Graham Greene: The Power and the Glory — Historical Criticism

Introduction

Historical criticism seeks to understand a literary work by examining the author's social, political, and intellectual surroundings, as well as the author's biography, life experiences, and psychological makeup. This paper applies that framework to Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory, exploring what in Greene's personal history led him to write the novel.

The Power and the Glory was published in 1940 and won the Hawthornden Prize. The work was condemned by the Vatican in 1953. Evelyn Waugh, a leading literary figure and friend of Greene, advised him that "they have taken fourteen years to write their first letter — you should take fourteen years to answer it." Greene did not outright refuse the Church's demands for revisions; he replied instead that his publisher already held the copyright, and the matter was dismissed.

Biography of Henry Graham Greene

Greene was born Henry Graham Greene on October 2, 1904, in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. He was the fourth of six children and was described as shy and sensitive in his youth, disliking sports and frequently truanting from school. During those absences he read adventure stories by authors such as Rider Haggard and R.M. Ballantyne, works that greatly influenced and shaped his later writing style.

Greene's school years were troubled largely because he was tormented by classmates for being the headmaster's son. He repeatedly attempted suicide and one day left school never to return. He wrote to his parents explaining that he did not wish to go back, and they sent him to London to see a therapist at the age of fifteen. His analyst, Kenneth Richmond, encouraged Greene's writing and introduced him to a literary circle that included Walter de la Mare, a noted poet of the day.

Awards and Works of Greene

Greene won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Critical/Biographical Study in 1990 for Volume I of The World of Graham Greene. He studied modern history at Balliol College, Oxford, and later wrote that he spent those university years in a state of drunkenness and chronic debt. Nevertheless, it was during that period — as he records in his autobiography — that he served as editor of The Oxford Outlook, gaining significant editorial experience.

Greene's interest in politics developed after he joined the Communist Party, which he maintained was more for amusement than for any principled belief. Before graduating he wrote a novel titled "Anthony Sant" to hone his skills. He graduated with a B.A. in 1925 and found employment as a sub-editor at the Nottingham Journal. His novel Brighton Rock reflects his distaste for Nottingham's seedier character.

He met Vivien Dayrell-Browning when she wrote to him pointing out errors regarding the Catholic faith in his writings. On her suggestion he received instruction in Catholicism and was received into the Catholic Church in 1926. He next worked as a sub-editor at The Times in London. In 1927 he married Vivien, and the couple had a daughter, Lucy Caroline, and a son, Francis. Around the time of his children's births, Greene wrote a novel titled "The Episode," which publishers rejected; he eventually succeeded in publishing The Man Within, which sold well enough that he left his employment to write full time. The Man Within portrayed its narrator as a pathological liar, a hater of Jews, a philanderer, and a political agitator.

Greene's wartime service with the British Secret Intelligence Service during World War II provided him with the subject matter for works involving political intrigue, including The Ministry of Fear (1943), The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Comedians (1969), and The Honorary Consul (1973).

Greene is regarded as one of the most widely read and most controversial authors of the twentieth century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature on multiple occasions, but the violent and religious themes of his work are generally cited as the reason he was never awarded that honor.

Conclusion

Greene was not disconcerted by the view of the Church and simply remarked that he did not own the copyright and therefore could do nothing to change what was already written. The following passage from the novel is particularly poignant; after reading about Greene's own life, one can just as easily imagine these words arising from within Greene himself as from within the mind of his nameless priest:

"What a fool he had been to think that he was strong enough to stay when others fled. What an impossible fellow I am, he thought, and how useless… He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all. It seemed to him at that moment that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint. It would only have needed a little self-restraint and a little courage. He felt like someone who had missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place. He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted — to be a saint."

After writing this powerful and controversial work — in which he explored his deepest spiritual self — Greene went on to produce other, less contentious novels. He lived until 1991, passing away peacefully at his home in Vevey, Switzerland.