The Comedians and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £5.14

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Trade in Yours
For a £0.35 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Start reading The Comedians on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Comedians [Paperback]

Graham Greene
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
Price: £6.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.25 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Want delivery by Friday, 24 May? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £6.17  
Hardcover --  
Paperback £6.74  
Audio, CD, Audiobook £23.08  
Unknown Binding --  
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

7 Oct 2004 0099478374 978-0099478379 Centenary Ed

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY PAUL THEROUX

Three men meet on a ship bound for Haiti, a world in the grip of the corrupt 'Papa Doc' and the Tontons Macoute, his sinister secret police. Brown the hotelier, Smith the innocent American and Jones the confidence man - these are the 'comedians' of Graham Greene's title. Hiding behind their actors' masks, they hesitate on the edge of life. And, to begin with, they are men afraid of love, afraid of pain, afraid of fear itself...

(20040624)

Frequently Bought Together

The Comedians + Our Man in Havana (Vintage Classics) + The Power and the Glory (Vintage Classics)
Price For All Three: £19.32

Buy the selected items together


Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics; Centenary Ed edition (7 Oct 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099478374
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099478379
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.9 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 62,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Review

"The ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety." (William Golding )

Book Description

A striking depiction of Haiti on the brink of chaos, delivered with Greene's characteristic dark humour, forceful story-telling, and very obvious human sympathy. (20040624)

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece 26 Mar 2006
By David
Format:Paperback
I first read "The Comedians" around thirty years ago and then again around twenty years ago. Remembering how much I enjoyed and admired the novel I have just finished re-reading it and have now sadly closed the book.

It is an extremely satisfying novel written by one of the finest novelists of the 20th century.

The three main characters are the men, Brown, Smith (with the feisty Mrs. Smith) and Jones who meet as strangers on board the cargo-ship "Medea" bound from New York to Haiti where their paths cross and re-cross.

Brown, the main character, is a rootless hotelier with a shady past and without faith or hope.

Smith is a one-time American Presidential Candidate on an evangelic crusade to establish a vegetarian centre.

Jones is a mystery at first, a liar certainly, a con man perhaps, who falls in and out with the regime but eventually finds some redemption.

Set in the era of Papa Doc Duvalier's misrule with his sinister Tonton Macoute secret police the novel captures the atmosphere of a nation failed by it's corrupt leaders with a people living in fear and oppression.

But this story is not about Haiti, it is about failed romance, disillusionment, cynicism but with some hope and redemption (but not for all).

The introduction by Paul Theroux is a spoiler - he unravels and lays bare the plot and it is his opinion that this is "not one of Greenes best" and a "tepid novel" - whatever that means. I strongly advise readers to read Theroux's introduction AFTER the book and make their own minds up.

I believe this to be one of Greenes finest novels that even thirty years on from our first meeting was immensely pleasurable to read and one I highly recommend.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Knowing a true classic when you read it 19 Dec 2012
By Antenna TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This harsh revelation of the "violence, injustice and torture" imposed on Haiti by the thuggish "Tontons Macoute" supporters of the sinister "Papa Doc" during the 1960s forms the background to a novel that is a mixture of tense thriller, sad love affair, and reflection on the meaning of life provided through the portrayal of a variety of characters. Sadly, this impoverished island escaped from Papa Doc's control only to suffer the ravages of AIDS in the 1970s.

Returning to the rundown hotel in Haiti which he cannot sell, Brown has to deal with the body of a dead government minister in his swimming pool. This must be concealed from his only two guests, an idealistic but naive American couple, the Smiths, who are resolved to transform Haiti with an ill-timed project to promote vegetarianism. Can Brown maintain his clandestine "semi-detached" affair with Martha, whom he resents having to share with her spoilt and all-too observant young son, while Brown is unsettled by the suspicion that Martha's ambassador husband knows about the relationship but appears to accept it. What has brought Captain Jones to Haiti - a congenital liar beneath his blustering charm?

