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The Last Word and Other Stories
These twelve stories, dating from 1923 to 1989, represent the quintessential Graham Greene. Rich in gallows humor, they have the power both to move and to entertain. Included here are such famous stories as "The Last Word", "The News in English", "The Lieutenant Died Last", and "The Lottery Ticket", as well as his masterly detective story "Murder for the Wrong Reason".
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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392 people want to read
About the author
Graham Greene
813 books6,184 followersHenry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.
Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. The Power and the Glory won the 1941 Hawthornden Prize and The Heart of the Matter won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Best of the James Tait Black. Greene was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. Several of his stories have been filmed, some more than once, and he collaborated with filmmaker Carol Reed on The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949).
He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivienne Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He died in 1991, aged 86, of leukemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery in Switzerland. William Golding called Greene "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety".
Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. The Power and the Glory won the 1941 Hawthornden Prize and The Heart of the Matter won the 1948 James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Best of the James Tait Black. Greene was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. Several of his stories have been filmed, some more than once, and he collaborated with filmmaker Carol Reed on The Fallen Idol (1948) and The Third Man (1949).
He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivienne Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He died in 1991, aged 86, of leukemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery in Switzerland. William Golding called Greene "the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
June 12, 2017
Twelve short stories selected by the author himself for this publication. The stories date from between 1923 and 1990, and are set in various locations. For me this wasn't necesarily Greene's best, I found the stories a bit hit and miss.
The Last Word - Set in the future, after religion has been abolished, this story explains why an elderly man with no memory of his past is taken to meet The General, and his vague but comforting relationship with God. 4/5
The News in English - Set during the second world war, Lord Haw-Haw is off the air, and a new man is broadcasting from Germany in his place. (Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to the Second World War-era broadcaster William Joyce, who made pro-German propaganda broadcasts that opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper class English accent.) His wife, listening from home is initially distraught at his traitorous behaviour, but notices her husband appears to be passing a message. 4/5
The Moment of Truth - A waiter makes a bond with some regular customers. 3/5
The Man who Stole the Eiffel Tower - An absurd story about the theft and reinstatement of the Eiffel Tower. 3/5
The Lieutenant Died Last - A minor invasion of an English village by Germans takes everyone by surprise, and it is left to an old poacher to save they day. 4/5
A Branch of the Service - A food critic who is recruited into the secret service, but must retire because he has lost his appetite for food. 4/5
An Old Man's Memory - A terrorist attack on the opening of the Channel Tunnel train changes the future of the rail link. 3/5
The Lottery Ticket - A man visiting Mexico wins a lottery and discovers he can't take the money out of the country. He decides to make a charitable donation, but things don't turn out the way expected. 4/5
The New House - A tale of an architect and his change of opinion. 2/5
Work Not in Progress - Play script about bishops, Not for me. 1/5
Murder for the Wrong Reason - A murder mystery, but it felt far to long and didn't hold my attention. 1/5
An Appointment with the General - Set in Chile, a French female journalist meets and interviews a military dictator. I think I might have missed the point of this one. 1/5
Overall far more hits than misses, but some of it felt a little dated.
Overall 3.5 stars, rounded down.
The Last Word - Set in the future, after religion has been abolished, this story explains why an elderly man with no memory of his past is taken to meet The General, and his vague but comforting relationship with God. 4/5
The News in English - Set during the second world war, Lord Haw-Haw is off the air, and a new man is broadcasting from Germany in his place. (Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to the Second World War-era broadcaster William Joyce, who made pro-German propaganda broadcasts that opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper class English accent.) His wife, listening from home is initially distraught at his traitorous behaviour, but notices her husband appears to be passing a message. 4/5
The Moment of Truth - A waiter makes a bond with some regular customers. 3/5
The Man who Stole the Eiffel Tower - An absurd story about the theft and reinstatement of the Eiffel Tower. 3/5
The Lieutenant Died Last - A minor invasion of an English village by Germans takes everyone by surprise, and it is left to an old poacher to save they day. 4/5
A Branch of the Service - A food critic who is recruited into the secret service, but must retire because he has lost his appetite for food. 4/5
An Old Man's Memory - A terrorist attack on the opening of the Channel Tunnel train changes the future of the rail link. 3/5
The Lottery Ticket - A man visiting Mexico wins a lottery and discovers he can't take the money out of the country. He decides to make a charitable donation, but things don't turn out the way expected. 4/5
The New House - A tale of an architect and his change of opinion. 2/5
Work Not in Progress - Play script about bishops, Not for me. 1/5
Murder for the Wrong Reason - A murder mystery, but it felt far to long and didn't hold my attention. 1/5
An Appointment with the General - Set in Chile, a French female journalist meets and interviews a military dictator. I think I might have missed the point of this one. 1/5
Overall far more hits than misses, but some of it felt a little dated.
Overall 3.5 stars, rounded down.
October 20, 2021
Best stories in this collection:
The Last Word - deals with a theme that Greene seems to be passionate about and explored in The Power and the Glory. The story is told from the point of view of the last Pope after he is released from captivity and taken to meet a dictator. It is a world in which Christianity has been outlawed. Even though I am not a Christian, there was something wistful about the whole thing. Greene, who liked his drink and wrote salacious descriptions of women, really cared about the decline of Christianity.
The News in English - The wife of an English soldier who has gone over to the German side believes her husband is relaying some important message after he begins to appear on TV, spreading German propaganda. But she has to deal with his mother who thinks her son is a traitor.
The Lieutenant Died Last - A rollicking action adventure story about the invasion of an English village by German soldiers and the drunk poacher who is the unlikely savior. The story does end on a rather melancholic note.
A Branch of the Service - A weird but interesting story about a secret agent who has to spy on people at restaurants and lavatories but does not like his job because he does not like eating anymore.
Murder for the Wrong Reason - A murder mystery with a rather strange and abrupt ending. It has some of the recurring Greene themes like ageing and sexual jealousy.
The Last Word - deals with a theme that Greene seems to be passionate about and explored in The Power and the Glory. The story is told from the point of view of the last Pope after he is released from captivity and taken to meet a dictator. It is a world in which Christianity has been outlawed. Even though I am not a Christian, there was something wistful about the whole thing. Greene, who liked his drink and wrote salacious descriptions of women, really cared about the decline of Christianity.
The News in English - The wife of an English soldier who has gone over to the German side believes her husband is relaying some important message after he begins to appear on TV, spreading German propaganda. But she has to deal with his mother who thinks her son is a traitor.
The Lieutenant Died Last - A rollicking action adventure story about the invasion of an English village by German soldiers and the drunk poacher who is the unlikely savior. The story does end on a rather melancholic note.
A Branch of the Service - A weird but interesting story about a secret agent who has to spy on people at restaurants and lavatories but does not like his job because he does not like eating anymore.
Murder for the Wrong Reason - A murder mystery with a rather strange and abrupt ending. It has some of the recurring Greene themes like ageing and sexual jealousy.
April 27, 2013
The Last Word is the final published work of Graham Greene's lifetime. Twelve stories handpicked by the man himself dating from the 1920s to the late 1980s, perhaps only because they were previously uncollected, but there isn't a bad story amongst them and some of them are great but perhaps my favourite section of the whole book is the preface in which Greene discusses the origins and why he picked these stories for collection.
This is the first time I've tried his short stories so I cannot comment on how representative they are of his whole body of work but the majority lived up to my expectations based on the entertainments of his that I've read. There is the typical Greene investigations of human emotion and his sharp cynicism towards humanity and especially religion and politics, just in short and sometimes very, short story form.
The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower stands out the most as it is a delightful piece of whimsy, a short story designed to entertain the author as much as the reader, whereas the titular story reflects the direction of Greene's mind in his later years as he battled with his conflicted religious beliefs and mortality.
This is the first time I've tried his short stories so I cannot comment on how representative they are of his whole body of work but the majority lived up to my expectations based on the entertainments of his that I've read. There is the typical Greene investigations of human emotion and his sharp cynicism towards humanity and especially religion and politics, just in short and sometimes very, short story form.
