The Captain and the Enemy

by Graham Greene

Overview

Greene's last novel, a lonely boarding-school student encounters a secretive stranger who introduces himself simply as "the Captain". The boy is taken to London by the stranger and raised in odd and touching circumstances by Liza, a young woman with close but unexplained ties to the Captain. It is only when the boy grows to manhood that he will learn the shocking truth about the Captain's allegiances and activities, and will begin to understand the true nature of love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140188554
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/28/1999
Series:	Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin Series
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Graham Greene (1904-1991), whose long life nearly spanned the length of the twentieth century, was one of its greatest novelists. Educated at Berkhamsted School and Balliol College, Oxford, he started his career as a sub-editor of The Times of London. He began to attract notice as a novelist with his fourth book, Orient Express, in 1932. In 1935, he trekked across northern Liberia, his first experience in Africa, recounted in A Journey Without Maps (1936). He converted to Catholicism in 1926, an edifying decision, and reported on religious persecution in Mexico in 1938 in The Lawless Roads, which served as a background for his famous The Power and the Glory, one of several “Catholic” novels (Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair). During the war he worked for the British secret service in Sierra Leone; afterward, he began wide-ranging travels as a journalist, which were reflected in novels such as The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, The Comedians, Travels with My Aunt, The Honorary Consul, The Human Factor, Monsignor Quixote, and The Captain and the Enemy. In addition to his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, two books of autobiography—A Sort of Life and Ways of Escape—two biographies, and four books for children. He also contributed hundreds of essays and film and book reviews to The Spectator and other journals, many of which appear in the late collection Reflections. Most of his novels have been filmed, including The Third Man, which the author first wrote as a film treatment. Graham Greene was named Companion of Honour and received the Order of Merit among numerous other awards.

John Auchard is a professor of English at the University of Maryland at College Park, and the editor of The Portable Henry James.

Date of Birth:

October 2, 1904

Date of Death:

April 3, 1991

Place of Birth:

Berkhamsted, England

Place of Death:

Vevey, Switzerland

Education:

Balliol College, Oxford

Editorial Reviews

Exquisitely understated, moving and graced by humorous touches, Greene's new novel draws the reader into intriguing events related by narrator Victor Baxter. Now age 28, he tells of his 12th birthday when a stranger, ``The Captain,'' takes him from school on an outing from which he never returns. The man says he won Victor from ``the Devil, your father,'' and brings him to live in a drab London flat with Liza, who has lost a child. It's all right with the boy; his mother is dead and Baxter Sr. doesn't want him. He obeys the Captain's wishes to change his name to Jim and become Liza's son. Life with substitute parents is interrupted by the Captain's frequent absences on ``jobs'' that bring detectives to question the little family about money the Captain has sent them, but he remains free to pursue his suspicious enterprises. After many years, during a time when the adventurer has been on a secret operation in Panama, a letter arrives asking Liza to join him. Jim goes instead, however, for reasons he doesn't explain to the Captain, now known as Smith. A sly American called Quigly and others are dangerously interested in father and son. There is a shocking end to the story, whose core, revealed gradually through layers of mystery, speculates on the nature of love and the omnipotence of ``the enemy,'' and has an unexpected connection to contemporary events. 40,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo; BOMC alternate. (October)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly