After reading Saul Bellow’s collected essays, I decided to turn to a better writer of essays: Graham Greene. Where I got the sense that Bellow really didn’t enjoy the essays he was writing, Graham Greene’s essays exude joy and energy. His essays on Henry James are enthusiastic and insightful. I really enjoyed “The Lost Childhood” where Greene writes about the books he loved in his youth. The range of Greene’s essays display his interests. When Greene writes about a book or a writer, there’s a sense that Greene has read deeply and understands his subject. If you’re looking for a volume of well-crafted essays, this is it. GRADE: A
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
Acknowledgements
Part 1 Personal Prologue:
The lost childhood.
Part 2 Novels and Novelists:
[1]
Henry James – the private universe
Henry James – the religious aspect
The portrait of a lady
The plays of Henry James
The dark backward – a footnote
Two friends
From feathers to iron
[2]
Fielding and Sterne
Servants of the novel
Romance in Pimlico
The young Dickens
Hans Anderson
[3]
Francois Mauriac
Bernanos, the beginner
The burden of childhood
Man made anrgy
G.K. Chesterton
Walter de la Mare’s short stories
The Saratoga trunk
Arabia Deserta
The poker-face
Ford Madox Ford
Frederick Rolfe – Edwardian inferno
Frederick Rolfe – from the devil’s side
Frederick Rolfe – a spoiled priest
Remembering Mr. Jones
The domestic background
The public life
Goats and incense
Some notes on Somerset Maughan
The town of Malgudi
Rider Haggard’s secret
Journey into success
Isis idol
The last Buchan
Edgar Wallace
Beatrix Potter
Harkaway’s Oxford
Part 3 Some characters
[1]
Poetry from limbo
An unheroic dramatist
Doctor Oates of Salamanca
Anthony a Wood
John Evelyn
Background for heroes
A hoax for Mr. Hulton
A Jacobite poet
Charles Churchill
The lover of Leeds
inside Oxford
[2]
George Darley
The Apostles intervene
Mr. Cook’s century
The explorers
“Sore bones – much headache”
Francis Parkman
Don in Mexico
[3]
Samuel Butler
The ugly act
Eric Gill
Herbert Read
The conservative
Norman Douglas
Invincible ignorance
The victor and the victim,
Simone Weil
Three priests
1 – the Oxford chaplain
2 – the paradox of a Pope
3 – eighty years on the barrack square
Three revolutionaries –
1 – the man as pure as Lucifer
2 – the Marxist heretic
3 – the spy
[4]
Portrait of a maiden lady
Film lunch
The unknown war
Great dog of Weimar
The British pig
George Moore and others
At home
Part 4 Personal postscript:
The Soupsweet Land.
George, one of the reasons I like reading essays, and especially collected essays, is for the scintillating prose. My earliest memory of reading essays were G.B. Shaw’s in school.
Prashant, Graham Greene has some of Shaw’s cleverness and wit. These essays are wonderful!
I don’t know if this collection includes any of Greene’s film criticism, but he wrote some very good movie reviews in the 1930s. One was a subsequently notorious review of a Shirley Temple movie that– at least according to Shirley’s lawyers–implied that there was a sexual element to Shirley’s “grown-up little girl” persona. It caused quite a scandal and ended up bankrupting the magazine Greene was writing for. Decades later the review could still not be reprinted.
When thinking about GG and film of course one has to mention “The Third Man” where he wrote the script – one of the most moving masterpieces.
Every time I’m in Vienna or just thinking about the city I have to think about this!
Wolf, you’re right about THE THIRD MAN being a brilliant film. Greene was a genius.
Deb, great story! Not much film criticism in this volume and nothing about Shirley Temple. But I’ll dig around and see if I can find that review. Sounds like dynamite!
Story (and review) here:
http://thecharnelhouse.org/2014/02/25/graham-greenes-infamous-review-of-wee-willie-winkie-1937-starring-shirley-temple/
Thank you, Internet!
Deb, thanks for the link! I love the Internet, too!
Good choice! I’ve read this and a bunch of Greene’s other non fiction: JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS (probably one of the least enticing travel books ever) followed by the related IN SEARCH OF A CHARACTER: TWO AFRICAN JOURNALS, A SORT OF LIFE, WAYS OF ESCAPE.
I read most of these 40 years ago! Greene is definitely way more to my taste than Bellow.
Jeff, the same with me. Saul Bellow is okay, but Greene is a great writer!
Wolf, I totally agree with your assessment. I remember when we were in Vienna insisting my wife accompany me to the Prater and ride the big Ferris wheel. Unfortunately, they weren’t offering a tour through the sewers. (This was in the mid-1970s.)
Jeff, I missed that tour of the Vienna sewers.
Can’t go wrong with Graham Green.
Rick, I remember when you wrote a wonderful review of one of Greene’s books. That energized me to read more Graham Greene.
He was great in Dances With Wolves.
Bob, ha!
He remains one of the great writers of the 20th century. I don’t think his star has fallen yet.
Patti, I plan to read more Graham Greene novels in the year ahead.
The “other” Graham Greene was in DEFIANCE on SyFy most recently. He played a very obnoxious character on the third season of LONGMIRE too.
Greene is definitely sprightlier. Ever read J.B. Priestley’s? I assume you’ve dipped into Guy Davenport, Vivian Gornick, Nora Ephron, Katha Pollitt…
Todd, I’ve read J.B. Priestley, Guy Davenport, Vivian Gornick, Nora Ephron, and Katha Pollitt. Wonderful writers!
I don’t know how, but I don’t have this and I am such a Greenian! Thanks George, off to remedy this right now!
Sergio, you’re going to enjoy Greene’s COLLECTED ESSAYS.
I am the Treasurer of the NSW Dickens Society and am writing an article on Dickens and Greene. Any contributions would be most welcome.
Cheers
Gary
Gary, if I can find some time I’d love to send you my thoughts on Dickens and Greene.