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Our Man In Havana (Csa Word Classic)

by Graham Greene

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 8,199 ratings · 540 reviews

Mr. Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman in a city of powercuts, becomes a spy to earn extra income.

Published (first published 1958)

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Mar 13, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Literate and Complicated Espionage; Humorists

Recommended to Steve aka Sckenda by: Greene Canon

Shelves: comedy, espionage, cuba, catholic, cold-war, british, mi-6, movie, politics

“He had no accomplice, except the credulity of other men.” (166)

“You should dream more. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.”(6)

"Our Man in Havana" is a comic story about a vacuum salesman who sends concocted reports back to MI-6 and forwards schematics of enemy weapons that look vaguely familiar. “Our man in Havana has been turning out some pretty disquieting stuff lately.”

James Wormold probably dreamt of a more distinguished destiny when he was younger, but he has now accepted...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Sandy Tjan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, ebook, 2011, greeneland, latin-america-caribbean

spoilers!

Uncorrected Transcript of Oral Evidence

Taken before the Intelligence and Security Committee Tuesday 15 July 1958

Members present:

Mr. Paul Anderson, in the Chair
Mr. Jonathan Blakeley
Mr. Richard Cunningham QC

Witnesses: MR. JAMES WORMOLD, O.B.E., former SIS operative in Havana, Cuba, 1955-1957; and MRS. BEATRICE WORMOLD (NEE SEVERN), formerly a secretary at the SIS headquarters.

Q1 Chairman: Mr. and Mrs. Wormold, may I welcome you to this hearing, which purpose is to examine the veracity of...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sue by: CR reading list

Shelves: classics, fiction, cuba, around-the-world-in-52, library-book, comic-novel, read-in-2012

This is a fun read, the story of an accidental spy. Mr Wormold (love that name) sells vacuum cleaners in Havana, not very successfully, until one day he is recruited by a British agent to work for his country while living in that no longer romantic foreign outpost. To be a secret agent! Well--the story takes off from there with a cast of slightly crazy characters: Wormold's religiously manipulative daughter Milly, Captain Segura the head of the local police who has mastered torture, locals of va...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A well-written, perfectly plotted, political, prescient "entertainment" that, while reading, I didn't feel at all the implausibility of the recruitment by the British Secret Service of a vacuum-cleaner salesman living in Cuba or that of the courting of his Catholic teenage daughter by a Cuban policeman/enforcer. The humor in the dialogue and elsewhere is dry and funny in a-wink-and-a-nod kind of way.

I had disliked the similes in the otherwise-wonderful The Human Factor, which I'd found awkward,...more

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Aug 03, 2008 Tripp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana is a delightful farce that manages to be serious and laugh out loud funny at the same time. It follows the unfortunate Wormold, a British vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana whose shortage of funds finds him willing to accept an offer to join the British Intelligence Service. As a generally inept and careless person, he can do any actual spying, so he ends up sending fake reports back to London so that he can use his expense fund to pay for his daughter's many exp...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, 2008

Given the supposed military intelligence that led to the war in Iraq, it's tempting to look to books such as "Our Man in Havana," Graham Greene's comic spy novel about the Cold War, for parallels to our current situation. (In the book, drawings of pieces of a household vacuum cleaner are passed off as schematics for sophisticated weaponry.) Rather than there being any direct correlation, however, it brings more to mind that quote sometimes attributed to Mark Twain about how history may not repea...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Cleo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

I really love Graham Greene's witty and sardonic writing. He has that talent for being really hilarious at one time, and at the next, super sad. As Christopher Hitchens mentions in his introduction, Greene divided his books into "novels" and "entertainments". I believe Our Man in Havana is an entertainment, and it certainly shows. There's lots of whimsy in this one, and the whole plot is completely ludicrous. Wormold is a vacuum-cleaner salesman in Havana, when he is randomly recruited by Hawtho...more I really love Graham Greene's witty and sardonic writing. He has that talent for being really hilarious at one time, and at the next, super sad. As Christopher Hitchens mentions in his introduction, Greene divided his books into "novels" and "entertainments". I believe Our Man in Havana is an entertainment, and it certainly shows. There's lots of whimsy in this one, and the whole plot is completely ludicrous. Wormold is a vacuum-cleaner salesman in Havana, when he is randomly recruited by Hawthorne, a British secret agent. He is set to report on economic and military goings-on in Cuba, and begins concocting wild reports based on Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb and dreaming up military installations from vacuum designs. Then his stories start becoming true...