The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower stands out the most as it is a delightful piece of whimsy, a short story designed to entertain the author as much as the reader, whereas the titular story reflects the direction of Greene's mind in his later years as he battled with his conflicted religious beliefs and mortality.
September 11, 2021
Spies. Priests. Women. Men. Generals. Policemen. Thieves. Traitors. For once again, this slim little collection of twelve stories by the one and only Graham Greene take us into the no-man's land of betrayal and friendship, hope and despair and moral conundrums that we all recognise too gladly as "Greeneland". "The Last Word And Other Stories" is the final ensemble of stories published in Greene's lifetime before he passed away two years after its release and while the pieces are collected from as early as 1929 as well, it feels as if we are savouring the choicest collection of the writer's trademark strengths and virtues as a storyteller par excellence for one last time before he bid his farewell and left a glaring vacuum in literature by his demise. Some have called it, back then and even now, as a book only for Greene scholars and others have also admired and loved the still-intact signs of Greene's timeless prescience and profundity as a writer and raconteur of some of the most stirring and sublime stories in the twentieth century.
I am, of course, one of the latter but even as Greene's underrated mastery of the short story format have come to the fore earlier in his previous collections - "Twenty-One Stories", "A Sense Of Reality" and "May We Borrow Your Husband" - this new ensemble represents something different, a further and final vindication of all the things for which we admire and love Greene in the first place. There is all the finely calibrated moral complexity that he was famous for introducing in both his "entertainments" and serious novels; there is still the unmistakable whiff of local colour and authentic flavour, of a sense of a place at a time and milieu; there is his fast-paced, compellingly written dialogue and the fascinating interplay between each character fully fleshed out with conviction; there is his signature gift for wit and warmth and there is, of course, his firm grasp on the political and religious realities of the times in which he lived and wrote and his probing query into the emotional and moral consequences they entail.
But what astounds us the most in this collection is his gift of pacing, of orchestrating a narrative like life, letting it unfold according to its own rhythm and yet also knowing just when to restrain, when to end things so that the effect on the reader is a resonating echo of that moral complexity portrayed so far. The man was, arguably, the finest, most dexterous artist of prose and storytelling and while the twelve stories in this collection occasionally reiterate us, especially the seasoned readers, of themes and subjects explored earlier as well, they are enriched and matured like fine wine by the majestic economy of his style. These are simple stories that are surprisingly eclectic and varied, from the title story of an old man compelled by orders to meet the General ruling the strange, even hostile world around him and discovering his own distorted past to a hilarious send-up of a dotty intelligence service and its curious mission to discover spies in England by pretending to be...I leave you to find that out for yourself. And there is thus enough of both humour and pathos in display elsewhere too, from a man who cannot resist whisking away the Eiffel Tower whenever convenient in the most elaborate fashion to an aging, ill-fated waiter who cannot keep the secret of his impending death to himself and yearns for company.
At the same time, there is always a note of urgent concern, a serious anxiety about the omnipresent nature of betrayal in both the private and political spheres. One of the smaller pieces in the collection predicts, worryingly and plausibly, a near-future scenario of meticulously planned terrorism and the fear that it would generate - a situation not too different from the 9/11 and other disastrous episodes of senseless destruction. And in one particularly moving and poignant story, written at the time of the Second World War, a wife pines and hopes against all hope for the return of her husband from behind enemy lines, a man declared as a coward and traitor in his own country and yet, in truth, a hero risking it all for a greater cause.
True to Greene, these are stories that are brimming with sadness, irony and melancholy but there are also vivid scenes that the writer gives us, scenes filled with heady local flavour and rendered flawlessly, scenes that even turn dream-like and surreal and even thrilling and suspenseful as we collectively hold our breath as to how these stories would end. One, set in Mexico of the 1930s, in the throes of the anti-clerical purges, revisits this staple Greene landscape with an incisive new perspective revolving around a lottery ticket that means so much money to an impoverished country; Another story, the basis of one of the most thrilling war films ever made, brings the reader to the edge of the seat as a lone wolf defends an entire village - and even his country - from certain invasion. Greene's grasp of the political realities of his times is present here in spades - especially evident in one story where he brings the tumultuous Panamanian situation into scrutiny in a perfectly placed story of a woman journalist on a challenging mission.
The longest story in the collection "Murder For The Wrong Reason" is of course the crowning glory of this bejewelled ensemble - a classic English detective story that also deconstructs the very idea of a detective story while also keeping us magnificently on tenterhooks with its beautifully constructed smoke and mirrors. But then, this is to be expected, isn't it? Among his many qualities, Greene was, first and foremost, a man who knew, unlike most writers today, just how to tell a story with the most satisfying and devastating impact. And this is the greatest reason why I keep on reading, rereading, revisiting and discovering him again and again.
I am, of course, one of the latter but even as Greene's underrated mastery of the short story format have come to the fore earlier in his previous collections - "Twenty-One Stories", "A Sense Of Reality" and "May We Borrow Your Husband" - this new ensemble represents something different, a further and final vindication of all the things for which we admire and love Greene in the first place. There is all the finely calibrated moral complexity that he was famous for introducing in both his "entertainments" and serious novels; there is still the unmistakable whiff of local colour and authentic flavour, of a sense of a place at a time and milieu; there is his fast-paced, compellingly written dialogue and the fascinating interplay between each character fully fleshed out with conviction; there is his signature gift for wit and warmth and there is, of course, his firm grasp on the political and religious realities of the times in which he lived and wrote and his probing query into the emotional and moral consequences they entail.
But what astounds us the most in this collection is his gift of pacing, of orchestrating a narrative like life, letting it unfold according to its own rhythm and yet also knowing just when to restrain, when to end things so that the effect on the reader is a resonating echo of that moral complexity portrayed so far. The man was, arguably, the finest, most dexterous artist of prose and storytelling and while the twelve stories in this collection occasionally reiterate us, especially the seasoned readers, of themes and subjects explored earlier as well, they are enriched and matured like fine wine by the majestic economy of his style. These are simple stories that are surprisingly eclectic and varied, from the title story of an old man compelled by orders to meet the General ruling the strange, even hostile world around him and discovering his own distorted past to a hilarious send-up of a dotty intelligence service and its curious mission to discover spies in England by pretending to be...I leave you to find that out for yourself. And there is thus enough of both humour and pathos in display elsewhere too, from a man who cannot resist whisking away the Eiffel Tower whenever convenient in the most elaborate fashion to an aging, ill-fated waiter who cannot keep the secret of his impending death to himself and yearns for company.
At the same time, there is always a note of urgent concern, a serious anxiety about the omnipresent nature of betrayal in both the private and political spheres. One of the smaller pieces in the collection predicts, worryingly and plausibly, a near-future scenario of meticulously planned terrorism and the fear that it would generate - a situation not too different from the 9/11 and other disastrous episodes of senseless destruction. And in one particularly moving and poignant story, written at the time of the Second World War, a wife pines and hopes against all hope for the return of her husband from behind enemy lines, a man declared as a coward and traitor in his own country and yet, in truth, a hero risking it all for a greater cause.
True to Greene, these are stories that are brimming with sadness, irony and melancholy but there are also vivid scenes that the writer gives us, scenes filled with heady local flavour and rendered flawlessly, scenes that even turn dream-like and surreal and even thrilling and suspenseful as we collectively hold our breath as to how these stories would end. One, set in Mexico of the 1930s, in the throes of the anti-clerical purges, revisits this staple Greene landscape with an incisive new perspective revolving around a lottery ticket that means so much money to an impoverished country; Another story, the basis of one of the most thrilling war films ever made, brings the reader to the edge of the seat as a lone wolf defends an entire village - and even his country - from certain invasion. Greene's grasp of the political realities of his times is present here in spades - especially evident in one story where he brings the tumultuous Panamanian situation into scrutiny in a perfectly placed story of a woman journalist on a challenging mission.
