Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul

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Graham Greene preferred the novel

The Honorary Consul

(1973) “to all the others” (

Ways

228) as it best accomplished his creative goals.

Consul

, with highly developed characters and nuanced presentations of philosophical, religious, and artistic topics, also reconsiders the issues of faith and tyranny that had occupied Greene since

The Power and The Glory

(1940). Where

The Power and Glory

focuses on the bases of morality, salvation, and sin by recounting the hunt by the Mexican paramilitary group, the Red Shirts, for an unnamed, worldly “whiskey priest”,

Honorary Consul

uses the political turmoil still evident in South America as background for a cynical doctor, a vainglorious writer, and a drunken minor official to apprehend the complicated issues of love and humanitarianism.

5295 words

Citation: Beene, LynnDianne. "The Honorary Consul". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 January 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=510, accessed 14 December 2024.]

510 The Honorary Consul 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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