Talk:Graham Greene

Notable works

What is the source for this list in the infobox? Why are none of his books in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s considered notable? Jack Upland (talk) 06:27, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Left-wing

Why does the article say he moved to the left in the 1930s, when he was a member of the Communist Party in the 20s? Jack Upland (talk) 06:28, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

I think he was only a very uncommitted Communist briefly in the 1920s, so it's a fair description. The two passages in Sherry vol. 1 currently cited as backup for this passage are: 1) Czinner in Stamboul Train, denouncing social injustice, reflects Greene's beliefs at the time - his diary shows he was reading Strachey and Cole (p. 410); 2) It's a Battlefield with its depiction of Communist demonstrations, contemporary with the Hunger March, shows where his sympathies lay - a week after finishing it he joined Independent Labour (pp. 456-61). The editor who's written the passage about his "move to the left" is presumably thinking of what Sherry says on p. 461:

In his diary on 11 August 1933, a week after finishing his novel, he wrote: 'Joined the I.L.P. My political progress has been rather curved.' He was referring to the fact that he had canvassed for the Conservatives in Oxford in 1923; was close to the Liberals in 1924; joined the Communists in 1925 – though that was a joke membership; had been a Special Constable during the General Strike, and had now become a member of the Independent Labour Party – more extreme than the modest Labour Party.

We could say he moved decisively to the left, if the undergrad flirtation with Communism is not to be taken too seriously? (Writing about the CP meeting in It's a Battlefield half a century later in Ways of Escape, Greene says, "I had only once in my life attended a large Communist meeting, and that was in Paris in 1923, at a time when I held for four weeks a Party card at Oxford".) We could go into this in an endnote, so we can clear up any confusion without holding up the article too much? Per$1$tenceofv1$1on (talk) 17:24, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. I don't know whether it needs an endnote.--Jack Upland (talk) 00:21, 17 April 2026 (UTC)