The longest story in the collection "Murder For The Wrong Reason" is of course the crowning glory of this bejewelled ensemble - a classic English detective story that also deconstructs the very idea of a detective story while also keeping us magnificently on tenterhooks with its beautifully constructed smoke and mirrors. But then, this is to be expected, isn't it? Among his many qualities, Greene was, first and foremost, a man who knew, unlike most writers today, just how to tell a story with the most satisfying and devastating impact. And this is the greatest reason why I keep on reading, rereading, revisiting and discovering him again and again.
April 14, 2024
The 12 stories comprising this slender volume were written between 1923 and 1989. Some are excellent and others not so great.
The Lottery Ticket is excellent and resembles The Power and the Glory in its Mexican setting and desperate mood. An Englishman wins a lottery and tries to do good with it but of course it goes wrong.
Another good story is The Moment of Truth where is Arthur Burton, a dying waiter who works in a French restaurant in Kensington, London, carries on what he believes to be a special friendship with a pair of American clients, the Hogminsters. In the final lines in a letter from them he finds a surprise.
The other stories have charm but fail to enthrall. The News in English, which is about a double-agent broadcasting Nazi propaganda, is sentimental, and a predictable mystery called "Murder for the Wrong Reason". "The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower" and "Work Not in Progress" were not my cup of tea.
In all a disappointing collection of stories with a few gems.
The Lottery Ticket is excellent and resembles The Power and the Glory in its Mexican setting and desperate mood. An Englishman wins a lottery and tries to do good with it but of course it goes wrong.
Another good story is The Moment of Truth where is Arthur Burton, a dying waiter who works in a French restaurant in Kensington, London, carries on what he believes to be a special friendship with a pair of American clients, the Hogminsters. In the final lines in a letter from them he finds a surprise.
The other stories have charm but fail to enthrall. The News in English, which is about a double-agent broadcasting Nazi propaganda, is sentimental, and a predictable mystery called "Murder for the Wrong Reason". "The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower" and "Work Not in Progress" were not my cup of tea.
In all a disappointing collection of stories with a few gems.
July 8, 2016
I got hold of this book because I wanted to read "The Lieutenant Died Last". It was used as the basis of a very fine English wartime film called "Went the Day Well?"
I like Graham Greene's writing very much and there is much to enjoy in this book. I particularly liked the title story "The Last Word", "The News in English" and "The Lieutenant Died Last". Some of the other stories didn't appeal to me so much.
Well worth reading if you are a Greene fan.
I like Graham Greene's writing very much and there is much to enjoy in this book. I particularly liked the title story "The Last Word", "The News in English" and "The Lieutenant Died Last". Some of the other stories didn't appeal to me so much.
Well worth reading if you are a Greene fan.
February 8, 2021
Último livro de Graham Greene que contém uma seleção de contos escritos entre 1923 e 1989, dos quais apenas 4 apareceram antes em livro e nenhum deles foi incluído na obra "Collected short stories", como explica o prefácio.
Os contos contidos são:
- A última palavra - Sociedade distópica em ambiente de fim do mundo onde a fé é algo extinto ou que se tenta combater - 5*
- As notícias em inglês - Segunda guerra mundial, um inglês foi capturado e está a ser usado como divulgador da obra nazi - 4*
- O momento da verdade - Um empregado de mesa com alguma importância. Crítica ao ego de alguns seres humanos. - 3*
- O homem que roubou a torre Eiffel - Um roubo de impacto, ou não, ou não. Claramente uma crítica aos turistas que visitam outros países com uma lista a cumprir. - 3*
- O tenente foi o último a morrer - O que acontece quando uma pequena aldeia inglesa é invadida por paraquedistas alemães em plena segunda guerra mundial. Os heróis são sempre os que menos se esperam. - 3*
- Uma secção de serviço - Um crítico gastronómico que não é o que parece. - 2*
- Memória de um velho - A memória de um ataque terrorista no Eurotunel.- 2*
- O bilhete de lotaria - O melhor conto deste livro. Há tanto, tanto para falar sobre o que estas pequenas frases trazem e acrescentam ao leitor que é impressionante. Crítica humana, social, política... Assim se veem os grandes escritores. - 5*
- A casa nova - O tempo cura tudo. Ou então deturpa memórias para que não seja tão doloroso lidar com algum assunto - 3*
- O trabalho não progride - Conto um pouco confuso sobre a identidade. - 2*
- Crime pela razão errada - Inspetor Mason num caso com uma reviravolta final surpreendente. - 3*
- Um encontro com o general - O fim que aguardam todos os revolucionários. - 2*
Os contos contidos são:
- A última palavra - Sociedade distópica em ambiente de fim do mundo onde a fé é algo extinto ou que se tenta combater - 5*
- As notícias em inglês - Segunda guerra mundial, um inglês foi capturado e está a ser usado como divulgador da obra nazi - 4*
- O momento da verdade - Um empregado de mesa com alguma importância. Crítica ao ego de alguns seres humanos. - 3*
- O homem que roubou a torre Eiffel - Um roubo de impacto, ou não, ou não. Claramente uma crítica aos turistas que visitam outros países com uma lista a cumprir. - 3*
- O tenente foi o último a morrer - O que acontece quando uma pequena aldeia inglesa é invadida por paraquedistas alemães em plena segunda guerra mundial. Os heróis são sempre os que menos se esperam. - 3*
- Uma secção de serviço - Um crítico gastronómico que não é o que parece. - 2*
- Memória de um velho - A memória de um ataque terrorista no Eurotunel.- 2*
- O bilhete de lotaria - O melhor conto deste livro. Há tanto, tanto para falar sobre o que estas pequenas frases trazem e acrescentam ao leitor que é impressionante. Crítica humana, social, política... Assim se veem os grandes escritores. - 5*
- A casa nova - O tempo cura tudo. Ou então deturpa memórias para que não seja tão doloroso lidar com algum assunto - 3*
- O trabalho não progride - Conto um pouco confuso sobre a identidade. - 2*
- Crime pela razão errada - Inspetor Mason num caso com uma reviravolta final surpreendente. - 3*
- Um encontro com o general - O fim que aguardam todos os revolucionários. - 2*
October 31, 2022
I was going to dive straight in and read the complete short story collection but, having yet to read any of Greene's short fiction other than 'The Destructors', I thought it better to try a shorter volume first; just in case I didn't take to them as well as his novels. Like many other short stories in one volume, I liked some better than others, but it's safe to say I'm impressed enough to read the complete stories.. There are twelve stories on offer here, with my faves being 'The News in English', 'The Lieutenant Died Last' & 'Murder for the Wrong Reason'.
August 30, 2017
Graham Greene is a relatively new discovery for me and I have come to enjoy his writing very much.
This is a collection of short stories that range from a dystopian future to a psychological murder mystery. I will review just a few of the thirteen stories.
Briefly:
The Last Word is about a man who has lost his memory from an explosion due to some kind of war. He has been living the last twenty years alone and on bread. His neighbors are as suspicious of him as they are of each other. It is apparent that a totalitarian regime has been ruling the country.
One day, for some reason, he is escorted from his tiny apartment by a guard who takes him to the general. As the story progresses we find out who this lonely man is and why the dictator wants to see him.
This particular story shows the power of the Spiritual world and how no physical world can defeat it. There are many surprises and the ending brings a final surprise that enforces St. Paul's assertion, "Death, where is they sting? Grave where is they victory?"
The Lottery is about an Englishman who only visits out of the way places such as a tiny village in Mexico. While there he wins the state lottery which is quite a bit of money even by English standards. He doesn't want the money and is embarrassed that he should take money from such an impoverished province, so he donates it back to the state to use for good works. One can imagine the outcome or how the state defines, "good works".
Another story is about a murder narrated by the Chief of Police. His conclusions about the perpetrator brings an unexpected conclusion.
Finally, the last story is about an arrogant French journalist for a socialist magazine that goes to a Latin American country to interview the general who runs the country. She thinks she is going to intimidate the general by accusing him of not being "socialist enough". She finds the tables quickly turned on her.