This book is complicated. At first glance, it seems like just a funny espionage thriller (seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?). But the book it's not. I had a lot of favorite quotes, one of which was "Childhood was the germ of all mistrust. You were cruelly joked upon and then you cruelly joked. You lost the remembrance of pain through inflicting it." And I think that's really true. Once you reach the top of the order, so to speak, then you forget what it was like to be at the bottom. And "'There is always time for a Scotch.' It was obvious from the way he pronounced Scotch that Dr Hasselbacher had already had time for a great many..." Being a fancy way of saying that he is rather drunk.

The part that really got me laughing was when..."'You called me, Senor Vormell.' For some reason the name Wormold was quite beyond Lopez' (his servant's) power of pronunciation, but as he seemed unable to settle on a satisfactory substitute, it was seldom that Wormold went by the same name twice." Lopez goes on in the ensuing paragraphs to call Wormold "Vomell", "Ommel", "Vormole", "Venell", and "Vommold." It was hilarious.

Enough quotes (though there are many more, detailed in the excellent introduction ). Our Man in Havana is one of my favorite Graham Greene novels so far, better than The Quiet American and just as good as Travels With My Aunt. I may have to buy it now, it was so good. It's hilarious at times, entertaining, and also thought-provoking. My favorite kind of novel.

www.novareviews.blogspot.com (less)

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Nov 04, 2012 Elliot Ratzman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Catholicism and the Cold War end up targets of ridicule in this wry comedy of mendacity and murder. I made the mistake of watching the movie—with Alec Guinness!—first. This is one of Greene’s eerily prophetic works taking place in pre-Revolution Cuba. A British ex-pat vacuum salesman, Wormold, is recruited to be the British Secret Service’s “man in Havana”. Ineptness ensues. Wormold, instead of finding subagents, ends up spinning fantasies including “plans” for a weapons facility that looks stra...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Stefanie Price rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was selected as a book group read, which is probably the only circumstances I'd ever have read a Graham Greene book by choice. My preconception was that he was a sombre, serious writer of espionage and wartime novels - in short, 'boy books'.

Happy to be proven wrong, I romped through this 'entertainment' (Greene's own term for his lighthearted stories), in a matter of days, and really enjoyed the wry wit and characterizations throughout the text. Set in Cuba, just at the end of the Bat...more This book was selected as a book group read, which is probably the only circumstances I'd ever have read a Graham Greene book by choice. My preconception was that he was a sombre, serious writer of espionage and wartime novels - in short, 'boy books'.

Happy to be proven wrong, I romped through this 'entertainment' (Greene's own term for his lighthearted stories), in a matter of days, and really enjoyed the wry wit and characterizations throughout the text. Set in Cuba, just at the end of the Batista regime, we meet Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman who's struggling to bring up his beautiful but manipulative and extravagant daughter alone as a single parent, in Havana. Wormold is mysteriously approached by an odd-speaking, smartly dressed englishman who recruits him into a murky world of the professional spy - even though Wormold has no idea how to go about being a spy... He needs the cash though, and the pay is handsome. How else will he be able to afford Milly's horse, and membership to the country club. The lady in his life (his daughter) has God on her side and he just can't say no to her demands!

His imagination takes control of the situation, and soon enough, Wormold finds himself inventing a persona, writing reports and even hiring agents - all completely fabricated, of course! He hilariously draws up some sketches of a strange machine being built, supposedly spotted by one of his agents in the jungle. The insinuation is tht this is a new weapon of some kind, but in reality it's just rudimentary drawings of some hoover parts. His 'intelligence' dupes them all though - and you've got to admire him for it. However, when some of his agents (real people whose names Wormold has utilised for his reports) start getting bumped off, and his fantastical allegations start coming true, he realises he's in much deeper than ever expected.

Greene is a master writer - that much is immediately obvious. The reader is drawn in, and the story rolls along at exactly the right pace, with the perfect amount of wit and irony. Indeed, this satire of MI6 British spy culture contrasts nicely with other espionage writers of the time, like Ian Fleming.

There's a lovely twist at the end, when we realise that Hawthorne is actually Beatrice's divorced husband.

A cinematic novel, you can almost see it acted out as a movie in front of you as you read. In fact, only a few months after the novel was released, Greene was in Havana with Carol Reed, filming the screenplay.

This 1958 novel eerily reflects reality; as Wormold's predictions come true, so do Greene's. He predicts that the regime in Cuba will fall, and that there are weapons of mass destruction there. Only four years later in real life, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurs in 1962. Spooky! (less)

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Aug 10, 2012 Hanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: my-own-books

First I was sure this book isn't going to be good but it turned to be very interesting after all (do I use a word 'interesting' too much when I'm talking about books? :D).

