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A Burnt-Out Case (Twentieth Century Classics)
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Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Penguin Classics
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Our Price: $11.20
You Save: $ 2.80 ( 20% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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A Burnt-Out Case (Twentieth Century Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780140185393
ISBN: 0140185399
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 1992-04-07
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780140185393
ISBN: 0140185399
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 1992-04-07
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Review of A Burnt-Out Case (Twentieth Century Classics)
With a new introduction by Giles Foden
When Querry, a famous architect, no longer finds meaning in art or pleasure in life, he goes to work at a Congo leper village where, as he loses himself in work for the lepers, his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure. Then the white community finds out who Querry is.
When Querry, a famous architect, no longer finds meaning in art or pleasure in life, he goes to work at a Congo leper village where, as he loses himself in work for the lepers, his disease of mind slowly approaches a cure. Then the white community finds out who Querry is.
Customer Reviews of A Burnt-Out Case (Twentieth Century Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Another Greene Hero Bites The Dust
Review: The fiction of Graham Greene is filled with protagonists who are deposited in exotic locations and confronted by an external evil that puts those men to a test of faith and hope, one that requires them to compare what they have inside to see if they have what is needed to pass from that void of spiritual inertia. Greene also adds religious crisis to his heroes' brew of troubles. The usual result is that his protagonists fail to achieve their desired state of an ordered mind. They tend to remain in a static limbo of paralyzed hope. In A BURNT OUT CASE, Querry is the prototypical hero who suffers from a crisis of lost hope. Querry is a famed architect who suffers from an unnamed crisis that probably has something to do with excessive relations with loose women and a lack of connection to God. We never learn all the details of his life before he shows up unannounced at a leper colony in Africa nor do we need to. Greene inserts bits and pieces of Querry's background, the totality of which paints a more detailed portrait than if he had more fully fleshed out Querry's past. Querry simply shows up at that leper colony, asking to stay, and is willing to perform any menial task that he is given. The doctors in charge quickly figure out who he is and marvel at his apparent readiness to shed his famed background and assume the non-identity of a nomad. Querry is indeed a hurt man, but not the type that usually shows up to be cured, most of whom are called "burnt out cases," because they have endured both physical and psychic mutilation. In Querry's case, the mutilation, though internal, is no less real than that of the other sufferers. The doctors realize this and let him stay. They see in Querry less a mutilated man in need of help than an architect whose skills can help them rebuild their dilapidated buildings. Querry tries to blend in, but in his interactions with both staff and patients, it becomes clear that not only can he not shed his earlier emotional baggage but he is forced to assume some new baggage as well. Querry is accused by a woman of getting her pregnant. She admits to him privately that she did indeed lie but in her own mind the lie was justified. To complicate this charge is Querry's ongoing need to debate whether he needs God to be happy. He decides that happiness or its opposite need have nothing to do with the intervention of either God or the church. The church fathers quickly decide that the paternity charge is reason enough to ostracize him. A subtle irony is that the church fathers and doctors were more than willing to believe the best of Querry without substantiation and were just as willing to believe the worst with an equal lack. The ending, which I shall not reveal here, is one that we have seen before in Greene's other novels. His heroes enter the book as hurt, confused, and seeking inner peace. In the world of Graham Greene, they sadly all too often exit the same way. Sort of like in real life.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: burn out
Review: A Burnt Out Case - I read this when it first came out in 1962(?) and can't remember it too clearly. The title refrs to leprosy when it's no longer infectious, and this is probably a pun on the burn out old time aid workers felt. The book was full of atmosphere - you felt the heat and steam rising from those sluggish Congo rivers. & the dust and flies everywhere, & the boredom of expatriate wives in the colonies in the days befor email or jets or BBc digital radio. There was a missionary priest in it (obviously, being Graham Greene) who, in a sense, was the equivalent of the modern aid worker. But so different! He was there without remission. The modern aid worker in Africa has danger, therefore an element of excitement, the camaraderie of other workers., a salary maybe. But I felt in his cynical way, Greene was saying to the priest "hang in there, padre. You're doing good in spite of everything.' I sent the book to a young Belgian girl who got iterested in the Congo after reading "The Poisonwood Bible.' The two books went well together. Cheers, Renee Terry
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Very short, but very good
Review: This was the first Graham Greene novel that I have read, and considering his reputation as a Catholic author, I suspect A Burnt-Out Case is not very representative of his more famous, earlier works (which I hope to read soon). A lot of the reviews here compare this novel to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but aside from the mutual setting of Africa, I don't really see much of a thematic connection. The novel that I was most strikingly reminded of, actually, was Camus' The Plague. In both novels we see men faced with a world of suffering and disease and their various attempts (religion, philosophy, etc) to combat the senselessness of it all. Ultimately, Greene's novel is a strongly atheistic work, echoing the famous line from Camus' novel (that I can only paraphrase): 'I refuse to love a God that causes children to suffer.' Greene's novel, despite being a slim 196 pages, has a lot more depth and a lot more issues to deal with than this one, however. The main character, Querry, is a fascinating study of the effects of fame on an artist (presumably reflecting Greene's own struggles after his own success), and there are a lot of parallels between physical and spiritual disease.