All the stories are fascinating to read made all the more so by Graham's fluid writing. They are worth reading and I recommend them to all fans of Greene's writing or people who would like to become fans of one of the last centuries foremost authors.
This is a collection of short stories that range from a dystopian future to a psychological murder mystery. I will review just a few of the thirteen stories.
Briefly:
The Last Word is about a man who has lost his memory from an explosion due to some kind of war. He has been living the last twenty years alone and on bread. His neighbors are as suspicious of him as they are of each other. It is apparent that a totalitarian regime has been ruling the country.
One day, for some reason, he is escorted from his tiny apartment by a guard who takes him to the general. As the story progresses we find out who this lonely man is and why the dictator wants to see him.
This particular story shows the power of the Spiritual world and how no physical world can defeat it. There are many surprises and the ending brings a final surprise that enforces St. Paul's assertion, "Death, where is they sting? Grave where is they victory?"
The Lottery is about an Englishman who only visits out of the way places such as a tiny village in Mexico. While there he wins the state lottery which is quite a bit of money even by English standards. He doesn't want the money and is embarrassed that he should take money from such an impoverished province, so he donates it back to the state to use for good works. One can imagine the outcome or how the state defines, "good works".
Another story is about a murder narrated by the Chief of Police. His conclusions about the perpetrator brings an unexpected conclusion.
Finally, the last story is about an arrogant French journalist for a socialist magazine that goes to a Latin American country to interview the general who runs the country. She thinks she is going to intimidate the general by accusing him of not being "socialist enough". She finds the tables quickly turned on her.
All the stories are fascinating to read made all the more so by Graham's fluid writing. They are worth reading and I recommend them to all fans of Greene's writing or people who would like to become fans of one of the last centuries foremost authors.
December 30, 2015
Enjoyable
and one reason
being the r a n g e from 1923 through to 1989
Not often one gets THAT except in
"The Collected Short Stories Of...."
but here there are only...TWELVE.
All various,
all interesting.
Showing a definite 20th Century Tone.
Having just read some D.H.Lawrence short stories
the contrast in tone was sharp.
Well, I'm definitely NOT going to tell you the plots.
Either you like Graham Greene or you don't or you need to find out for yourselves
...which I envy you.
Until then I will continue to feel
Vastly Superior.
Try the novels too.
AND the movies thereof.
WHAT A FEAST.
Hate You.
April 26, 2020
This collection of short stories by Graham Greene -- spanning from 1923 to shortly before his death in 1991 -- is pretty much an average one. The best selling point about "THE LAST WORD AND OTHER STORIES" is that it is easily readable.
Of all the short stories in the collection, there were 2 of them that I especially liked. "The Lieutenant Died Last" was centered on a small group of German paratroopers who had been dropped by air onto a small English village as part of Operation Sealion in the summer of 1940, and managed to hold it temporarily. It was suspenseful and reminiscent of Jack Higgins' novel, 'The Eagle Has Landed". The second short story in the collection --- 'An Old Man's Memory' --- described a Europe in 1994 on alert following a major terrorist attack. It, too, was suspenseful with at times prose that gave me a feeling that Greene had managed to anticipate an atmosphere in which Europe would be intermittently plunged post-September 11, 2001.
Otherwise, the other short stories in the collection were average, with 'Murder for the Wrong Reason' being the most banal and ridiculously melodramatic. Thankfully, at 150 pages, "THE LAST WORD AND OTHER STORIES" can be quickly read and then put aside in pursuit of more compelling literary fare.
Of all the short stories in the collection, there were 2 of them that I especially liked. "The Lieutenant Died Last" was centered on a small group of German paratroopers who had been dropped by air onto a small English village as part of Operation Sealion in the summer of 1940, and managed to hold it temporarily. It was suspenseful and reminiscent of Jack Higgins' novel, 'The Eagle Has Landed". The second short story in the collection --- 'An Old Man's Memory' --- described a Europe in 1994 on alert following a major terrorist attack. It, too, was suspenseful with at times prose that gave me a feeling that Greene had managed to anticipate an atmosphere in which Europe would be intermittently plunged post-September 11, 2001.
Otherwise, the other short stories in the collection were average, with 'Murder for the Wrong Reason' being the most banal and ridiculously melodramatic. Thankfully, at 150 pages, "THE LAST WORD AND OTHER STORIES" can be quickly read and then put aside in pursuit of more compelling literary fare.
October 9, 2015
I did not like this collection of short stories as much as Graham Greene's other short story collections Twenty-one Stories and May We Borrow Your Husband & Other Comedies of the Sexual Life.
The three stories I liked the most in this book were The Last Word, The News In English, and A Branch Of The Service, however I must stress the fact that these three stories were even weaker than the weakest stories found in the other two collections previously mentioned.
This collection of stories is included in Penguin Classics' edition of Graham Greene's Complete Short Stories.
The three stories I liked the most in this book were The Last Word, The News In English, and A Branch Of The Service, however I must stress the fact that these three stories were even weaker than the weakest stories found in the other two collections previously mentioned.
This collection of stories is included in Penguin Classics' edition of Graham Greene's Complete Short Stories.
September 1, 2025
The last book I’ve read for #20BooksOfWinter is an apt book for the first day of #ShortStorySeptember. It’s a collection of short stories called The Last Word and Other Stories by Graham Greene, published in 1990, the year before he died, aged 86. All but one of the stories ‘A Branch of the Service’ had been published before, but this Penguin collection makes them much more accessible.
Greene being the writer he was, I am hard pressed to choose just one story to feature. I can’t resist writing about two.
‘The Last Word’ is set at some time in an Orwellian future when a single authoritarian power rules the world. It isn’t named but the story was first published in 1988 when communism still seemed invincible. The brief post-Stalin thaw had begun and ended, and Catholics like Greene grieved for the countries coming under its thrall. In this story, the ultimate Soviet success has occurred: the church is all but gone and there remains but one lonely man with just a flickering memory and a broken cross. He has been in detention for a very long time, after an ‘accident’ but now the day has come for him to be escorted to his fate. His memory is enough for him to know that it is Christmas Day, even though it was ‘abolished more than twenty years ago’.
He also has a forbidden book in his possession, ‘a book of ancient history’ but it is destined for the incinerator.
It’s not so important,’ the old man said. ‘Read a little of it first, You will see.’
‘I shall do no such thing. I am loyal to the General.’
‘Oh, you are right of course. Loyalty is a great virtue. But don’t worry. I haven’t read much of it for years. My favourite passages are here in my head, and you can’t incinerate my head.’
‘Don’t be too sure of that,’ the man replied. (p.6)
They treat him well, on the plane to see the General, and in the hotel where he is booked for just one night. The concierge is puzzled by the poor clothes of the General’s guest, and asks the escorting officer who he is.
‘He’s the Pope.’
‘The Pope? What’s the Pope?’ the concierge asked, but the officer left the hotel without making any reply.
To the new regime, religion is no longer an enemy to be feared and Christianity is dead except for him, You can guess the ending, but not Greene’s last words:
Between the pressure on the trigger and the bullet exploding a strange and frightening doubt crossed his mind: is it possible that what this man believed may be true? (p.18)
The other story that I really liked was ‘The News in English’, in which a woman and her mother sit listening to the English traitor Lord Haw-Haw broadcasting German propaganda on the radio. Young Mary Bishop realises to her horror that on this night Lord Haw-Haw has been replaced by her own husband who had foolishly gone to Germany for a conference, just before war was declared.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/09/01/t...
Greene being the writer he was, I am hard pressed to choose just one story to feature. I can’t resist writing about two.
‘The Last Word’ is set at some time in an Orwellian future when a single authoritarian power rules the world. It isn’t named but the story was first published in 1988 when communism still seemed invincible. The brief post-Stalin thaw had begun and ended, and Catholics like Greene grieved for the countries coming under its thrall. In this story, the ultimate Soviet success has occurred: the church is all but gone and there remains but one lonely man with just a flickering memory and a broken cross. He has been in detention for a very long time, after an ‘accident’ but now the day has come for him to be escorted to his fate. His memory is enough for him to know that it is Christmas Day, even though it was ‘abolished more than twenty years ago’.