Although Greene himself did not regard "The Comedians" as one of his best works, and he admitted his experience of Haiti was superficial, this book hooked me from the first few pages with his gift for storytelling, constructing a plot in which every incident and character counts, creating a strong sense of place and devising scenes which are by turns poignant, philosophical, menacing, exciting or hilarious - hence the idea that we are all to some extent playing the part of comedians.

The narrator Brown may be cold, cynical and self-centred, but his role as an outsider gives him the detachment to observe and analyse the people and situations he encounters. He may be forgiven a little bitterness since he has never known his father's identity, and his flamboyant mother abandoned him as a small boy in a Catholic boarding school where the monks could be relied upon not to throw him out when she failed to pay the fees.

For the first time, I have understood some of the Catholic angst which pervades so many of Greene's novels. Near the end, Brown refers to "the never quiet conscience injected into me without my knowledge, when I was too young to know, by the fathers of the Visitation." Brown seems to be the vehicle for Greene's introspection. "The rootless.... we are the faithless. We admire the dedicated....the Mr. Smiths for their courage and integrity......we find ourselves the only ones truly committed to the whole world of evil and good, to the wise and the foolish, to the indifferent and the mistaken. We have chosen nothing except to go on living."
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Not so much a story as an account. 16 Nov 2012
By George
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Written from the point of view of the self centered and unlikeable Mr Brown, somehow this book has a ring of truth about it. The reader is left wondering what Mr Graham Greene has been up to!
There is no real story line, no plot, but the events described (recorded?) are set in Haiti and read as if they really happened. It is Greene's entertaining writing style and understated humor that keeps the reader engaged.
At the same time the book has historical interest.
Perhaps many of us have forgotten, or never heard about the appalling events and dreadful suffering of the poor people of Haiti during the reign of the monstrous dictator, Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier.
Greene's description of the terrifying Tontons Macoutes leave the reader with a real feeling of the fear which pervaded the country from the late 1950's to the early 1970's
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring badly written
This is a very boring book,I vaguely remembered reading it at school and thought I would re read it to see if I enjoyed it 45 years later. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Chris
5.0 out of 5 stars Joyous Haitian Gloom
Paul Theroux, in his Introduction to this edition, says that this is not one of Greene's best novels. Perhaps that is true, but he does set the bar pretty high. Read more
Published 23 months ago by G J Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Read and be ready for the hilarious "one liners"
I bought this after watching an old repeat of Alan Whicker's documentary on Haiti. Whicker's World - Vol. Read more
Published on 20 May 2011 by The Dragonfly
3.0 out of 5 stars Nervous laughter
I recently watched an old Alan Whicker encounter with Papa Doc Duvalier, life president of benighted Haiti, which prompted me to buy The Comedians. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2011 by Eric Woodcock, UK
5.0 out of 5 stars Strange and dazzling tale
One of the most fascinating books, set amid the mania of Papa Doc's regime, Greene offers a stunning insight into human nature. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2011 by Silver
5.0 out of 5 stars A seriously good read
What is so masterful is the way Greene imparts information. You never feel that the action has been put on hold while he rolls out the purple prose, yet the evocation of life in... Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2010 by J. Wickens
4.0 out of 5 stars Darkly comic
Three men - Brown, Smith and Jones, find their fates intertwined on the deeply disturbed island of Haiti during Papa Doc's reign of terror. Read more
Published on 18 April 2010 by Adrenalin Streams
4.0 out of 5 stars Not stand-up comics
Graham Greene takes the figurative French sense of the word comédiens, meaning those who pretend, impersonate, bluff, and he sets his novel in Haiti in about 1960, just a... Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2010 by Lost John
5.0 out of 5 stars FATE AND FAITH
Where are the zombies when we need them? In voodoo belief they worked at night in the cemeteries. Now in the unspeakable acreage of death and devastation that is Haiti another... Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2010 by DAVID BRYSON
5.0 out of 5 stars And Graham didn't like it!
This apparently, was not a good novel in the opinion of... Graham Greene. I am ashamed to say, it was the first GG novel I had read, and I absolutely loved it. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2008 by J. R. Skelton
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Amazon.co.uk Privacy Statement Amazon.co.uk Delivery Information Amazon.co.uk Returns & Exchanges