The beginning was very confusing. I don't know if it's because the book was in english or was it something else, but things got clearer in the end after all. But there were this thing that left me thinking, why on earth the main character, Wormold, ended up to become an agent at the beginning? Was it a misunderstanding? Was Wor...more

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Dec 01, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-uk-20th-century

When my fiance answered my request for mystery thrillers by returning from the library with both The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith and Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene, I was extremely surprised. Before this, my only previous experience with Greene's work was The Quiet American, which I didn't particularly care for, or find remotely thrilling. And indeed, at first Our Man in Havana seemed like another dense and soporific Greene tale of Western men who have inscrutabl...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction, books-from-1958, thriller

Graham Greene is such a good writer. Even in this book, clearly one of his "entertainments," where he starts out so much in the tone of a spoof, he just does not waste words. Within a few pages while Mr Wormold is being recruited for an English spy, in Havana, (profession: unsuccessful vacuum cleaner salesman); in those few pages the reader has the physical description and make-up of three or four major characters, the setting in Havana and the unsettled feeling that Mr Wormold is heading for tr...more

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Jun 28, 2011 MacK rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brit-lit, contemporary

By now, I should have learned to behave like a “serious adult”. I should check the cryptic acronyms and arrows of the stock market; I should concentrate my senses and intellect on analyses of our complicated modern world; I should approach daily life with a stoic manner of a network newsman or Roman senator.

And yet I’m drawn to books like Our Man in Havana. Books that seem to titter in a Puckish tone: “lord what fools these mortals be!” Books that create a cast of tightly-wound characters appro...more

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May 25, 2011 Franc rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aside from my continually enjoyable romp through Graham Greene's "entertainments" (how did I miss out on Greene for so many years?) I decided to read Alan Furst's Top 5 Spy Books of All Time. OMIH comes in at #1. Here's what Furst has to say about it:

Graham Greene’s work must be included in any survey of top-rank spy novels, and “Our Man in Havana” may be his best. The problem here is Hollywood: Just as you can’t read Greene’s “The Third Man” without thinking of Orson Welles, “Our Man in Havana”...more

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Aug 22, 2010 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mr. James Wormold lives in Cuba (before Castro took over) during the Cold War. He is a vacuum cleaner salesman who is moderately unhappy and not especially successful, though he does make enough to keep himself and his daughter afloat. Then he is approached by an agent of the British Intelligence Service and, before he really knows what is happening, finds himself recruited as a spy. He dutifully accepts the job; then he realizes that the British Intelligence Service actually wants information....more Mr. James Wormold lives in Cuba (before Castro took over) during the Cold War. He is a vacuum cleaner salesman who is moderately unhappy and not especially successful, though he does make enough to keep himself and his daughter afloat. Then he is approached by an agent of the British Intelligence Service and, before he really knows what is happening, finds himself recruited as a spy. He dutifully accepts the job; then he realizes that the British Intelligence Service actually wants information. This sets up a very funny chain of events in which he pretends to recruit agents and makes up information. He does this rather too well: British Intelligence decides to send him a secretary and an assistant accountant (actually, he does not even have an accountant) to help him collect intelligence. Suddenly his false reports seem to have taken on a life of their own - where will it all end?

This book is quite funny, but it is an unusually dark funny book. Greene essentially took the pathetic and the very serious and made a joke out of them - and a very good joke, too, but the seriousness is always hovering in the background. For one thing, Cuba is a dismal place in which what seem to be the main jobs are immoral; one gets the impression that most legitimate enterprises have been squeezed out. This is surely realistic, and the immorality remains in the background, but readers should be aware of it. There is more to the seriousness the the setting, though; any book set in Cuba would have to have some seriousness since it was hardly a nice place to live (and still is not). Also, this is not really why it is dark; many serious books are not actually dark. Some of the seriousness is because the author apparently (judging by the worldview of his main character) really did think everything he lampoons is a joke: not only the British Intelligence Service, but even patriotism. There is nothing wrong with making fun of British Intelligence, or even patriotism, but just because it can be a joke does not mean it is nothing more. Some jokes laugh at a funny world, some at a serious world; this one laughs at a seemingly serious world that turns out to be only meaningless. (Judging solely by this book, Greene does not seem to have believed that everything is meaningless, only those things that are bigger than the individual and the individual people he loves). This perspective makes the book feel rather off-balance; while people who like funny books would probably enjoy it, the book's dark side is as memorable as its humor.(less)

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Jul 13, 2010 Alistair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jim Wormold has a teenage daughter, Milly, who spends money he hasn’t got. Hawthorne approaches him with a solution too tempting to pass up. However, Wormold is better at finding banana skins than secrets.