He also has a forbidden book in his possession, ‘a book of ancient history’ but it is destined for the incinerator.
It’s not so important,’ the old man said. ‘Read a little of it first, You will see.’
‘I shall do no such thing. I am loyal to the General.’
‘Oh, you are right of course. Loyalty is a great virtue. But don’t worry. I haven’t read much of it for years. My favourite passages are here in my head, and you can’t incinerate my head.’
‘Don’t be too sure of that,’ the man replied. (p.6)
They treat him well, on the plane to see the General, and in the hotel where he is booked for just one night. The concierge is puzzled by the poor clothes of the General’s guest, and asks the escorting officer who he is.
‘He’s the Pope.’
‘The Pope? What’s the Pope?’ the concierge asked, but the officer left the hotel without making any reply.
To the new regime, religion is no longer an enemy to be feared and Christianity is dead except for him, You can guess the ending, but not Greene’s last words:
Between the pressure on the trigger and the bullet exploding a strange and frightening doubt crossed his mind: is it possible that what this man believed may be true? (p.18)
The other story that I really liked was ‘The News in English’, in which a woman and her mother sit listening to the English traitor Lord Haw-Haw broadcasting German propaganda on the radio. Young Mary Bishop realises to her horror that on this night Lord Haw-Haw has been replaced by her own husband who had foolishly gone to Germany for a conference, just before war was declared.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/09/01/t...
October 29, 2018
The last of Graham Greene's books published in his lifetime was this collection of stories. It came out in 1990 and he died the next year. His preface ends with this paragraph:
The earliest story in this volume, "The New House", was published in 1929 in the OXFORD OUTLOOK. Why was it ever published, some may reasonably ask? The answer is a very simple one - I was the editor of the OUTLOOK.
There you have it: Graham Greene was witty and self-deprecating to the end. This collection focuses mainly on stories from the 1940s and late 1980s, but, indeed, as Greene's preface makes clear, it dips into his early output. The 1960s and '70s have been skipped altogether. The title story is representative Greene and is from 1988. The other two very late ones are "The Moment Of Truth," which seemed to me oversubtle and "An Old Man's Memory," which I didn't like but which is certainly in a mode Greene used fairly often in the eighties, a dismissive mode. This story is quite brief. 1955's "The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower" is also brief, and thank God. Greene is often witty, but his humorous fantasies are forced. I think "The Lottery Ticket," from 1947, is marvelous. In his preface, Greene says he left it out of 1972's COLLECTED STORIES because it was quite similar in tone to his 1940 novel THE POWER AND THE GLORY and the travelogue from that time, THE LAWLESS ROADS. But though I recognized the similarities without having read the preface (which I saved for last) I thought it held up very well and that it added something to Greene's ultimate statement on Mexico. "An Appointment With The General" is Greene at his sardonic best.
Most of these stories are quite short, but Greene was a master of compression. If most of these are not profound, they make their points truthfully. I thought the story from 1929, "Murder For the Wrong Reason", was overlong, but there is something haunting about that early phase of his career, before Marxism or religion caught him. (His novel from that year, THE MAN WITHIN, is pastoral, and I recommend it.)
Two stories published at the height of World War Two, "The News in English" and "The Lieutenant
Died Last" are quite good.
Graham Greene was an incomparable stylist. Of the stories in this collection, the only one I think is great is "The Lottery Ticket." But this is not a themed collection. (For one of the best themed volume of short stories ever published, read MAY WE BORROW YOUR HUSBAND?) Though some of these stories are not quite what they could be, they are the work of a very congenial writer.
The earliest story in this volume, "The New House", was published in 1929 in the OXFORD OUTLOOK. Why was it ever published, some may reasonably ask? The answer is a very simple one - I was the editor of the OUTLOOK.
There you have it: Graham Greene was witty and self-deprecating to the end. This collection focuses mainly on stories from the 1940s and late 1980s, but, indeed, as Greene's preface makes clear, it dips into his early output. The 1960s and '70s have been skipped altogether. The title story is representative Greene and is from 1988. The other two very late ones are "The Moment Of Truth," which seemed to me oversubtle and "An Old Man's Memory," which I didn't like but which is certainly in a mode Greene used fairly often in the eighties, a dismissive mode. This story is quite brief. 1955's "The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower" is also brief, and thank God. Greene is often witty, but his humorous fantasies are forced. I think "The Lottery Ticket," from 1947, is marvelous. In his preface, Greene says he left it out of 1972's COLLECTED STORIES because it was quite similar in tone to his 1940 novel THE POWER AND THE GLORY and the travelogue from that time, THE LAWLESS ROADS. But though I recognized the similarities without having read the preface (which I saved for last) I thought it held up very well and that it added something to Greene's ultimate statement on Mexico. "An Appointment With The General" is Greene at his sardonic best.
Most of these stories are quite short, but Greene was a master of compression. If most of these are not profound, they make their points truthfully. I thought the story from 1929, "Murder For the Wrong Reason", was overlong, but there is something haunting about that early phase of his career, before Marxism or religion caught him. (His novel from that year, THE MAN WITHIN, is pastoral, and I recommend it.)
Two stories published at the height of World War Two, "The News in English" and "The Lieutenant
Died Last" are quite good.
Graham Greene was an incomparable stylist. Of the stories in this collection, the only one I think is great is "The Lottery Ticket." But this is not a themed collection. (For one of the best themed volume of short stories ever published, read MAY WE BORROW YOUR HUSBAND?) Though some of these stories are not quite what they could be, they are the work of a very congenial writer.
January 22, 2020
These twelve stories, written and published between 1923 and 1989, are not Greene's best but are certainly representative of his work, themes, experience, and philosophy. Behind each one is the incisive understanding of a mind that has viewed the worst and the best.
Several of the stories concern World War II. In "The News in English" a wife and mother-in-law spend their nights listening to the wireless from Germany until one night the women recognize a familiar voice. A poacher is the only witness to the arrival of German parachutists in 1940 onto English soil. In "The Lieutenant Died Last," old Purves may be unclear on the year, 1914 or 1940, Bojers or Germans, but he sees his opportunity and takes it. A government employee has what might seem a perfect job in "A Branch of the Service," but in the end he wants out.
A waiter facing a serious medical matter is inspired to hope by the attentions of a foreign couple who seek out the same table and his services in "The Moment of Truth." The following story, "The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower," as slight as it is, makes the reader wonder just how obtuse people are. In "The New House," an architect is confronted with a choice and then its consequences. The oddest piece is "Work Not in Progress." The narrator explains his ecclesiastical musical, "My Girl in Gaiters."
"Murder for the Wrong Reason" starts and ends as a typical murder mystery, but along the way Detective-Inspector Mason calls in the constable from the street, and leads him through the investigation while Mason recalls all he knows of the deceased.
Two stories, set in South America, emphasize the ineptitude of Europeans out of their depths. An Englishman learns to his consternation that he was won the local lottery, in "The Lottery Ticket." A French journalist is hired to interview the new dictator of a small South American country. Without the local language and uncertain she can produce the article with the particular slant her editor wants, the writer perseveres in "An Appointment with the General."
Two stories are set in the future. The title story is a slight matter of a future in which the last pope meets the General. In "An Old Man's Memory," the narrator writes in 1995 about the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
Several of the stories concern World War II. In "The News in English" a wife and mother-in-law spend their nights listening to the wireless from Germany until one night the women recognize a familiar voice. A poacher is the only witness to the arrival of German parachutists in 1940 onto English soil. In "The Lieutenant Died Last," old Purves may be unclear on the year, 1914 or 1940, Bojers or Germans, but he sees his opportunity and takes it. A government employee has what might seem a perfect job in "A Branch of the Service," but in the end he wants out.
