Graham Greene, The Human Factor

LynnDianne Beene (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
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 1978

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Spy and Espionage

Resources

In the mid 1960s, two novelists—John le Carré and Graham Greene—met for drinks, food, and conversation. Le Carré’s fiction has been compared to Joseph Conrad’s and even more to Greene’s. These writers each favor bleak portrayals of intelligence bureaucracies populated with agents who lack a moral compass or who are willing to suppress their ethics to achieve dubious ends. Greene’s and le Carré’s friendship turned sour because the two writers disagreed pointedly about Harold Adrian “Kim” Philby, perhaps the most notorious British Secret Service official turned Soviet double agent. For le Carré, Philby exemplified “the neo-Fascist instincts of a …

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4446 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "The Human Factor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13316, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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