Graham Greene, Stamboul Train

LynnDianne Beene (University of New Mexico)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1929

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

In Ways of Escape, Graham Greene (1904-1991) wrote that in “1931, for the first and last time in my life I deliberately set out to write a book to please” (26). That novel, Stamboul Train (U. S. title Orient Express, 1933), launched what Greene termed his “entertainments”, heavily plotted novels that depend on suspense, bathos, espionage, crime, and betrayal. The entertainments were written in short, cinematic episodes that suggest Greene’s hope the books would be both bestsellers and profitable movies. Like Greene’s more serious work, Stamboul’s often self-destructive characters inhabit a world of seedy locales in which evil is an ever present force. The …

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4322 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "Stamboul Train". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 March 2023 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13300, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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