The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory
source
Name	The Power and the Glory
Author	Graham Greene
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	William Heinemann
Pub date	1940
Media type	Print

The Power and the Glory is a 1940 novel by Graham Greene set in a Mexican state during a period of anti-clerical persecution and political turmoil. The work interweaves the fugitive life of a nameless priest with wider references to revolutionary politics, exile, and international literary responses, positioning Greene among contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh, Vladimir Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway.

Background and Publication

Greene wrote the novel after travels in Mexico City and encounters with Mexican exiles and missionaries, influenced by figures like Pope Pius XI, Cardinal Daley and journalists connected to The Times and The Observer. Contemporary geopolitical contexts—specifically the aftershocks of the Mexican Revolution, tensions involving the Catholic Church, and debates in Parliament—shaped Greene's portrayal, while literary networks involving T. S. Eliot, Edward Garnett, Faber and Faber, and Heinemann affected its editorial path. The novel's 1940 publication occurred against the backdrop of the Second World War, with critiques appearing alongside reviews in publications edited by George Orwell, C. S. Lewis, and critics like Lionel Trilling.

Plot

The narrative follows a fugitive Catholic priest pursued by an unnamed Lieutenant of the state police amid enforced anti-clerical laws inspired by factions that recall actors from the Cristero War era and officials linked to the Revolutionary Party. The priest's journey intersects with characters tied to communities resembling Puebla, Oaxaca, and Guadalajara, and scenes evoke marketplaces, haciendas, and the bureaucracy of local prefectures influenced by leaders akin to Plutarco Elías Calles. Flashbacks to parish life and confessions reference individuals reminiscent of missionaries from Maryknoll, activists in Catholic Action, and expatriate observers like D. H. Lawrence who documented Mexican life. The climax involves capture, trial, and execution in a rural setting attended by a cross-section of citizens, soldiers, and clergy, echoing motifs found in accounts by John Steinbeck and Alejo Carpentier.

Characters

The central figure, the nameless priest, is juxtaposed with a zealous Lieutenant representing state authority; supporting figures include a disillusioned whisky salesman-type character, a mixed-heritage woman with ties to indigenous communities, and parishioners who recall personas from missionary histories involving Dominican and Jesuit orders. Secondary figures invoke archetypes found in works by Henry James, Marcel Proust, and Fyodor Dostoevsky—confessors, betrayers, and believers—while cameo presences echo diplomats like Patrick Hurley and activists associated with Los Angeles-based advocacy. Greene populates the cast with clerical figures, revolutionary sympathizers, and ordinary villagers whose interactions mirror vignettes in novels by Rudyard Kipling and Gustave Flaubert.

Themes and Analysis

The novel probes conscience, sin, redemption, and martyrdom through the priest's moral failures and perseverance, placing it in conversation with theological debates involving Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and modern thinkers such as John Henry Newman. Questions of authority and legitimacy resonate with histories of Cristero War resistance, diplomatic maneuvering tied to United States–Mexico relations, and contemporary controversies involving anti-clericalism and secular constitutions like those debated in Constitutional Convention contexts. Stylistically, Greene combines realist narration and Catholic existential inquiry alongside techniques used by James Joyce, Franz Kafka, and Albert Camus, producing a moral landscape echoed in later works by Flannery O'Connor and Simone de Beauvoir.

Reception and Criticism

Upon release, responses ranged from praise by reviewers aligned with Spectator and editors in The New Yorker to denunciation by clerical authorities in dioceses and by critics associated with Communist Party publications. Debates involved literary figures such as Evelyn Waugh, T. S. Eliot, and public intellectuals like George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell, who weighed in on the novel's religious and ethical claims. Scholarly criticism in later decades compared Greene's depiction of persecution to reportage by John Reed and to theological readings by scholars in Oxford and Harvard, prompting analyses in journals tied to Columbia University and University of Chicago faculties.

Adaptations and Influence

The novel inspired stage adaptations in theaters connected to producers like Noël Coward and radio dramatizations on networks related to BBC Radio and NBC, and it influenced filmmakers and novelists including Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Isabel Allende, and Carlos Fuentes. Its thematic preoccupations informed discussions in seminar series at institutions such as Yale University, University of Cambridge, and Princeton University, and it is cited in studies of literature and religion alongside works by Graham Greene's contemporaries Anthony Burgess and Giles Tremlett. The novel's legacy appears in cultural references spanning theatrical productions, film festivals in Cannes and Venice, and curricula in departments at Oxford University and Columbia University.

Category:1940 novels Category:Novels by Graham Greene