- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (28 Nov 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140185399
- ISBN-13: 978-0140185393
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.1 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,292,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Burnt Out Case (Vintage Classics)
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Product Description
Review
"A superb storyteller with a gift for provoking controversy."
--"New York Times"
"Greene had the sharpest eyes for trouble, the finest nose for human weaknesses, and was pitilessly honest in his observations . . . For experience of a whole century he was the man within."
--Norman Sherry, "Independent" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--"New York Times"
"Greene had the sharpest eyes for trouble, the finest nose for human weaknesses, and was pitilessly honest in his observations . . . For experience of a whole century he was the man within."
--Norman Sherry, "Independent" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
CENTENARY EDITION WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY GILES FODEN
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A remote leproserie in the Congo is the place where the protagonists meet in this novel by Graham Greene: Dr Colin, Querry, the Ryckers, Parkinson and Father Thomas. In the author's own words, in a letter addressed to Docteur Michel Lechat, the situation in the novel is 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. Indeed, exigencies of faith seem to be of little help in a place like the Congo in the 1950s, beset with disease and death as it then was.
The corrupting presence of the journalist Montagu Parkinson who comes in search of the architect Querry and who alters the truth to hype things up is the reason why A Burnt-Out Case continues to be relevant today. This is also why this novel resembles Heart Of Darkness by J. Conrad and parallels can be drawn between Querry and Marlow: both have a sense of moral disgust and inner desolation. Thus Querry retreats to a kind of hell, the leprosarium, and finds a peace of sorts there, a respite that comes to and end with the arrival of Parkinson. Nevertheless Querry himself becomes a burnt-out case in the end, like a leper whose disease has run its course.
Strong, powerful prose by one of the greatest British writers of the 20th century.
The corrupting presence of the journalist Montagu Parkinson who comes in search of the architect Querry and who alters the truth to hype things up is the reason why A Burnt-Out Case continues to be relevant today. This is also why this novel resembles Heart Of Darkness by J. Conrad and parallels can be drawn between Querry and Marlow: both have a sense of moral disgust and inner desolation. Thus Querry retreats to a kind of hell, the leprosarium, and finds a peace of sorts there, a respite that comes to and end with the arrival of Parkinson. Nevertheless Querry himself becomes a burnt-out case in the end, like a leper whose disease has run its course.
Strong, powerful prose by one of the greatest British writers of the 20th century.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A stranger arrives in an obscure leper colony, situated somewhere in the depths of the Congo. His name is Querry, and it seems that all he wants is to be left alone. He finds himself at the colony only because that was the last stop on the route of the little boat that took him there. He is reticent and obdurate, difficult and self-absorbed - a hard character to like, at first. As the novel progresses, however, we learn more about the mysterious Querry - he is slowly fleshed out in the masterful way that only Greene's sparse prose could accomplish. From the start he is obviously a troubled man - and as events progress you slowly realise just how messed up he is. And so slowly he gains your sympathy and respect. For it turns out he is "The Great" Querry, a famous architect who had it all - fame, money, sex, power - a man who reached the very pinnacle of success, and yet still found it wanting. A man who found that, in the end, even his greatest succeses were hollow, and yet he is still lauded with a genius he feels he does not posess. So he seeks to lose himself - to go to the very ends of the earth in order to find a place in which he can be what he is. He feels just as numbed as the lepers around which he lives. This is not a story of a man helping himself in helping others - Greene is more realistic, more penetrating than that. This is not a Disney book. There are no happy endings here. I've got a friend who is a Psychologist - I've always told him I've learnt more about the "Human Condition" through reading novels than he ever did through studying Psychology textbooks. Remind me to pass this book on to him...
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are many similarities between this novel and Conrad's masterly novella, Heart of Darkness. The protagonist, Querry, like Marlowe, is making a voyage of discovery into the deepest interior of the "Dark Continent." The voyage upriver is even described in much the same manner, as the missionary boat wends its way into an ever more torpid, oppresive atmosphere.
Green contrasts the colonial attitudes as represented by the figure of the greedy, exploitative Ryker, with the benevolent,if scattershod, efforts of Father Thomas and the priests and nuns of the leper colony. Though Ryker is far less megalomaniacal than Kurtz, and a lot less intelligent, he too is guided ny notions of entitlement and superiority. This mindset extends to his notions of marriage as well. His young wife has about as much status, in his eyes, as have the natives employed in the Palm Oil production plant he supervises.
Ryker also shares much in common with the hotel keeper, Schomberg, in Conrad's Victory. Both are of the "ugly European" variety, motivated by self interest and subject not to genuine passion, but to wounded vanity. Self pride and grandiose imaginings are all either man has. Querry, in A Burnt Out Case, and Heyst, in Victory, are precisely the opposite. These protagonists have essentially lost their identities. They travel to the ends of the earth in an attempt to discover what manner of men they actually are. Querry's end, like Heyst's is almost preordained, yet they do finally discover some semblance of truth about themselves.
Greene was not at all happy with the manner in which this book was interpreted by critics and by the public. He blames it and Heart of the Matter, for his having been subsequently labeled a "Catholic" writer. In Ways of Escape, he writes that the book's publication resulted in an outflow of enthusiastic responses: " There must have been something corrupt there, for the book appealed too often to weak elements in its readers. Never had I received so many letters from strangers -- perhaps the majority of them from women and priests. At a stroke I found myself regarded as a Catholic author in England, Europe and America -- the last title to which I had ever aspired." The novel continues, as does much of Greene's oevre, to attract criticism keyed into spiritual and religious themes. That obviously wasn't his intent, and I believe that he deserves a less "catholic" (in its dictionary and religious sense) reading by modern audiences. Though I prefer some of Greene's other works (personal favorites, The Comedians, The Power and the Glory), I recommend this as a highly readable, diverting novel, with enough psychological underpinnings to lend it depth.
BEK
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Once a Catholic ...
Querry is an architect who attempts to escape his past by taking a boat up the Congo River to the last available landing stage : thus ending up at a leproserie run by a Christian... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Clive A. H. Still
Try it
As a Graham Greene fan I must admit this is not my favourite work of his. But, his style and his experience of live is undoubtedly present. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Anita Carvalheira
A book set in the sixties with greater relevance today.
A Graham Green favorite of mine, although it never seems to get much mention when GG is mentioned. It leaves the reader with a lot of questions and even more to consider. Read more
Published 23 months ago by D. P. Robson
If we believe it, it must be true
Monsieur Querry never reveals his Christian name. Perhaps it's because he doesn't want to admit his Christianity. Perhaps he possesses it, but resists it. Perhaps... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2010 by Philip Spires
Burnt but not destroyed
Famous architect and womaniser burns out and escapes to a leper colony in an inaccessible part of Africa where he wants for nothing except to be useful. Read more
Published on 10 May 2010 by Adrenalin Streams
Classic book
I wanted this book on a recommendation - I haven't started it yet but lookingthroughit I see it's going to be one of those 'once in a lifetime' books!
Published on 17 Feb 2010 by K. H. Mackenzie
hard to put down
A novel set in a leprosarium in the heart of Africa? It doesn't sound all that interesting, even when you add a troubled protagonist, on the run from Europe. Read more
Published on 14 Jan 2008 by a nice guy who likes reading
Saint or Sinner ?
This is a wonderful story set in the sweaty Congo of 1960. The infamous Querry, womaniser, architect and saint ? Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2001
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