Jim Wormold was divorced by Mary because of his indecision and dithering. He was left to raise their daughter Milly, who has learnt to capitalise on her father’s indecisive nature and buys what he cannot really afford. His inability to say no also eventually leads him to accept Hawthorne’s dub...more

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Aug 07, 2009 Mazel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jim Wormold est un paisible vendeur d'aspirateurs de La Havane, en cette période de Guerre froide et de début de la révolution castriste.

Et Wormold a un problème : sa fille, Milly, qu'il adore, est à la fois catholique et extrêmement dépensière au regard des modestes revenus de son père.

Aussi quand on propose à Wormold de devenir agent des Services secrets britanniques, il y voit surtout l'opportunité de revenus rapides.

Et comme l'espionnage ne le passionne guère, il se met à transmettre à Lo...more

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Apr 14, 2009 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Acquired this for free at some time or another. Picked it up after judging it by its cover. Very hip 1960 edition with goofy illustration and shady looking spy-type on the cover. I was expecting a great read, and that's what I got! The binding was about to fall apart, but it held up for a 3 day binge read in which I couldn't put it down. It doesn't read so much like a novel as it does a play. Lots of quick, smart dialogue and a fast-paced plot. Feels considerably different than the short stories...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’m not sure how Graham Greene does it, but he manages to produce a spoof of a spy thriller that is serious while it is comic. From this novel set in Cuba just before Castro gained power, we encounter the dynamic city of Havana, full of intrigue and occasionally foreboding. But it is also a place where the parties go on and the diplomatic life flourishes. It is especially impressive that Greene wrote this novel in real time – in 1959 Castro is still in the mountains, Batista is in power, and Gre...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Lesley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. I had read it previously some time ago & wanted to revisit to see if I still liked it as much. I really like Graham Greene's novels in general. This one falls into the category of an 'entertainment' and has a lot of elements of a comedy of errors. Written in 1958 some of the language jars a little now - specifically the n-word. I don't remember noticing this the first time round and I think it's indicative of how social mores change over time. Greene's writing sur...more

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Feb 23, 2010 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, best-of-2010, read-2010, latin-america-theme-setting

This farce holds the same canny and clever delight as the Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove and The Comedy of Errors, with dialogue and pacing to which David Mamet is clearly indebted. I could almost see the smoke from Graham Greene's typewriter keys swirling in the air as he tore through sheets of erasable bond, churning out this crazy, wonderful and utterly a propos satire of spies.

It's the mid 1950's when we meet our man, Jim Wormold, a milquetoast British expatriate who moved to Havana prior to...more This farce holds the same canny and clever delight as the Pink Panther, Dr. Strangelove and The Comedy of Errors, with dialogue and pacing to which David Mamet is clearly indebted. I could almost see the smoke from Graham Greene's typewriter keys swirling in the air as he tore through sheets of erasable bond, churning out this crazy, wonderful and utterly a propos satire of spies.

It's the mid 1950's when we meet our man, Jim Wormold, a milquetoast British expatriate who moved to Havana prior to World War II, having escaped military service due to his bum leg. He is a sad sack salesman of vacuum cleaners, abandoned by the mother of his blossoming 17 yr old daughter, Milly, who is part sainted Madonna, part bombshell Marilyn.

Wormold is inexplicably recruited as a spy by MI6- the British Secret Service- in a fabulous men's room encounter with scene stealer and smooth operator, Hawthorne (a.k.a 59200). Wormold marvels that he has been entrusted to spy- he has few contacts, fewer friends, is apolitical to the point of apathy, and bumbles awkwardly through his dull and lonely life. He is also broke and has a daughter whose demands score his guilty heart.

This brief tale chronicles Wormold's adventures as a spy; ironically, he creates a network of sub-agents, unleashes a series of events that rock the intelligence world, and manages to build up his bank account with a tidy sum in the process.

The butts of the joke are the British Secret Service and the cult of pop culture espionage. There are so many laugh-out-loud moments- I won't spoil by sharing- but this was a delicious read.

It's not all fun and games, however; Greene may have intended a light-hearted comedy, but he reveals critical and extremely prescient observations about Cuba and the coming revolution and about the Cold War hysteria that damaged reputations and even destroyed the lives of innocent people who were identified as Communists or communist sympathizers. In light of the manipulation of military intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq, his satire remains alive and relevant to this day.

