ePub The Quiet American download

by Graham Greene

Author:

Graham Greene

ISBN13:

978-0140017922

ISBN:

0140017925

Language:

English

Publisher:

Penguin Books; 1977 Printing edition (August 25, 1977)

Category:

Suspense

Subcategory:

Thrillers & Suspense

ePub file:

1272 kb

Fb2 file:

1495 kb

Other formats:

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Rating:

4.7

Votes:

207

Graham Greene Thrillers and Suspense English

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Dear Rene and Phuong, I have asked permission to dedicate this book to you not only in memory of the happy evenings I have spent with you in Saigon over the last five years, but also because I have quite shamelessly borrowed the location of your flat to house one of my characters, and your name, Phuong, for the convenience of readers because it is simple, beautiful.

The Quiet American is a 1955 novel by English author Graham Greene. Narrated in the first person by journalist Thomas Fowler, the novel depicts the breakdown of French colonialism in Vietnam and early American involvement in the Vietnam War. A subplot concerns a love triangle between Fowler, an American CIA agent named Alden Pyle, and Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman.

Graham Greene was born in 1904. He established his reputation with his fourth novel, Stamboul Train. This later produced the novel, The Heart of the Matter, set in West Africa. As well as his many novels, Graham Greene wrote several collections of short stories, four travel books, six plays, three books of autobiography – A Sort of Life, Ways of Escape and A World of My Own (published posthumously) – two of biography and four books for children.

In The Quiet American, Greene’s genius lies in making Fowler both a wise observer and an imperfect . The Quiet American is a far less sentimental book than the ultimately pious The Power and the Glory, and Greene reveals Fowler’s hypocrisy.

In The Quiet American, Greene’s genius lies in making Fowler both a wise observer and an imperfect character. Fowler carries the baggage of an old colonialist. He has paid for the sins of his forefathers with something like cynical exhaustion. The Quiet American is a far less sentimental book than the ultimately pious The Power and the Glory, and Greene reveals Fowler’s hypocrisy in the third person as though she were not there, Fowler writes.

Graham Greene's, "The Quiet American" is a wonderfully entertaining, beautifully crafted novel, about the French military involvement in Vietnam in the 1950's and the earlier, secretive involvement of the United States. The characters are richly developed and the moral and ethical questions they pose could be debated until the end of time.

Other Books Related to The Quiet American. Greene and the movies: Although Graham Greene was a great novelist, many of his readers don’t realize that he was an equally accomplished screenwriter. The archetype of the virtuous Westerner who goes native when he travels into the exotic East hardly begins with Alden Pyle in The Quiet American. To date, more than 60 of Greene’s works have been adapted for the screen (The Quiet American alone has been adapted twice!), many of them featuring screenplays written by Greene himself. Green was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for the 1948 film The Fallen Idol, adapted from his short story, The Basement Room.

The Quiet American is considered one of Graham Greene’s major achievements. The story is told with excellent characterization and sophisticated irony. The plot bears a resemblance to that of a mystery story. Probably they will get together and agree to the same peace that we could have had at the beginning, making nonsense of all these years. Greene’s political objective is clearly to make a mockery the notion of a Third Force in Asian politics, countering the threat of Communism and replacing the rationale of colonialism as an explanation for Western involvement.

The Quiet American study guide contains a biography of Graham Greene, literature essays, quiz questions, major . These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Quiet American by Graham Greene

The Quiet American study guide contains a biography of Graham Greene, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. About The Quiet American. The Quiet American Summary. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Quiet American by Graham Greene. The Quiet American - Greene and the Cold War Mindset. Lacking Control: A Soldier’s Excuse. Lesson Plan for The Quiet American.

Роман "Тихий американец" (1955), на первый взгляд, посвящен вечной коллизии: на фоне трагических событий в Сайгоне развиваются отношения внутри любовного треугольника - английский журналист, его вьетнамская подруга и молодой американец. Однако за любовным конфликтом скрываются куда более масштабные вещи: и муки морального выбора главного героя, и размышления о ничтожной цене жизни человека, попавшего в политическую мясорубку, и остроактуальная идея экспорта западных ценностей, воплощенная в образе" тихого американца" Пайла.

Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious 'Third Force'. As his naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler finds it hard to stand and watch.

Charyoll

This is a fascinating look at the intrigue of a place and time that few Americans know much about--Vietnam in the early 1950s, during its struggle for independence from the French, and long before the conflict that brought it to the attention of the American public. The book was also written long before that more famous conflict (1955), so many of the scenes will seem fantastically prescient to a modern American reader. Some of that angered me, as it mirrored the American experience in the Vietnam War so closely, that you realize our leaders in the 1960s had no excuse for not knowing what they were getting us into. The narrator is a cynical British journalist--a bit too cynical for my taste, though he has some amazing insights into human nature. The treatment of the eponymous American is a bit high-handed at times, though sometimes deserved, and sometimes not. There is a smug dismissal of American naivete and meddling that is in part justified in hindsight, and in part seems like unwarranted cultural condescension. It is a well-told story, and it brings out the complications and enigmas of post-WW2 southeast Asia very well. I gained useful insights into the later Vietnam War era, but in the end I was left vaguely unsatisfied.

