GRAHAM GREENE: THE BOTTOM LINE [1958].

Description

We present the first Polish edition of one of the most famous novels by Graham Greene (1904-1991) – a prominent British writer, author of psychological, spy and political novels, repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize. It was published in 1958 in Warsaw by the State Publishing Institute (PIW) in the prestigious series “Novels of the 20th Century” .

” The Heart of the Matter” (original title: The Heart of the Matter) is a masterpiece of psychological prose by Greene, ranked among his most outstanding literary achievements. The novel is set in West Africa during World War II. The main character, Major Henry Scobie, a British police officer in the colony, is a deeply honest and conscientious man, forced to make compromises by cruel realities – mercy, ambition and love. However, his decisions – lined with the desire to make others happy – lead him to moral decline and, consequently, to tragedy. The novel is a masterful study of sin, guilt, compassion and the nature of evil, showing the drama of a man torn between duty, passion and faith. In 1950, the book was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes.

Greene divided his work into “entertainment novels” (often spy novels, such as Our Man in Havana) and “serious novels,” which included The Crux of the Matter. The author himself referred to the book as “a book about mercy and the lack thereof,” and its religious dimension (the protagonist is Catholic) was the subject of much controversy and theological discussion, including in Vatican circles. The Heart of the Matter appeared on the list of the 100 best novels of all time according to the American magazine “TIME” (2005).

This is the first Polish edition – the absolute first printing of this cult novel in Polish, translated by Jacek Woźniakowski (1920-2012) – a prominent art historian and publicist, longtime editor of “Tygodnik Powszechny” and collaborator of the democratic opposition. The presented copy is clean and preserved in very good condition, a rarity for a popular library book. This is a must-have for the collector of world literature, the lover of Greene’s prose and the bibliophile seeking a representative edition of one of the most important works of English literature of the 20th century.