The Human Factor

Fülszöveg

The Humán Factor marks Graham Greene's triumphant return to the ambiguous world of deceit, illusion, treaehery, faith and loneliness that is espionage, a world that has always fascinated Greene and was the subject of one of his most famous novels. The central figure of The Humán Factor is Castle, an old member of "the firm," now efficiently (if ungloriously) proeessing intelligenee from England's former African colonies. Castle appears to be a man of fixed routines, absolute reliability and complete trustworthiness, respected by his colleagues and superiors (insofar as he is noticed at all) and nearing the end of a comparatively piacid and unexeiting eareer in a secret service which diífers very little from any other government bureaueraey, except for a concern for seeurity amounting to an almost religious passión. Castle is a loving and devoted husband and stepfather, a suburban homeowner who bicycles to the train every morning, a man who enjoys walking his dog on the weekends, a... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The Humán Factor marks Graham Greene's triumphant return to the ambiguous world of deceit, illusion, treaehery, faith and loneliness that is espionage, a world that has always fascinated Greene and was the subject of one of his most famous novels. The central figure of The Humán Factor is Castle, an old member of "the firm," now efficiently (if ungloriously) proeessing intelligenee from England's former African colonies. Castle appears to be a man of fixed routines, absolute reliability and complete trustworthiness, respected by his colleagues and superiors (insofar as he is noticed at all) and nearing the end of a comparatively piacid and unexeiting eareer in a secret service which diífers very little from any other government bureaueraey, except for a concern for seeurity amounting to an almost religious passión. Castle is a loving and devoted husband and stepfather, a suburban homeowner who bicycles to the train every morning, a man who enjoys walking his dog on the weekends, a very quiet Englishman. His junior colleague, Davis, is more flamboyant: careless with documents; resentful of the dull, glamorless obscurity of his job; a bachelor who drinks a little too much, dresses a little too sharply, bets too highly. When a "leak" is traced back to the department, it is natural that Davis, the hopeless romantic in love with an unattainable majorgeneral's daughter, should come under suspieion. In their ponderous but deadly way, the more senior executives-Sir John, the kindly, rather aloof head of the service; Doctor Percival, a man of singular, but slightly odious charm, who combines a passión for fly fishing with an amateurish interest in murder; and Colonel Daintry, a doubting and guiltridden seeurity officer-proceed to "eliminate" Davis, to prevent yet another embarrassing seeurity scandal. With skillful irony, Greene dissects the world of these unlikely cold warriors, in (continued on back flap) Vissza