Graham Greene's masterpiece The Heart of the Matter tells the story of a good man enmeshed in love, intrigue, and evil in a West African coastal town. Scobie is bound by strict integrity to his role as assistant police commissioner and by severe responsibility to his wife, Louise, for whom he cares with a fatal pity.
When Scobie falls in love with the young widow Helen, he finds vital passion again yielding to pity, integrity giving way to deceit and dishonor—a vortex leading directly to murder. As Scobie's world crumbles, his personal crisis makes for a novel that is suspenseful, fascinating, and, finally, tragic.
Originally published in 1948, The Heart of the Matter is the unforgettable portrait of one man, flawed yet heroic, destroyed and redeemed by a terrible conflict of passion and faith.
Review
''No serious writer of this century has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination as did Graham Greene.'' -- Time
''Greene had the sharpest eyes for trouble, the finest nose for human weaknesses, and was pitilessly honest in his observations . . . For experience of a whole century he was the man within.'' --Independent
''Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature.'' -- John le Carre'
''Graham Greene was in a class by himself . . . He will be read and remembered as the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety.'' --William Golding
''A superb storyteller with a gift for provoking controversy.'' -- New York Times
''Joseph Porter's gritty-voiced narration gives the story the perfect measure of world-weary angst.'' --Library Journal
From the Inside Flap
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 is forced to betray everything he believes in, with tragic consequences.
Description:
Graham Greene's masterpiece The Heart of the Matter tells the story of a good man enmeshed in love, intrigue, and evil in a West African coastal town. Scobie is bound by strict integrity to his role as assistant police commissioner and by severe responsibility to his wife, Louise, for whom he cares with a fatal pity.
When Scobie falls in love with the young widow Helen, he finds vital passion again yielding to pity, integrity giving way to deceit and dishonor—a vortex leading directly to murder. As Scobie's world crumbles, his personal crisis makes for a novel that is suspenseful, fascinating, and, finally, tragic.
Originally published in 1948, The Heart of the Matter is the unforgettable portrait of one man, flawed yet heroic, destroyed and redeemed by a terrible conflict of passion and faith.
Review
''No serious writer of this century has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination as did Graham Greene.'' -- Time
''Greene had the sharpest eyes for trouble, the finest nose for human weaknesses, and was pitilessly honest in his observations . . . For experience of a whole century he was the man within.'' --Independent
''Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature.'' -- John le Carre'
''Graham Greene was in a class by himself . . . He will be read and remembered as the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety.'' --William Golding
''A literary 'event' . . . [A] profoundly reverent book.'' -- Evelyn Waugh
''A superb storyteller with a gift for provoking controversy.'' -- New York Times
''Joseph Porter's gritty-voiced narration gives the story the perfect measure of world-weary angst.'' --Library Journal
From the Inside Flap
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 is forced to betray everything he believes in, with tragic consequences.