A waiter facing a serious medical matter is inspired to hope by the attentions of a foreign couple who seek out the same table and his services in "The Moment of Truth." The following story, "The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower," as slight as it is, makes the reader wonder just how obtuse people are. In "The New House," an architect is confronted with a choice and then its consequences. The oddest piece is "Work Not in Progress." The narrator explains his ecclesiastical musical, "My Girl in Gaiters."
"Murder for the Wrong Reason" starts and ends as a typical murder mystery, but along the way Detective-Inspector Mason calls in the constable from the street, and leads him through the investigation while Mason recalls all he knows of the deceased.
Two stories, set in South America, emphasize the ineptitude of Europeans out of their depths. An Englishman learns to his consternation that he was won the local lottery, in "The Lottery Ticket." A French journalist is hired to interview the new dictator of a small South American country. Without the local language and uncertain she can produce the article with the particular slant her editor wants, the writer perseveres in "An Appointment with the General."
Two stories are set in the future. The title story is a slight matter of a future in which the last pope meets the General. In "An Old Man's Memory," the narrator writes in 1995 about the opening of the Channel Tunnel.
December 1, 2021
I was really impressed. This is my first book by Greene, and while his name has been familiar for decades I never got around to reading anything by him. But this collection of short stories definitely has me interested in reading more of his work. I really enjoyed his writing style and his impressions and perspectives.
June 15, 2025
Short stories are a favorite genre of mine. So far this year I have read a passel of them and hope to read many more. To date, I've read 124. Graham Greene has contributed 12 to this total and 2 of these are as good as any I've read this year.
The title story, The Last Word and The News in English, are outstanding. The last page of the Last Word is one of the best I have ever read.
The title story, The Last Word and The News in English, are outstanding. The last page of the Last Word is one of the best I have ever read.
July 30, 2024
Gotta love the convert's fears of the downfall of organized religion. Greene, a Nobel prize-winning, alcoholic, bipolar, adulterer, traveler, and espionage extraordinaire with a love for both Fidel Castro and the Catholic church. He contains multitudes.
June 23, 2018
Graham Greene was a writer who had a lot of stories, and this book does a good job at showing the wide variety of his work and his mastery at painting worthwhile and interesting situations. This book is certainly full of varied and interesting material and without question if you like the longer writings of Greene there are characters here that you would likely want to get to know better. I can think of about half a dozen of the stories that rank in the first rank of short stories as a whole, and they are varied to an extent that they demonstrate Greene's skill as a writer with stories of all kinds. This is the sort of collection of stories that were not included in previous works that will make you laugh, or cry, or make you wonder what is going on to a great extent until the author finishes the story with some kind of dramatic turnabout that leaves the reader impressed and sometimes even genuinely surprised. There is a lot to like about this collection, not least the fact that one gets a dozen Greene stories in about 150 pages of reading, a high degree of bang for one's buck.
The dozen stories included here are as follows. We begin with "The Last Word," a compelling and dramatic story of the execution of the last pope and an authoritarian state confident that it has vanquished Christianity from existence. "The News In English" provides a dramatic tale of an English spy who escapes Nazi Germany and shows himself to be heroic, to the enjoyment of his wife but the disappointment of his mother. "The Moment Of Truth" provides a poignant tale of a man dying of cancer while being a lonely server at a beloved restaurant. "The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower" gives a compelling story of a dramatic and clever work in Paris by the narrator. "The Lieutenant Died Last" is a dramatic story of a cat-and-mouse game between German paratroopers taking over a quiet English village in World War II and a man avenging the death of his son in World War I who is determined to stop them. "A Branch Of The Service" shows the travails of a food critic turned spy that shows that even critics can have their time serving in espionage efforts. "An Old Man's Memory" gives a story of terrorism in the Chunnel. "The Lottery Ticket" is a compelling story of naive Westerners dealing with corrupt Mexican politics and the danger of political labels. "The New House" tells an odd story of a man's attempt to build an intriguing and strange house. "Work Not In Progress" provides an example of Greene's writing that attempts to be suitable for little ones, and is certainly a humorous tale. "Murder For The Wrong Reasons" tells a noir story of a corrupt cop and a dead blackmailer and a tale of twisted love and hidden identities that deserves to be made into an awesome movie. Finally, "Appointment With The General" tells of a compelling interview between an ambiguous journalist with some personal problems and a general who dreams of death even as various factions seek to kill him for not turning to socialism or Communism fast enough for their tastes.
As one can readily imagine, there are a lot of different elements of Greene's work that show themselves in these stories. As one might expect, politics, intrigue, and violence play a heavy role in these stories--often some or all of these at once. However, Greene's deeper worth as a writer of classic literature springs from more than this. He shows himself deeply attentive to people and their personal struggles, and he has a firm grasp not only of surprising twists but also of character. This attention to character shows itself in dialogue, in the character's thoughts and flashbacks and the way that Greene is able to provide compelling back stories for many of his protagonists, even in the form of short stories. Likewise, a few of the stories play on the author's interest in religion, which serves as a compelling reminder of Greene's larger cultural importance, in that he considered the fate of Christianity in the modern world to be a subject worthy of a noir tale of intrigue and violence, showing how even without political power religion has the way of inspiring doubts among those who hold civil authority and who cannot help but wonder if there is some secret truth that defies all of their attempts to coerce the world into their own liking. This is definitely a great, if eclectic series of stories.
The dozen stories included here are as follows. We begin with "The Last Word," a compelling and dramatic story of the execution of the last pope and an authoritarian state confident that it has vanquished Christianity from existence. "The News In English" provides a dramatic tale of an English spy who escapes Nazi Germany and shows himself to be heroic, to the enjoyment of his wife but the disappointment of his mother. "The Moment Of Truth" provides a poignant tale of a man dying of cancer while being a lonely server at a beloved restaurant. "The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower" gives a compelling story of a dramatic and clever work in Paris by the narrator. "The Lieutenant Died Last" is a dramatic story of a cat-and-mouse game between German paratroopers taking over a quiet English village in World War II and a man avenging the death of his son in World War I who is determined to stop them. "A Branch Of The Service" shows the travails of a food critic turned spy that shows that even critics can have their time serving in espionage efforts. "An Old Man's Memory" gives a story of terrorism in the Chunnel. "The Lottery Ticket" is a compelling story of naive Westerners dealing with corrupt Mexican politics and the danger of political labels. "The New House" tells an odd story of a man's attempt to build an intriguing and strange house. "Work Not In Progress" provides an example of Greene's writing that attempts to be suitable for little ones, and is certainly a humorous tale. "Murder For The Wrong Reasons" tells a noir story of a corrupt cop and a dead blackmailer and a tale of twisted love and hidden identities that deserves to be made into an awesome movie. Finally, "Appointment With The General" tells of a compelling interview between an ambiguous journalist with some personal problems and a general who dreams of death even as various factions seek to kill him for not turning to socialism or Communism fast enough for their tastes.
As one can readily imagine, there are a lot of different elements of Greene's work that show themselves in these stories. As one might expect, politics, intrigue, and violence play a heavy role in these stories--often some or all of these at once. However, Greene's deeper worth as a writer of classic literature springs from more than this. He shows himself deeply attentive to people and their personal struggles, and he has a firm grasp not only of surprising twists but also of character. This attention to character shows itself in dialogue, in the character's thoughts and flashbacks and the way that Greene is able to provide compelling back stories for many of his protagonists, even in the form of short stories. Likewise, a few of the stories play on the author's interest in religion, which serves as a compelling reminder of Greene's larger cultural importance, in that he considered the fate of Christianity in the modern world to be a subject worthy of a noir tale of intrigue and violence, showing how even without political power religion has the way of inspiring doubts among those who hold civil authority and who cannot help but wonder if there is some secret truth that defies all of their attempts to coerce the world into their own liking. This is definitely a great, if eclectic series of stories.
May 16, 2012
This book brings together twelve of Greene's short -- some very short -- stories which had not been anthologized, for one reason or another, in his earlier volumes of stories. These tales span the range of his career, going all the way back into the 1920s, and up to the late 1980s. As a longtime fan, and very unsystematic reader, of Greene, I was elated to find this little book while digging through library stacks, and read it in the space of an evening. The stories are like a selection of little dishes, of greatly varying taste, texture, tone, so even a reader not particularly enamored of Greene's themes and style will likely find something to enjoy.
