Henry Graham Greene
(1904-1991)

Henry Graham Greene, English novelist and playwright. Although most of his works combine elements of the detective story, the spy thriller, and the psychological drama, his novels are essentially parables of the damned.

Greene's heroes realize their sins and achieve salvation only through great pain and soul-searching agony. A Roman Catholic convert, he was intensely concerned with the moral problems of humans in relation to God.

Some of his novels have been ranked as thrillers, and Greene himself called such works as

• Stamboul Train (1932; U.S. title, Orient Express) and
• The Ministry of Fear (1943)

• Brighton Rock (1938),
• The Power and the Glory (1940),
• The Heart of the Matter (1948), and
• The End of the Affair (1951),

• The Quiet American (1955) a prescient account of early American involvement in Vietnam;
• Our Man in Havana (1958), set in Cuba;
• A Burnt-Out Case (1961), in the Belgian Congo just before its independence;
• The Comedians (1966), in Franзois Duvalier's Haiti; and
• The Captain and the Enemy (1980), in Panama.

His fine sense of comedy is displayed in the short-story collection

• May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967) and the novel
• Travels with My Aunt (1969).

Greene also wrote several plays, including

• The Living Room (1953) and
• The Potting Shed (1957),

• The Complaisant Lover (1959), a witty and intelligent play about marriage and infidelity.

He is also noted for his short stories, essays, film criticism, and film scripts, including the mystery melodrama

• The Third Man (1950).