It is a true gift that a writer so associated with heavier themes of religious ambivalence, imperialism, and the universality of suffering, could toss those themes back with a wink and a giggle and wonderful readability. (less)

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Nov 22, 2012 ☯Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, humor

I have read only one other Graham Greene novel which covered a serious topic seriously. So I was surprised to find this book to be a comedic look at spying and spy organizations. However, after reading it, I'm curious to know if these types of shenanigans actually occur. Mr. Wormold, a seller of vacuum cleaners in Havana, Cuba in the 1950's, is recruited to be a spy for the British government. He has no training and has to learn what is expected by the London officials by trial or error or perha...more

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Mar 30, 2010 Yngvild rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: espionage

It is fascinating how many people can write reviews of the same book and apparently have read an entirely different text. Graham Greene’s novels are especially prone to this phenomenon, particularly the ones with a political theme such as Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American.

It is surely the sign of a good story that we each read in it what we need through the filter of our experience. This generation can compare Wormald’s vacuum cleaner diagrams with the recently bombed powder milk factory...more

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May 14, 2009 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This Graham Greene classic tells the story of Jim Wormold, who sells vacuum cleaners in pre-Castro Havana. He's a simple man, struggling to support a materialistic teenage daughter on his own. When the British Secret Service approaches him about being their "man in Havana", he can't turn down the extra cash. But he's also incapable of doing what they ask. Jim muddles through being a spy the best way he can, but one lie leads to another and suddenly his whole world is endangered.

I didn't actually...more

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Oct 15, 2009 Benjamin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

In this comedic espionage story, Mr. Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman in Havana, is inexplicably hired by MI6 to keep tabs on events in Cuba. Batista is still in charge of the island, but communist rebels are rumored to be in the mountains. Upon the advice of a friend, Wormold makes up phantom agents, and pockets the money the government sends him to pay the fictional agents. However, when his made up reports get into the wrong hands, people who resemble his phantom agents, along with Wormold...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: x2009-september, 2009

So alarmingly funny. Why do we enjoy the rise, fall and redemption of the piddling spirit of Mr. Wormold? Because it's precisely that sort of sloshing simpleness we want to be the most indomitable of all types of man, because those persons are vulnerable to only one sort of greatness: love.

'You should dream more, Mr. Wormold. Reality in our century is not something to be faced.' [10:]

'You can't love and be as confident as he was. If you love you are afraid of losing it, aren't you?' [99:]

Page 1...more

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Apr 27, 2011 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Our Man In Havana is a farce set in Cuba during the Cold War. The central character is a shonky character who lucks into the spy business. He uses his wits and guile to stumble through the dangerous world of spies. Graham Green doesn't want to over do the comic aspect of the story, funny as they are. It's more an examination of a shifty character skirting around the moral ambiguity in spying. Even a "good" spy is breaking some moral codes. The spy here is a very bad one, but not for the usual re...more

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Sep 13, 2009 John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fun read from a wonderful novelist. This is easily the funniest of Greene's books that I've read, the plot reading like something out of a middle-aged man's fantastical nightmares: the British government recruits a Havana vacuum salesman to spy for them, even though he knows nothing about espionage. Greene uses this fun idea for a plot not only to mine a few laughs, but to level the boom at Cold War governments pursuing every shred of mysterious information with reckless abandon--no matter the...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Drew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: greeneland, boulder-public-library

Similar to The Comedians but less good. The characters are a bit deeper than the caricatures that are Brown, Smith, and Jones, but I somehow like Brown, Smith and Jones more. The setting is very similar, but Greene spends more time developing and describing Haiti than Cuba, which is disappointing. The main draw of Our Man in Havana is its deftly woven spy story. Wormold starts as a vacuum cleaner salesman with no interest in espionage, and he's initially quite unwilling to take on the assignment...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: vacuum-cleaner salesmen, whisky bottle collectors

I stumbled upon a list of the Top Five Spy Novels of all time (Wall Street Journal) and this book was number one. I've enjoyed other Greene books, so was compelled to read this one immediately. It is simultaneously hilarious, dark, and intelligent with a dash of light romance. If your dad happens to work in a vacuum cleaner shop--as mine does, and as does the hapless titular protagonist--it's even funnier. It manages to satirize the spy novel genre while at the same time creating a real mood of...more

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About Graham Greene

Graham Greene was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenplay writer, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity.

Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a “Catholic novelist” rather than as a “novelist who happened to be Catholic,” Catho...more

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Quotes from Our Man In Havana

“I don't care a damn about men who are loyal to the people who pay them, to organizations...I don't think even my country means all that much. There are many countries in our blood, aren't there, but only one person. Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?” — 191 people liked it

“One's life is more formed, I sometimes think, by books than by human beings: it is out of books one learns about love and pain at second hand. Even if we have the happy chance to fall in love, it is because we have been conditioned by what we have read, and if I had never known love at all, perhaps it was because my father's library had not contained the right books.” — 35 people liked it

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