FreandlyMan

I re-read this after some years. It's my favorite of Greene's collection. He has an ability to immerse a reader in a story, so much so that even after I left the book for a day or so I never left the characters, who seemed to follow me hither and yon. The humor is subtle and deeply satisfying. Take this book on a cruise or on a trip to a mountain cabin. It's not a long book. You can get it done in a weekend.

Uafrmaine

This book gives a stark and unsparing on-the-ground view of Vietnam, or French Indochina as it was commonly referred to at the time, and early French and American involvement, in the early 1950s. The author was openly disdainful in real life of what he perceived as American crassness and naivete, which he proceeds to (sometimes blastingly, sometimes almost-sympathetically) portray in this story of Pyle, an idealistic young anti-communist American "diplomat", with devastating effect simply because Greene's contempt and rage are not without merit. Greene's belief that innocence is an evil in the world is disconcerting on a certain level, an idea worth struggling with. There is plenty of sometimes-lethal action, intrigue and an unflinching if subtly-couched look at the character flaws of the book's first-person British-journalist narrator, including but not limited to his reactions to Pyle's s stealing his Vietnamese girlfriend. The grim joke in the book's title is in the fact that Pyle dies in the beginning pages, making him a very quiet American indeed. The rest of the book is flash-back, detailing the intrigues, unique to that time and place and struggle and culture (including Pyle's callousness to the deaths of innocents in advance of his desire to impose "democracy" on another culture and country) that lead to his death. This book is a sobering learning experience, in view of the later American military involvement, whose denouement validated much of what this book has to say. Whether such a cynical view of the world is fully merited is a question for the individual reader to mull.

Avarm

Leaving aside your feelings about the Viet Nam conflict, Greene is a truly great writer, who can describe a scene or situation in the fewest of words but with extraordinary effect. I read this because Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer, was reportedly much influenced by it. Greene's book is much better written (but to be fair at the point of writing The Quiet American, Greene was a more experienced novelist than Nguyen is now), and has more layers of moral ambiguities. But I'm still thinking about these books, and will for a long time.

Aver

“The Quiet American” takes place in 1950s Vietnam, a time when the French were still the ones fighting the Viet-Minh, and American involvement was all but invisible. It is narrated in the first person by Thomas Fowler, an English reporter living there and covering the war. The so-called “Quiet American” is Alden Pyle, who Fowler meets early in the novel, and who turns out to be both more and less than he seems.

With only one or two exceptions, the story manages to simultaneously maintain an underlying languidness even while events move along. The languid impression is conveyed by the seeming comfortable accommodation that Fowler and the other Europeans have made with an Asian lifestyle only possible for a more prosperous European detached emotionally from the trials of the nation around him. Fowler himself come off as a bit cynical on the surface, but this masks his quite realistic insights into what motivates both himself and those around him. It is perhaps his way of trying to make a joke of himself to keep these self-revelations from drowning him. He may be one of those people that tends to be a bit too hard on himself as well as on others. For example: “ I couldn't have made the sentimental assumption that Pyle made. I know myself, and I know the depth of my selfishness. I cannot be at ease (and to be at ease is my chief wish) if someone else is in pain, visibly or audibly or tactually. Sometimes this is mistaken by the innocent for unselfishness, when all I am doing is sacrificing a small good -- in this case postponement in attending to my hurt -- for the sake of a far greater good, a peace of mind when I need think only of myself."

Through his characters, Greene expressed insights in the 1950s (when he wrote this) that still have the ring of truth today, over 70 years later.

In the story, reporters are professionally briefed by the military, where they receive the information the military wants them to have (and no more!), and after which they get “guided tours” (usually via air) of the scene of the most recent hostilities. Often if a reporter shows up, as Fowler once does, they will allow him to “embed” with the fighting unit so he can report firsthand. How do the soldiers view these civilian reporters? “Perhaps to the soldier the civilian is the man who employs him to kill, includes the guilt of murder in the pay envelope and escapes responsibility.”

After a bombing in a town square exacts a body count almost completely composed of non-combatant civilians, most of whom are women and children, a person with advance notice of the bombing dissembled about this aspect of it by saying that there was supposed to be a parade that day and that the hoped-for targets should have included a handful of high-ranking officers. This was responded to by the question "How many dead colonels justify a child's or a trishaw driver's death when you are building a national Democratic front?" Such atrocities in the capital are committed with the idea that they will wrongly be attributed to the insurgents (almost like a “false flag” operation, only without the staging of “evidence”).

Finally near the end, when the possibility is raised of ultimate direct involvement by the Americans, someone replies "At least they won't hate us like they hate the French." Very much like the wag who insisted in 2002 that the soldiers of a certain invading army would be greeted as liberators.

This is my second Graham Greene novel (“The Human Factor” being the first), and it is clear that Greene was one of the greats.

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