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The Human Factor
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This article is about the Graham Greene novel. For other uses, see The Human Factor (disambiguation).
The Human Factor
First Edition Cover
Author(s)
Graham Greene
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genre(s)
Thriller, Spy novel
Publisher
The Bodley Head
Publication date
1978
Media type
Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages
344 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN
ISBN 0370300432 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC Number
3741600
Dewey Decimal
823/.9/12
LC Classification
PZ3.G8319 Hu PR6013.R44
Preceded by
The Honorary Consul
Followed by
Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party
The Human Factor (ISBN 0-679-40992-0) is an espionage novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1978 and adapted into a 1979 film, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard.
Contents
1 Plot summary
2 Major themes
3 External links
4 References
[edit] Plot summary
Maurice Castle is an aging bureaucrat in the British secret service MI6. Married to a black African woman with whom he fell in love during his previous stint in apartheid South Africa, he now lives a quiet life in the suburbs and looks forward to retirement. As the book begins, however, a leak has been traced to the African section in London where he works and threatens to disrupt this precarious tranquility. Castle and younger colleague Davis make light of the resulting inquiry, but when Davis is accused on circumstantial evidence and quietly "disposed of", Castle begins to wrestle with questions of loyalty, morality and conscience. On the one hand, Castle undertakes his day-to-day job professionally, and is willing to do what is more than required for both Davis and Daintry, his boss. On the other hand, Castle is grateful to Carson, who, as a Communist, has helped Castle's wife escape South Africa. In return, Castle decides to help the Communists and believes that by helping them, he is helping his wife's people¡ªnot knowing that Moscow has all along been using him for entirely different purposes.
Rather than action or high politics, the novel builds its suspense by focusing on the psychological burdens of the pawns in the game: doubt and paranoia bred by a culture of secrecy, the sophisticated amorality of the men at the top, and above all, loyalties (to whom and what and at what cost?) Greene's characters are complete psychological portraits located within the context of the Cold War and the impact of international affairs on the complicated lives of individuals and vice versa. The interplay of international politics on the individual level is a trademark of this author.
[edit] Major themes
In his 1980 autobiography Ways of Escape, Greene wrote that his aim with this book was "to write a novel of espionage free from the conventional violence, which has not, in spite of James Bond, been a feature of the British Secret Service. "I wanted to present the Service unromantically as a way of life, men going daily to their office to earn their pensions." Writing in his 70s, Greene drew on his own experience in MI6 and explored the moral ambiguities raised by his old boss, legendary Soviet double agent Kim Philby, although Greene stated that Castle, the main character in the novel, was not based on Philby.
Another theme Greene explored was what he considered the hypocrisy of the West's relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though the West publicly opposed apartheid, "they simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and Communism" (from the Introduction to the 1982 edition of The Human Factor).
[edit] External links
The Human Factor at IMDB
Yahoo! Movies page of The Human Factor
The Human Factor Map
Awards Circuit
[edit] References
1992, The Human Factor, Everyman's Library, ISBN 0-679-40992-0
v
d
e
Works by Graham Greene
Novels
The Man Within (1929)
The Name of Action (1930)
Rumour at Nightfall (1932)
Stamboul Train (1932)
It's a Battlefield (1934)
England Made Me (1935)
The Bear Fell Free (1935)
A Gun for Sale (1936)
Brighton Rock (1938)
The Confidential Agent (1939)
The Power and the Glory (1940)
The Ministry of Fear (1943)
The Heart of the Matter (1948)
The Third Man (novella; 1949)
The End of the Affair (1951)
The Quiet American (1955)
Loser Takes All (1955)
Our Man in Havana (1958)
A Burnt-Out Case (1960)
The Comedians (1966)
Travels with My Aunt (1969)
The Honorary Consul (1973)
The Human Factor (1978)
Doctor Fischer of Geneva (1980)
Monsignor Quixote (1982)
The Tenth Man (1985)
The Captain and the Enemy (1988)
No Man's Land (2005)
Travel books
Journey Without Maps (1936)
The Lawless Roads (1939)
In Search of a Character: Two African Journals (1961)
Plays
The Living Room (1953)
The Potting Shed (1957)
The Complaisant Lover (1959)
Carving a Statue (1964)
The Return of A.J. Raffles (1975)
The Great Jowett (1981)
Yes and No (1983)
For Whom the Bell Chimes (1983)
Screenplays
The Future's in the Air (1937)
The New Britain (1940)
21 Days (1940)
Brighton Rock (1947)
The Fallen Idol (1948)
The Third Man (1949)
Loser Takes All (1956)
Saint Joan (1957)
Our Man in Havana (1959)
The Comedians (1967)
Short story collections
Twenty-One Stories (1954)
A Sense of Reality (1963)
May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967)
The Last Word and Other Stories (1990)
Short stories
"Proof Positive" (1930)
"The Basement Room" (1936)
"Across the Bridge" (1938)
"Alas, Poor Maling" (1940)
"The Blue Film" (1954)
"The Destructors" (1954)
"A Shocking Accident"
"The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen"
"The Last Word"
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Human_Factor&oldid=456348434"
Categories:
Novels by Graham Greene
1978 novels
Thriller novels
Spy novels
British novels adapted into films
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This page was last modified on 19 October 2011 at 13:33.
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