays and essays, and also autobiographies. Dr. Sinha has taken his novels for study and has discussed his prominent novels, such as, 'Brighton Rock' (1983), 'The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), and %u2018The End of the Affair%u2019 (1951).She has analyzed each text meticulously and tried to establish his identity as a topical writer, a political novelist, a humanist and a true Catholic. She finds Greene grappling with everything that touched the human element - de¬pression, capitalist monopolies, conflict and survival on the edge of the precipice, smuggling, spying and Anti-Americanism. As a storywriter he is remembered as the ultimate chronicler of consciousness and anxiety. Dr. Sinha finds that the major bulk of critical evaluation is directed towards his use of Catholic themes which are considered as an essential characteristic of ¬his artistic and literary expression, interpreting Catholic belief, though he does not believe in propagating any religious doctrine. In the first chapter, Different Shades of Greene, Dr. Sinha acquaints us with different facets of the writer. In the second chapter, The Universe of Pity, Dr. Sinha analyses the books, The Power and the Glory and The Heart of the Matter. Dr.Sinha reveals Greene's divided sensibility, hesitating between Catholicism and Communism and The Heart of the Matter, a study in anguish and despair. In her third chapter titled, ' Cult of the Sanctified Sinner%u2019, Greene%u2019s novels, 'The End of the Affair' and' A Bumt out Case' has been analyzed. 'The End of the Affair%u2019, establishes that adultery can lead to saint¬hood and the second novel deals with the theme of human alienation. The fourth chapter titled The Question of Commitment deals with The Quiet American, The Comedians and The Honorary Consul. Dr. Sinha finds the first novel as dilemma of a religious novel, the second as projecting a man living in a world of changing situations and the third as the questions of political commitment by men of religion. The fifth chapter is titled, New Motifs of Thought that elaborates human existence in a precarious condition dwelling on the theme of existentialism and his characters-lonely, alienated and anxious suffering. The Human Predicament is the final chapter which concludes Dr. Sinha's quest of Greene's world of probing 'man' deep into his mind and intellect and the conflict that rage therein, the 'man within' . Greene admits, "I write to justify myself- this is a world that makes the devil of him-Writing is a form of therapy". Dr. Sinha concludes, 'Greene's has brought to the literary front the modem approach for giving deep insight into human nature and suffering, especially in a world where God is dead. This exhaustive study of Dr. Sinha invites our deep appreciation and this comprehensive presentation is praiseworthy criticism.

By: Prof. G. S. Jha

Graham Greene: A Study of His Major Novels,
Dr. Sunita Sinha, Atlantic Publishers &Distributors (P)Ltd. New Delhi, 2007, Rs.450/-
The present book is a thoughtful study of the novels of Graham Greene, a sui genesis novelist of Britain. Greene brought to the literary scene a deeply distinctive and compelling quality that has undoubtedly earned him a distinguished place among Britain's most interesting and complex contemporary writers. Greene's pen has touched upon everything that touches human psyche and emotion, depression, capitalist monopolies, conflict and survival on the edge of the precipice, smuggling, spying and anti- Americanism. Ms. Sinha in the present book agrees that Greene renders the highest justice to both the men and their ideologies; and thus we can repeat the remark of Paul West that "Green is on both sides; the whisky priest's and the police lieutenant's. Both embody a discipline; both present modified extremes".
Amitava Roy's 'Foreword' to the book reads that Dr. Sinha surveys the various approaches to this (Graham Greene) compelling contemporary master's grappling with the "madness in the human situation" made at many levels and from multiple points of view; and this is the raison d' etre of her book, a treasure trove of information and insight. The very 'Foreword' reads, "Sinha systematically takes us through the various perspectives on Greene: Greene tom between Catholicism and Communism; Greene as a writer of thrillers; as a political novelist; as an existentialist exploring themes of choice, betrayal, conscience, loneliness, anxiety, absurdity, alienation; Green's relations to European philosophical thought (Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Martin Buber, Sartre) to the European and British Masters of the Novel and to the Great Tradition (Dostoevsky Tolstoy, Balzac, Zola, Fielding, Defoe, Dickens, Conrad, Henry James)." (vi-vii)
The book is divided in six chapters preceded by a scholarly preface and appended with a pruned conclusion. The Chapter 1, 'Different Shades of Greene' is the introduction to the subject matter where the author says: "Greene like Hemingway, Faulkner, Sartre, Kafka, Camus and Malraux writes out of the central human situation_ and they represent something typically modem-our situation. Their novel evokes dismay, fear, and bewilderment. They work from the centre to - the periphery, from the particular to the general. Greene has an uncanny sense of modem reality." The Chapter 2, 'The Universe of Pity' explores two novels The Power and the Glory and The Heart of the Matter. The Chapter 3, 'Cult of the Sanctified Sinner' takes up, The End of the Affair and A Bumt out case, for analysis. and the Chapter 4, 'The Question of Commitment' studies The Quiet American ,The Comedians and The Honorary Consul. The Chapter 5, 'New Motifs of Thought' analyses The Existentialist Vision and The World of Broken Trust. The Chapter 6 is the conclusion captioned as 'The human Predicament.' wherein she meets the inferences that "Greene has brought to the literary front a modem approach for giving deep insights into human nature and suffering, especially in a world, where to quote Nietzsche's phrase, 'God is dead' and it is this quality of his novels that has brought to him a unique importance as a novelist. He stands among his contemporaries as a prominent and controversial novelist whose existential vision has earned him a position among high-ranking writers." (p. 169)
Thus, Dr. Sinha%u2019s book, Graham Greene: A Study of His Major Novels, is a valuable contribution in the field of critical writings. The philosophical strains have very easily been decoded for a common reader but the equal care for serving something palatable and sublime to the serious scholar. The importance of the work turns manifold when we find that it is written on a topic which is almost virgin in Indian academia.

Prof. R.P. Singh