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The Power and the Glory
(Paperback, 1995)
Other Editions...
Author: Graham Greene
This story of bravery, cowardice, and moral decay is set in Mexico during the Calles regime of the 1...
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LIST PRICE
$14.00
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Format: Paperback
ISBN-10: 0140184996
ISBN-13: 9780140184990
Jul 1995
Publisher: Penguin USA
Reissue
Twentieth Century Classics Series |
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Details
Synopsis
This story of bravery, cowardice, and moral decay is set in Mexico during the Calles regime of the 1930s, when the practice of Christianity was violently suppressed. It portrays the heroic and doomed efforts of a priest to minister secretly to the Catholics of the region. The "whiskey priest" is one of Greene's most memorable characters: a drunkard and fornicator, he nevertheless attempts to keep the Church alive in his province and puts his life at risk in the process. He is pursued throughout the story by the Chief of Police, a Javert-like figure who is a model of decorum, human decency--and coldheartedness. Widely acclaimed as one of Greene's finest books, THE POWER AND THE GLORY was the work that first established Green's reputation as a master of the novel form.
| Details | | Series: | Twentieth Century Classics Series |
| Size | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 5.6 oz |
Publisher's Notes
First Line: "Mr. Tench went out to look for his ether cylinder: out into the blazing Mexican sun and the bleaching dust. A few buzzards looked down from the roof with shabby indifference: he wasn't carrion yet."
Industry Reviews
"In 'The Power and the Glory,' as elsewhere, Mr. Greene is extremely successful in creating a squalid and painful world. He has a palette of sour colors, a repertory of of sickening suggestions, a talent for selecting and rubbing in unpleasant details of modern civilization, such as cheap panes of stained glass, inferior dental drills, and insipid correspondence courses, that make good writing and are entirely his own. But the trouble is, it seems to me, that here he has too little to set against them. The canvas is pretty well painted, but the picture is somehow dead....Dispensing with the excitement of the mystery story, Mr. Greene has not wholly succeeded in creating the higher kind of excitement. His priest who is merely a victim, who is merely pursued and executed, does not stir us with the spiritual passion that ought to be conveyed by the life of a saint."
New Yorker - Edmund Wilson (03/23/1946)
"Mr. Greene's style is a model for economy of phrase. He is a master in the art of suspense. He seems to have the gift of understanding. Whether his character is a gringo dentist gone to seed, a brutal police lieutenant, a little boy reacting against pietist family pressure, a brave, resourceful little girl in a foreign land, or a truly humble 'whiskey priest,' it seems to make little difference. All speak for themselves convincingly; they are not easily forgotten. Graham Greene is a man to watch."
Commonweal - Edward S. Skillin (03/22/1940)
"This is a harrowing tale, but its relentless refusal of any substitute for goodness leaves the reader exultant rather than depressed and marks out its author as an imaginative critic of life."
Manchester Guardian - Marriott (03/05/1940)
"A first-rate piece of storytelling."
New York Times - F. Marsh (03/17/1940)
"Mr. Greene has told the story of a truly spiritual struggle, in the breast of a miserable sinner, who can yet do brave things, in a fashion that sets this novel of his a little above and apart from his others. Also, he has now proved himself one of the finest craftsmen of story-telling in our time."
Saturday Review - William R. Benet (03/30/1940)
"The priest in ['The Power and the Glory'] also knows that even heroes must submit to scrutiny. He has risked his life to perform his religious functions in an anti-clerical state, but he suspects that he has done it out of pride. 'I thought I was a fine fellow to have stayed when the others had gone.' The priest is Greene's most impressive character, just as ['The Power and the Glory'] is his most successful novel."
Wilson
"Superbly told. And through the prosaic details runs a thread of mysticism, of something that guns and hate cannot destroy. This book is a splendid achievement, brilliant description, tense narrative--and something else besides."
Stevenson
"It is expertly done, and the curious thing is that a purposeful flattening dramatic effect and a trick of rather artificial phrasing both seem to help rather than hinder."
Verner
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