Greene has always been a master at revealing characters passage by passage, and setting them at cross-purposes, not artificially, but within the sorts of real contexts and conflicts into which life tragically places people. He also has an eye for the comic, but usually darkly so. Both of these aspects of his work come out in this selection of stories.
"The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower" is an almost Roald Dahl-esque sort of play of fancy, spurred by the narrator's desire and decision to give the long hard-working landmark a bit of a vacance a la campagne, a farce of taxi-drivers, drunk tourists blitzing the "sites," and tower staff, none of whom are "fool enough to admit that [their] place of employment has ceased to exist until the week has come around and the money has been earned."
"A Branch of the Service" combines the genre of the spy-story, at which Greene excels, with an excursion into gastronomy and epicurianism whose demands the narrator would so badly like to escape. I'll not give away the story; suffice it to say that the work this spy does must be conducted over dinners too rich for his taste and stomach.
"The Lieutenant Died Last" tells a tale of a heroic guerrilla battle carried out by a deadly but damaged soldier turned poacher. During WW II, Germans para-drop into an isolated but strategic English village, round up the inhabitants, and prepare to start carrying out operations. Purves, a Boer War veteran, drunk, living in a shanty, slips by the soldiers, loads his Mauser, and then begins to ambush the Germans, doing most of them in, including the wounded Lieutenant. There's no battlefield redemption for the former soldier, though -- he's good at killing, and the fight simply lets him get even with the Boers, relive the past ("It was like youth again; all sorts of sly memories came back"), make sport ("Old Purves at this point of the game could have retired safely, with all the honors, but he was enjoying himself").
The very first story "The Last Word" is essentially a parable, reminiscent both of Dostoevsky's "Grand Inquisitor" chapter of The Brothers Karamazov, and of another great Greene story, "The Hint of an Explanation." In it, the last pope, living in obscurity and forgetfulness after the abolition of Christianity decades earlier, the end of conflict, and the unification of the world under the General -- along with his old book, and a crucifix he manages to conceal -- is summoned before the world leader. A pivotal moment of triumph: "'You are the last living Christian,' the General said. 'You are a historical figure. For that reason I wanted to honor you at the end.'" The reader is left to puzzle over the meaning and implications of the last supper, the final moments, and "a strange and frightening doubt [that] crossed [the General's] mind."
Those are, of the twelve, my favorite four stories contained in this volume -- and perhaps the best recommendation I can give of the set is that, even if those four were torn out page by page, the book would still be worth the time of reading.
Greene has always been a master at revealing characters passage by passage, and setting them at cross-purposes, not artificially, but within the sorts of real contexts and conflicts into which life tragically places people. He also has an eye for the comic, but usually darkly so. Both of these aspects of his work come out in this selection of stories.
"The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower" is an almost Roald Dahl-esque sort of play of fancy, spurred by the narrator's desire and decision to give the long hard-working landmark a bit of a vacance a la campagne, a farce of taxi-drivers, drunk tourists blitzing the "sites," and tower staff, none of whom are "fool enough to admit that [their] place of employment has ceased to exist until the week has come around and the money has been earned."
"A Branch of the Service" combines the genre of the spy-story, at which Greene excels, with an excursion into gastronomy and epicurianism whose demands the narrator would so badly like to escape. I'll not give away the story; suffice it to say that the work this spy does must be conducted over dinners too rich for his taste and stomach.
"The Lieutenant Died Last" tells a tale of a heroic guerrilla battle carried out by a deadly but damaged soldier turned poacher. During WW II, Germans para-drop into an isolated but strategic English village, round up the inhabitants, and prepare to start carrying out operations. Purves, a Boer War veteran, drunk, living in a shanty, slips by the soldiers, loads his Mauser, and then begins to ambush the Germans, doing most of them in, including the wounded Lieutenant. There's no battlefield redemption for the former soldier, though -- he's good at killing, and the fight simply lets him get even with the Boers, relive the past ("It was like youth again; all sorts of sly memories came back"), make sport ("Old Purves at this point of the game could have retired safely, with all the honors, but he was enjoying himself").
The very first story "The Last Word" is essentially a parable, reminiscent both of Dostoevsky's "Grand Inquisitor" chapter of The Brothers Karamazov, and of another great Greene story, "The Hint of an Explanation." In it, the last pope, living in obscurity and forgetfulness after the abolition of Christianity decades earlier, the end of conflict, and the unification of the world under the General -- along with his old book, and a crucifix he manages to conceal -- is summoned before the world leader. A pivotal moment of triumph: "'You are the last living Christian,' the General said. 'You are a historical figure. For that reason I wanted to honor you at the end.'" The reader is left to puzzle over the meaning and implications of the last supper, the final moments, and "a strange and frightening doubt [that] crossed [the General's] mind."
Those are, of the twelve, my favorite four stories contained in this volume -- and perhaps the best recommendation I can give of the set is that, even if those four were torn out page by page, the book would still be worth the time of reading.
December 20, 2020
I think I'm in love with Graham Greene now and I'm not sure how to feel about that. In many senses, I'd written him off as somebody who wrote about things that I wasn't interested in. A sweeping statement I know, but that's what we do and honesty in such things is important. I only came to realise very recently, driven entirely by this volume, that short stories by Greene are a revelation to me and this is a cornucopia of delights. Witty, smart, provocative and fiercely distinct, this is a lovely, lovely collection.
And here's the thing: I only picked this up because of a film, which in turn I only watched because I caught somebody tweeting about it. The serendipity of reading intrigues me, the way you can tumble into a text because of another, because of circumstance and the things you catch in the day. In many senses, I rather love that - that dynamic sense of movement and finding things anew (and in the state of literary fiction, finding them and understanding them in a way that is not dictated to you by others). The film was Went the Day Well? and it is a remarkable, brilliant thing. (The reason the tweet about it caught my eye was that I love 1940s / 1950s films and the tweet mentioned the remarkable sight of Thora Hird wielding a machine gun which really did just sell the entire thing to me).
Went the Day Well? was based on The Lieutenant Died Last, a story of twenty four pages (!), and one of the highlights of this volume for me. I also absolutely loved The Last Word (the way it grew! the power of it!) and The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower is so, so brilliant. There's some moments of utter wonder here. As with every short story collection, there's one or two that really didn't work for me and I found Murder For The Wrong Reason and Work Not In Progress pretty skippable, but The Last Word, The Lieutenant Died Last, and The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower are absolutely, utterly, brilliant.
A final note on Graham Greene, as I'm still trying to figure out how I can cope with absolutely loving his work after It Being Not For Me for so long. A member of staff at my undergrad university had the same name and on a day when we were giving tours to prospective student, a parent asked about staff. One of the other student guides mentioned Graham. The parents: THE GRAHAM GREENE?????????????????????. The guide, blissful, conscious of there being only member of staff with that name: er yes?
The hysteria, endless.
And here's the thing: I only picked this up because of a film, which in turn I only watched because I caught somebody tweeting about it. The serendipity of reading intrigues me, the way you can tumble into a text because of another, because of circumstance and the things you catch in the day. In many senses, I rather love that - that dynamic sense of movement and finding things anew (and in the state of literary fiction, finding them and understanding them in a way that is not dictated to you by others). The film was Went the Day Well? and it is a remarkable, brilliant thing. (The reason the tweet about it caught my eye was that I love 1940s / 1950s films and the tweet mentioned the remarkable sight of Thora Hird wielding a machine gun which really did just sell the entire thing to me).
Went the Day Well? was based on The Lieutenant Died Last, a story of twenty four pages (!), and one of the highlights of this volume for me. I also absolutely loved The Last Word (the way it grew! the power of it!) and The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower is so, so brilliant. There's some moments of utter wonder here. As with every short story collection, there's one or two that really didn't work for me and I found Murder For The Wrong Reason and Work Not In Progress pretty skippable, but The Last Word, The Lieutenant Died Last, and The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower are absolutely, utterly, brilliant.
