Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt

Patrick Early (British Council)

Ed. by Peter Childs, Birmingham Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1969

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Graham Greene’s religious novels

The Power and the Glory

(1940),

The Heart of the Matter

(1948), and

The End of the Affair

(1951) deal with tragic themes. In these works, Greene uses Roman Catholic moral teaching as an unyielding framework against which human beings twist and turn like flies caught in a spider’s web. There are unresolvable tensions between the demands of God and our human loves and desires. The adulterer Scobie in the

Heart of the Matter

is guilty of mortal sin and risks eternal damnation, yet he cannot change his feelings or behaviour. How can the Roman Catholic rule-book be compatible with Christian compassion or mere secular common sense? These fictions raise the question of the goodness of God, indeed of his very existence. Greene’s doubt-ridden characters…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1616 words

Citation: Early, Patrick. "Travels with My Aunt". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39068, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Graham Greene, Travels with My Aunt

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback