Greene's "The Honorary Consul" and Lowry's "Under the Volcano": A Study in Influence

Abstract

The origin of my next novel, The Honorary Consul, written between 1970 and 1973, lies in the cave of the unconscious. I had a dream about an American ambassador.., .but in my dream there was no kidnapping, no guerrillas, no mistaken identity, nothing to identify it with The Honorary Consul except the fact that the dream lodged inexplicably in my head for months and during those months the figures of Charlie Fortnum and Dr. Plarr stole up around the unimportant Ambassador of my dreams and quietly liquidated him. (Ways of Excape, 301)