Graham Greene, A Burnt-Out Case

Joe Nordgren (Lamar University)
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In September 1958, Greene began pursuing the idea for a novel about a stranger who unexpectedly shows up at a remote leper colony overseen by a religious order. To this end, he contacted his Belgian friend Baroness Lambert and sought her help in regard to spending several weeks in the heart of Equatorial Africa. On 3 February 1959, he arrived at the Leprosy Centre at Yonda and began framing the background material for

A Burnt-Out Case

(1960). In his dedication of the book to Dr. Lechat, Greene writes: “This is not a

roman a clef

, but an attempt to give dramatic expression to various types of belief, half-belief, and non-belief, in the kind of setting removed from world politics and household-preoccupations, where such differences are felt acutely and find expression” (6).

The novel

2469 words

Citation: Nordgren, Joe. "A Burnt-Out Case". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13312, accessed 19 March 2024.]

13312 A Burnt-Out Case 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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