The Honorary Consul

Abstract

In The Honorary Consul, the Catholic theme slips into the background, perhaps because Greene was becoming tired of being referred to so frequently as a Catholic novelist; but it does not disappear.1 Prominent in this novel is the excitement of the chase, a talent he had developed so successfully in the tales of espionage and murder that he termed ‘entertainments’. From the moment that a group of rebels fighting against their country’s corrupt regime moves into a neighbouring state to kidnap an American Ambassador and bungles the attempt, capturing the wrong man, the suspense mounts. The plot contains all the ingredients familiar from those novels, gripping the reader’s attention throughout, leaving us at every stage anxious to know the outcome — whether Fortnum will indeed be shot, how far Plarr will be drawn into the affair, whether the chief of police will discover the hiding-place in time, and who, if any, will survive. Yet it is enormously to Greene’s credit that the tension generated by the plot is not the motive force of the novel but the vehicle for a far more serious theme.KeywordsGood FatherDetective StoryIntellectual HumilityBritish EmbassyFilial RelationshipThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.