Product Description

Scobie, a police officer serving in a war-time West African state, is distrusted, being scrupulously honest and immune to bribery. But then he falls in love, and in doing so he is forced to betray everything he believes in, with drastic and tragic consequences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7986 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Publisher
CENTENARY EDITION WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY JAMES WOOD

About the Author
Graham Greene was born in 1904. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Graham Greene died in April 1991. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.'

Customer Reviews

An interesting exploration of the birth of corruption
The brittle and sparse nature of Greene's writing does surprisingly well at conjuring up the heat, repression and the inner workings of law enforcement in Africa. It draws the reader into the mind of the perfectly moralistic and "right" police officer Scobie, so strongly that the reader encounters their own moral tug of war, with the boundaries between right and wrong becoming clouded with circumstance and passion. The writing, subtly and cynically, leads the reader to an intensity of indecision and frustration at the ensuing events and emotional ruin desribed. It is a gripping story, which thrives on its interwoven sub-polts and humane descriptions.

A chronicle of man's essential loneliness
William Golding called Graham Greene the ultimate chronicler of the the angst of the twentieth century human. Or something like that. 'The heart of the matter' really is that: an exploration of what lies at the heart of many of us. Scobie, bound by his honesty and sense of duty, falls in love with results which prove catastrophic. OK - that sounds a cliche, but it is the results which Greene concentrates on. He takes us through an odyssey of loneliness, guilt, terror and melancholy, presenting us with truly profound conversations between God and his creatures. The finest of his novels? Quite possibly. His reflections and comments will endure for as long as mankind is able to live.

Love, morality and Catholicism in Africa
It is the details of THOTM that stand out long after the novel has been finished- the search for war-time diamonds by sifting tons of flour on cargo ships, the sacred stamp collecting book grasped by Helen, one of the survivors of an escapee transport. Greene weaves these insights into a story of moral right and wrong, different types of love and the powers that be (whether army, police or God).
The main character, Scobie's, final loss is offset by his wife's buffoon of an admirer, Wilson, and Greene proves himself adept at both comedy and tragedy. But the main "feel" of the book is Scobie's battle between his own true feelings of love and natural morality versus the hierarchy of his police job, the events of war and his Catholic belief. Scobie's Catholicism could be exchanged for almost any religious belief and still have the same effect but the Catholic idea that all life is sacrosanct adds pathos to the climax of THOTM.
Greene grabs the reader's attention early on by ridiculing Wilson but gradually Scobie becomes a more sympathetic character and our interest in the book lies with him and Helen. Greene, however, was never happy with this novel saying- "The scales to me seem too heavily weighted, the plot overloaded, the religious scruples of Scobie too extreme" (Ways Of Escape). Nevertheless, THOTM remains one of Greene's most popular works along with The Third Man and The End Of The Affair and continues to haunt and amuse those who read it.