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201:"D", a patriot from a country suffering a civil war, is in England to secure a contract with coal magnate Lord Benditch that will greatly assist the faltering loyalist cause. His country is nameless and the details of its history, geography, and current politics remain vague. However, the reader could have little doubt – and Greene himself admitted as much – that the
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Without promoting a left-wing agenda, Greene shows a distaste for the authoritarian militaristic regime of the
Nationalists in Spain and, readers then would quickly have made the connection, that of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. England by contrast, though often humdrum and uninspiring, is at peace
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D is a man of peace, a university intellectual who values truth and honour. For the sake of his mission he initially accepts insults and beatings, until a turning point occurs. After all the injustices he has suffered, back in his home country and then in
England, he becomes a solitary instrument of
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Released on bail thanks to lawyers engaged by Forbes, he learns that the firm now think it too dangerous to sell coal to the rebels and have cancelled the deal with L. Realising where Rose's affections have gone, Forbes renounces her and agrees to drive D to the south coast, where he is taken out to
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Retrieving his documents from Else next day, he goes to see Lord
Benditch and his fellow directors, one of whom is Forbes, informally engaged to Rose. They are ready to do a deal and ask for his documents, which he discovers have been lifted from him on the way in by Benditch's butler. Dismissed, on
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On the ferry he sees L, an aristocratic supporter of the right-wing rebels, and Rose, a bold and wilful
English girl. Waiting for the train to London, Rose tells D she is the estranged daughter of Lord Benditch, the mineowner whom D has come to negotiate with. Impatient, she hires a car and offers D
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D, a former university professor from the
Continent who speaks English, is sent by his government, two years into a vicious civil war, on a secret mission to buy coal in England. Traumatised by the war, in which his wife was executed in error and he was buried alive in an air raid, England to him is
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is embroiled internally in bitter factional fights while fighting a brutal civil war and a land-owning aristocracy determined to destroy the republic to regain its centuries-old privileged position. Underscoring the
Spanish connection, in the novel's final section, a ship travelling from England to
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Rose comes in and gets Forbes to come with her to D's embassy, where she thinks he will be authenticated. The official they see, a supporter of the rebels, claims that D is dead, pulls out a gun and calls the police. They question D about the death of Else, thrown from an upper window of the hotel.
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Hitching a lift to London, D follows instructions by booking into a seedy hotel, where he befriends the 14-year-old maid Else and persuades her to hide his documents in her stocking. Then he goes to meet his contact K, who works at a language school teaching an invented language called
Entrenationo
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Convinced that K is not only working for the rebels but is also a murderer, he takes him at gunpoint from the language school to the flat he has found. In the bathroom he shoots at him, but misses. Rose knocks on the outside door, having tracked him down, and they discover K has died of shock. The
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In a final effort to stop the deal with L, he takes a train to the
Midlands town where Benditch's mine is and attempts to dissuade the workers by telling them where the coal is going. They put work ahead of solidarity. Some teenagers he befriends want to blow up the mine and he helps them, but is
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164:). Back at his hotel, Rose rings and asks him to meet her, but on his way a bullet misses him. When Rose returns to the spot with him, she finds the bullet and realises he is in mortal danger. Telling her about his work before the war as one of the world's leading experts on the
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below him. He used that apartment in the novel (it's where D. hides for a day) and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. But critics took a far different view;
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a lift, but when they stop at a hotel a man in the washroom tries to rob D. Deciding to drive on alone, he is followed by L, whose chauffeur beats him up and leaves him by the roadside. They do not find the government documents D had hidden in his shoe.
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is used by D and Rose as a yardstick for measuring heroic or treacherous behaviour, while Rose's rôle as a mysterious helper to the hero reprises that of princesses like
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under the rule of law. Greene emphasises the horrors of modern war, in particular the physical and mental effects of bombing on civilian populations.
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Altogether, D. has failed in his primary mission – to procure
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two admit that they have fallen in love, but she is meant to be marrying Forbes and he has to try and save his mission.
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was his main inspiration for the book's depiction of a left-leaning, popular
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knocked out by the blast and taken back to London by the police.
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his way out he sees L going in to talk to the mineowners.
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Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement
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Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement
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a ship that is heading home. On the ship he finds Rose.
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A Book & Movie Review by Dan Stumpf in Mystery*File
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294:Peter Lorre
280:, starring
267:Adaptations
1360:Categories
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967:Yes and No
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351:References
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126:Benzedrine
567:Works by
273:1945 film
231:justice.
162:Esperanto
68:Publisher
1347:Category
1081:" (1954)
1074:" (1954)
1067:" (1940)
1060:" (1938)
1053:" (1936)
1046:" (1930)
1039:" (1929)
320:See also
61:Thriller
49:Language
1142:21 Days
705:; 1949)
703:novella
398:, p. 81
383:, p. 87
368:, p. 69
257:Ariadne
216:Channel
197:Setting
52:English
1345:
1323:(play)
1305:(2010)
1297:(2002)
1289:(1999)
1281:(1985)
1273:(1983)
1265:(1979)
1257:(1972)
1249:(1967)
1241:(1959)
1233:(1958)
1225:(1957)
1217:(1956)
1209:(1955)
1201:(1953)
1193:(1949)
1185:(1948)
1177:(1947)
1169:(1944)
1161:(1942)
1153:(1942)
1145:(1940)
1137:(1940)
1129:(1937)
1121:(1934)
1021:(1990)
1013:(1967)
1005:(1963)
997:(1954)
978:(1983)
970:(1983)
962:(1981)
954:(1975)
946:(1964)
938:(1959)
930:(1957)
922:(1953)
903:(1992)
895:(1984)
887:(1980)
879:(1971)
860:(1984)
852:(1961)
844:(1939)
836:(1936)
817:(2005)
809:(1988)
801:(1985)
793:(1982)
785:(1980)
777:(1978)
769:(1973)
761:(1969)
753:(1966)
745:(1960)
737:(1958)
729:(1955)
721:(1955)
713:(1951)
693:(1948)
685:(1943)
677:(1940)
669:(1939)
661:(1938)
653:(1936)
645:(1935)
637:(1935)
629:(1934)
621:(1932)
613:(1932)
605:(1930)
597:(1929)
586:Novels
508:Escape
427:, p.22
411:op cit
409:West,
394:Reid,
379:West,
346:(film)
305:Escape
251:. The
226:Themes
39:Author
1313:Other
1110:Films
911:Plays
261:Medea
63:novel
57:Genre
482:2015
292:and
259:and
134:flat
89:1939
79:(US)
74:(UK)
308:by
1362::
473:.
462:^
444:^
316:.
288:,
284:,
222:.
1102:"
1098:"
1095:"
1091:"
1088:"
1084:"
1077:"
1070:"
1063:"
1056:"
1049:"
1042:"
1035:"
701:(
560:e
553:t
546:v
484:.
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