A final note on Graham Greene, as I'm still trying to figure out how I can cope with absolutely loving his work after It Being Not For Me for so long. A member of staff at my undergrad university had the same name and on a day when we were giving tours to prospective student, a parent asked about staff. One of the other student guides mentioned Graham. The parents: THE GRAHAM GREENE?????????????????????. The guide, blissful, conscious of there being only member of staff with that name: er yes?
The hysteria, endless.
April 24, 2021
This slim little volume (they keep getting smaller as Greene gets older – and this is his last book of stories before his death in 1991) collects stories from his earliest writing days in the 1920s (“The New House”) to the 1980s (“An Old Man’s Memory”). Although I had read some of them before in his other books of collected stories, many had only appeared in other publications (Strand, Punch, etc.) and one is published here for the first time: “A Branch of the Service.”
Greene writes a 3-page preface to this volume, basically telling why these stories were chosen and why some had NOT been collected earlier: “It was because Time (and with it Memory) passes with horrifying speed.”
“The Last Word” is set in an unspecified future – about the last Pope. “The News in English” features Lord Haw-Haw, in a bizarrely even-handed fantasy. “The Moment of Truth” gives us some hints of the hilarious (manic?) side of Greene with his Americans insisting on the wrong word for the restaurant. I found The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower” to be the oddest of the stories. “The Lieutenant Died Last” is a quite wonderful tale that I had read before about a German invasion of a small English village. It was made into a movie by Cavalcanti. Greene says he never saw it – and I haven’t either. But, I would like to – it’s a good tale. “A Branch of the Service” gives us a foretaste of Our Man in Havana – with the mistaken spy. “Work Not in Progress” is like nothing else I’ve read by Greene (it is apparently a synopsis for a musical comedy).
But it’s “Murder for the Wrong Reason” that really caught my attention. It is clearly Greene having a lot of fun pretending he is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even the names he chooses – Mason and Collinson” – come right out of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. In his introduction, Greene explains: “During those early years in the twenties and thirties I was much interested in the detective story (I even began Brighton Rock expecting it to be a detective story), and I have dim memories of a detective novel which I began and abandoned in the early thirties, containing a priest as detective and a child in her early teens as the killer.”
“An Appointment with the General,” of course, is a novelized sketch ot his very successful book, Getting to Know the General. It is particularly fascinating, because the person interviewing the general is a woman. Interesting to think that the political work of the book could have been a novel, had Greene continued with this plot.
Greene writes a 3-page preface to this volume, basically telling why these stories were chosen and why some had NOT been collected earlier: “It was because Time (and with it Memory) passes with horrifying speed.”
“The Last Word” is set in an unspecified future – about the last Pope. “The News in English” features Lord Haw-Haw, in a bizarrely even-handed fantasy. “The Moment of Truth” gives us some hints of the hilarious (manic?) side of Greene with his Americans insisting on the wrong word for the restaurant. I found The Man Who Stole the Eiffel Tower” to be the oddest of the stories. “The Lieutenant Died Last” is a quite wonderful tale that I had read before about a German invasion of a small English village. It was made into a movie by Cavalcanti. Greene says he never saw it – and I haven’t either. But, I would like to – it’s a good tale. “A Branch of the Service” gives us a foretaste of Our Man in Havana – with the mistaken spy. “Work Not in Progress” is like nothing else I’ve read by Greene (it is apparently a synopsis for a musical comedy).
But it’s “Murder for the Wrong Reason” that really caught my attention. It is clearly Greene having a lot of fun pretending he is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even the names he chooses – Mason and Collinson” – come right out of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. In his introduction, Greene explains: “During those early years in the twenties and thirties I was much interested in the detective story (I even began Brighton Rock expecting it to be a detective story), and I have dim memories of a detective novel which I began and abandoned in the early thirties, containing a priest as detective and a child in her early teens as the killer.”
“An Appointment with the General,” of course, is a novelized sketch ot his very successful book, Getting to Know the General. It is particularly fascinating, because the person interviewing the general is a woman. Interesting to think that the political work of the book could have been a novel, had Greene continued with this plot.
February 4, 2024
I found this collection of Graham Greene's short stories purely by chance, wandering around the shelves of Green Apple bookstore in San Francisco with my daughter. It was a beautiful rainy day in the city, and I remember after leaving the bookstore we were compelled to seek shelter in a wee shop on Clement when the heavens opened up and soaked us all to the skin.
And yet, I was so happy.
It had been years since I had read anything from Greene, and this was my first collection of short stories from him, masterfully composed and reflecting the very struggles he faced toward the end of his life -- The Last Word was indeed his final short story, published before his death from Leukemia in 1991. In these stories are tales of the declining influence of the church, of espionage and breaking hearts, of language and agents and anger and fear. And hope.
And all beautifully written. Thank you, Graham Greene, for once again reminding me why I love to read.
And yet, I was so happy.
It had been years since I had read anything from Greene, and this was my first collection of short stories from him, masterfully composed and reflecting the very struggles he faced toward the end of his life -- The Last Word was indeed his final short story, published before his death from Leukemia in 1991. In these stories are tales of the declining influence of the church, of espionage and breaking hearts, of language and agents and anger and fear. And hope.
And all beautifully written. Thank you, Graham Greene, for once again reminding me why I love to read.
August 11, 2020
Did I not like this book because I don't, in general, like short stories?
Did I not like this book because there were more stories that didn't work for me than did?
Did I not like this book because it feels somewhat old and tired?
Some stories worked. The Last Word had a surprising gentleness to it. The News In English turns out to be a rather beautiful love story. The Lieutenant Died Last had a charming English village to feel to it. And Lottery Ticket was almost brilliant.
Did I not like this book because there were more stories that didn't work for me than did?
Did I not like this book because it feels somewhat old and tired?
Some stories worked. The Last Word had a surprising gentleness to it. The News In English turns out to be a rather beautiful love story. The Lieutenant Died Last had a charming English village to feel to it. And Lottery Ticket was almost brilliant.
April 19, 2021
There are a couple of definitely-weak stories included here towards the the third quarter but there are several which I very much-so enjoyed especially in the first half and the very end.
Personal note: I feel Catholic author is a bit of a misnomer for Graham Greene. Although he deals with Catholic ambience frequently, I feel his work has essentially a spirit of doubt.
Personal note: I feel Catholic author is a bit of a misnomer for Graham Greene. Although he deals with Catholic ambience frequently, I feel his work has essentially a spirit of doubt.
September 8, 2021
I was pleasantly surprised to find my library had this book; Greene isn't one of the bigger names in American fiction, and I'd sooner expect them to have one of his better-known novels, like The Quiet American or Our Man in Havana, or - if they're going to have his short stories - one of the story anthologies. Nevertheless, this was a pleasant surprise and a pleasant, quick read.
October 4, 2025
surely if love had any real importance a small memory of it would have survived
In a way a faith is like old age, it can’t go on forever.
We praise heroes as though they are rare, and yet we are always ready to blame another man for lack of heroism.
A man with a secret is a very lonely man.
“He knows, all there is to know”
In a way a faith is like old age, it can’t go on forever.
We praise heroes as though they are rare, and yet we are always ready to blame another man for lack of heroism.
A man with a secret is a very lonely man.
“He knows, all there is to know”
July 7, 2019
A mixed bag of stories put together after the author died. One or two classic Greene tales, such as the Last Word itself, written shortly before his death, but others are definitely fillers. Still, the Master's prose is always a pleasure.
November 4, 2020
There’s never been anything by Graham Greene I didn’t like. He is a master of emotion written in a plain and straightforward way. These stories are no exception. I especially liked the title story, which takes us to a time of peace and no religion.
February 11, 2020
Technically, this is not a great read, 2-star at best, but it is interesting if you are a GG fan. It's more of a review of his life's work through the not-good-enough pile. I quite enjoyed it.
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