About this title: This 1948 story of moral decay was one of Graham Greene's greatest popular and critical successes, though not one of his own favorites. His hero Scobie is a colonial police commissioner in West Africa. He endures a loveless marriage and a nondescript career patiently enough until he falls in love with a young shipwreck survivor who, literally, washes ashore at his feet. To send his wife on an extended holiday to South Africa, he borrows money from a Syrian merchant, who then uses his position to blackmail Scobie into turning a blind eye to his smuggling. Once his wife returns home, Scobie ...
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 2004-09-28
ISBN-13:9780142437995ISBN:0142437999
Description: Very good. Very minimal damage to the cover (no holes or tears, only minimal scuff marks), in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, minimal to no highlighting/under. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 2004-09-28
ISBN-13:9780142437995ISBN:0142437999
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780142437995. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780142437995ISBN:0142437999
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780142437995ISBN:0142437999
Description: Fine. Softcover 1st Printing Penguin Deluxe Ed BRAND NEW, still in publisher's shrinkwrap, no remainder mark, pristine new copy; 8vo; 288pp. read more
"I am a big fan of Graham Greene, who produced a corpus of entertainments and novels that plumb the anguish, scars and comedy so liberally dispensed by morality, guilt, love, bruised intentions and battered idealism in the twentieth century. The Heart of the Matter was my first exposure to Greene, and he really delivered with this melancholy and poignant tale of catholic guilt and non-denominational pride amongst British colonial settlers in West Africa during the Second World War.
It's actually Wilson, the new arrival to the unnamed capital of the anonymous West African Crown colonial possession, who I found to be one of the most interesting characters: Young, wet-behind-the-ears, filled with British school-bred priggishness and prejudices, a closet romantic who hides his loves of poetry for fear of being ridiculed, Wilson is the idealist who so often collides with the cynical and jaded long-timers who populate Greene's novels. The British colonials - wilting in the omnipresent heat and humidity, resigned to the native African's non-Western way of doing things, and complicit in the residential affairs and petty-intrigues that keep life tolerable - patiently put up with Wilson's rigidities, knowing that West Africa will eventually bring him to heel. Before he does, though, he'll cause trouble.
Scobie, the main character of the novel, is a British policeman and a catholic convert for the sake of his wife, Louise. An afternoon's tryst between Louise and Wilson - and the discovery of having poetry in common - causes Wilson to fall in love, hard. She tries to explain that it's just for fun, that she loves Scobie, but Wilson is a true romantic and develops an increasing animus for his perceived rival. Scobie, disillusioned but honest, and a firm believer of an hierarchical faith and catholic God he married into, becomes inadvertently involved with a corrupt Syrian merchant and, after Louise has left for an extended stay in South Africa preceding Scobie's joining her when he retires in a few years, seals his fate when he has a torrid affair with Helen Dolt, a recently rescued shipwreck survivor. The Syrian and the survivor, with the addition of Ali, Scobie's long-serving and loyal servant, and an invitation to join in the endemic corruption that prevails in the African colonies, all lead Scobie into sins against his faith of increasing severity, until the only way out for his agonized soul is to make the ultimate sacrifice and accept damnation. Sadly for Scobie, his moral choice, made for love and pity, will be cast in an entirely new light when the perceptive Louise returns from South Africa and reveals another example of how guilt and despair can blind one to all manner of truth.
Few other authors can portray the beset-upon and wearied Englishman as convincingly as Greene, nor the fatigue of loss of country and ideals, the fracturing of love and desire, the tests of faith and conscience, under the ruthless assaults of time and experience. The Heart of the Matter is among his best novels and is highly recommended - especially for autumn days, when slate walls barricade the sky and the leaves have prostrated themselves in multi-hued obeisance to a remote and austere sun."
"Another profound yet enjoyable book from Greene. It's the story of a man driven by his sense of responsibility whose world begins to unravel in small steps toward corruption. His sense of responsibility eventually drives him to take Communion without confessing his adultery (he could not confess because doing so would require repentance & turning from his sin, which would in turn force him to abandon his commitment to his lover). A Catholic, his action is the unforgivable sin that leads to despair & ultimately suicide, but the ending gives a typical Greene twist. The rest of the book is not as compelling as Minsignor Quixote or The Power & the Glory, but what a powerful ending, perfectly set up by the rest of the story!"
"This is a great psychological novel. Scobie is an honest officer in the British Colonial administration in West Africa. His honesty makes him suspect by many, both British and African, but his religious faith and sense of duty to others, including his wife and his sense of law and order, insulate him from ordinary temptations. But when Scobie falls in love, his sense of personal responsibility for others leads him farther and farther from the open, simple morality he has followed all his life and gradually he becomes enmeshed in the crime and corruption that permeates colonial culture."
"What is the heart of the matter? It is not entirely clear in this novel set in the backdrop of a WWII British colony in west Africa. It is clear, however, that it centers on the character of the initially stolid Major Scobie, a policeman. Major Scobie is a simple guy with a troubled core that he does not explore or have insight into. In my opinion, the heart of the matter rests in the phrase "C. died" that appears in Scobie's journal. Major Scobie gets into trouble because he does not really understand himself or his needs, and things ultimately end badly.
This is a very good novel. On disturbing aspect is that the native Africans are not presented very well, and usually referred to as "boys." I suppose this depiction reflected the opinion of the colonizers of the time."
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