Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Graham Greene
-
Standard Name: Greene, Graham
Birth Name: Henry Graham Greene
An English novelist of exceptional energy, Graham Greene
built a career spanning a dozen genres—most notably more than twenty novels or thrillers, as well as short stories, film reviews, travel books, plays, screenplays, and autobiography. Many of his novels wrestle with issues of belief. His personal correspondence included thousands of letters, and for much of his life he reported as a spy to the British Secret Intelligence Service
. His restlessness drew him to dangerous places, adulterous relationships, self-harm, and a belief, infusing his pages, that a focus on squalor makes for an honest portrayal of the world.
She was assisted during her illness (at the behest of Derek Stanford
)
Stannard, Martin. Muriel Spark. The Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
161
by many friends, and treated without fees by her doctor, also an old friend. Throughout her convalescence she was supported by...
Material Conditions of Writing
Muriel Spark
MS
began her career as a novelist in illness and under financial stress. In 1954, Macmillan
, who were looking for promising new writers, invited her to write a novel. Although ill and unable to...
Stannard, Martin. Muriel Spark. The Biography. Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
164
She finished writing in late 1955, but then hit a snag: Macmillan
developed cold feet about its being difficult. During this hiatus the proofs...
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
This novel was chosen a Book Society
recommendation (of which between six and ten were selected per month); it was not the choice of the month, since the panel felt it was too morbid—deeply...
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
Graham Greene
wrote to tell Spark that this was her best book since Memento Mori (as he was to do with several later titles as well).
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene. A Life in Letters. Editor Greene, Richard, Alfred A. Knopf.
309-10
Reviews were mixed, many sounding baffled. While admirers...
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
Graham Greene
offered the same accolade as for her previous novel, recognizing its disappointing reception with: What fools the reviewers have been.
Greene, Graham. Graham Greene. A Life in Letters. Editor Greene, Richard, Alfred A. Knopf.
317
A. S. Byatt
admired the mocking and sinister games played by the...
Textual Production
Zadie Smith
ZS
excels at what could be called appreciation pieces. She published a hyperbolic and loving eulogy on the recently dead Katharine Hepburn
in 2003, and a fine assessment of Graham Greene
for his centenary in...
Within Sayers's lifetime she had become a figure of controversy on account of the element of Christian partisanship in her non-fictional works. In The Emperor's Clothes, 1953, Kathleen Nott
bracketed Sayers with T. S. Eliot
Intertextuality and Influence
Bernice Rubens
BR
's novel The Ponsonby Post, about an English diplomat in Java, seems to set foot in Graham Greene
territory.
British Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons.
1982
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
207
Occupation
Naomi Royde-Smith
She covered drama criticism for two years, but remained literary editor for a decade.
Eliot, T. S. The Letters of T.S. Eliot. Editor Eliot, Valerie, Faber and Faber.
1: 149n1
Mary Agnes Hamilton
wrote later: she was a wonderful editor, whose discoveries were endless.
Hamilton, Mary Agnes. Remembering My Good Friends. Jonathan Cape.
137
Her list of...
Literary responses
Kathleen Raine
Graham Greene
responded to this book with what he called an enthusiastic if ignorant howl. Though he had already seen and admired some of her poems, he wrote, he had not realised the quantity of...
Set in an unnamed town, which is clearly Brighton, the novel is, as Giles Gordon
describes it, a Graham Greene
thriller as if reworked by a somewhat romantic Burroughs
.
Gordon, Giles, and Ann Quin. “Introduction”. Berg, 1st Dalkey Archive edition, Dalkey Archive, p. vii - xiv.
