The Man Within

By Graham Greene Graham Greene’s debut publication, The Man Within tells of Andrews, a smuggler turned informant, fugitive, and friend-betrayer. Fleeing his former fellow associates, whom he fears plan fatal consequences for his infidelity, Andrews finds shelter in a remote cottage, home to a solitary young woman named Elizabeth. Forthrightly, almost impulsively, Elizabeth persuades Andrews to redeem his treachery by honesty—to bear open witness in a court of law against his one-time accomplices, and thus prove himself, if not the better, at least the braver man. Yet neither Andrews nor Elizabeth reckon that there are worse dangers than those threatened by the law, mortal dangers at the hands of men who will scorn both justice and mercy in their own quest for survival. “There’s another man within me that’s angry with me.” (Sir Thomas Brown) Begun by Greene at the age of twenty-one and first published in 1929, The Man Within represents, in its author’s own telling, a gesture towards the past: “the period of ambition and hope.” Yet it is significant also as a forerunner of the future and preview of his later works, which dramatized so powerfully, even pitilessly at times, the wrestling of man with God.   Graham Greene (1904–1991) was an English writer and novelist. One of the most distinguished authors of the twentieth century, Greene penned twenty-six novels as well as numerous short stories and essays, plays and screenplays, and autobiographies and biographies. Averse to being called a “Catholic” novelist, he nonetheless achieved his best work in his novels with Catholic themes—foremost among them The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter (1948), and The End of the Affair (1951). * * * Paperback: 240pp. ISBN: 978-1685953744