The Power and the Glory

Author(s): Graham Greene

General Fiction

In a poor, remote section of southern Mexico, the Red Shirts have taken control. God has been outlawed, and the priests have been systematically hunted down and killed. Now, the last priest strives to overcome physical and moral cowardice in order to find redemption. Graham Greene explores corruption and atonement in this penetrating novel set in 1930s Mexico during the era of Communist religious persecutions. As revolutionaries determine to stamp out the evils of the church through violence, the last Roman Catholic priest is on the lam, hunted by a police lieutenant. Despite his own sense of worthlessness--he is a heavy drinker and has fathered an illegitimate child--he is determined to continue to function as a priest until captured. He is contrasted with Padre José, a priest who has accepted marriage and embodies humiliation. A Christian parable pitting God and religion against twentieth-century materialism, The Power and the Glory is considered by many, including the author himself, to be Greene's best work.


Product Information

'Graham Greene's masterpiece' John Updike 20040702

" Greene's masterpiece." - John Updike " Graham Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature." - John Le Carre

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour. Graham Greene died in April 1991. Among the many people who paid tribute to him on his death was Kingsley Amis: 'He will be missed all over the world. Until today, he was our greatest living novelist.'

General Fields

  • : 9780099286097
  • : Penguin Random House
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : 0.176
  • : October 2009
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Modern fiction
  • : 240
  • : very good
  • : 823/.912
  • : English
  • : New edition
  • : Paperback
  • : Graham Greene