This probably isn't the best book to start with if you've never read anything by Greene before, but I highly reccomend it, particularly to those interested in philosophical fiction along the lines of Camus, Dostoevsky, Kafka, etc.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The chronicle of a man's consciousness and anxiety
Review: A remote leproserie in the Congo is the place where the protagonists meet in this novel by Graham Greene: Dr Colin, Querry, the Ryckers, Parkinson and Father Thomas. In the author's own words, in a letter addressed to Docteur Michel Lechat, the situation in the novel is an attempt to give dramatic expression to various types of belief, half belief and non-belief, in the kind of setting removed from world politics and household-preoccupations, where such differences are felt acutely and find expression. Indeed, exigencies of faith seem to be of little help in a place like the Congo in the 1950s, beset with disease and death as it then was.
The corrupting presence of the journalist Montagu Parkinson who comes in search of the architect Querry and who alters the truth to hype things up is the reason why A Burnt-Out Case continues to be relevant today. This is also why this novel resembles Heart Of Darkness by J. Conrad and parallels can be drawn between Querry and Marlow: both have a sense of moral disgust and inner desolation. Thus Querry retreats to a kind of hell, the leprosarium, and finds a peace of sorts there, a respite that comes to and end with the arrival of Parkinson. Nevertheless Querry himself becomes a burnt-out case in the end, like a leper whose disease has run its course.
Strong, powerful prose by one of the greatest British writers of the 20th century.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Dark Hearts And Greenland
Review: Graham Greene novels are like pizza. Even the bad ones are good.
And this one is far from bad. Granted, it's another journey into life's laments, which Greene is exceptionally skilled at, but like the best of
his other work, the journey is filled with interesting sojourners you're
pleased to spend a couple of hundred pages with. And happily, his storytelling prowess and dramatic plotting are both fellow journeymen as well.
In Burnt Out Case, Greene takes us deep into Africa, and the parallels to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness are easily made. But Greene's story of lepers and healers and builders and believers is its own. Replete with the lies, misunderstandings, regrets and revenge that often populate Green's pages, you can rest assured that not unlike life, what can go wrong, will. go But in the hands of a skilled writer like Greene, you consider yourself lucky for having been along for the ride.
Burnt Out Case is well worth a dark trip down the winding river of men's souls.
Review Summary: Another Greene Hero Bites The Dust
Review: The fiction of Graham Greene is filled with protagonists who are deposited in exotic locations and confronted by an external evil that puts those men to a test of faith and hope, one that requires them to compare what they have inside to see if they have what is needed to pass from that void of spiritual inertia. Greene also adds religious crisis to his heroes' brew of troubles. The usual result is that his protagonists fail to achieve their desired state of an ordered mind. They tend to remain in a static limbo of paralyzed hope. In A BURNT OUT CASE, Querry is the prototypical hero who suffers from a crisis of lost hope. Querry is a famed architect who suffers from an unnamed crisis that probably has something to do with excessive relations with loose women and a lack of connection to God. We never learn all the details of his life before he shows up unannounced at a leper colony in Africa nor do we need to. Greene inserts bits and pieces of Querry's background, the totality of which paints a more detailed portrait than if he had more fully fleshed out Querry's past. Querry simply shows up at that leper colony, asking to stay, and is willing to perform any menial task that he is given. The doctors in charge quickly figure out who he is and marvel at his apparent readiness to shed his famed background and assume the non-identity of a nomad. Querry is indeed a hurt man, but not the type that usually shows up to be cured, most of whom are called "burnt out cases," because they have endured both physical and psychic mutilation. In Querry's case, the mutilation, though internal, is no less real than that of the other sufferers. The doctors realize this and let him stay. They see in Querry less a mutilated man in need of help than an architect whose skills can help them rebuild their dilapidated buildings. Querry tries to blend in, but in his interactions with both staff and patients, it becomes clear that not only can he not shed his earlier emotional baggage but he is forced to assume some new baggage as well. Querry is accused by a woman of getting her pregnant. She admits to him privately that she did indeed lie but in her own mind the lie was justified. To complicate this charge is Querry's ongoing need to debate whether he needs God to be happy. He decides that happiness or its opposite need have nothing to do with the intervention of either God or the church. The church fathers quickly decide that the paternity charge is reason enough to ostracize him. A subtle irony is that the church fathers and doctors were more than willing to believe the best of Querry without substantiation and were just as willing to believe the worst with an equal lack. The ending, which I shall not reveal here, is one that we have seen before in Greene's other novels. His heroes enter the book as hurt, confused, and seeking inner peace. In the world of Graham Greene, they sadly all too often exit the same way. Sort of like in real life.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: burn out
Review: A Burnt Out Case - I read this when it first came out in 1962(?) and can't remember it too clearly. The title refrs to leprosy when it's no longer infectious, and this is probably a pun on the burn out old time aid workers felt. The book was full of atmosphere - you felt the heat and steam rising from those sluggish Congo rivers. & the dust and flies everywhere, & the boredom of expatriate wives in the colonies in the days befor email or jets or BBc digital radio. There was a missionary priest in it (obviously, being Graham Greene) who, in a sense, was the equivalent of the modern aid worker. But so different! He was there without remission. The modern aid worker in Africa has danger, therefore an element of excitement, the camaraderie of other workers., a salary maybe. But I felt in his cynical way, Greene was saying to the priest "hang in there, padre. You're doing good in spite of everything.' I sent the book to a young Belgian girl who got iterested in the Congo after reading "The Poisonwood Bible.' The two books went well together. Cheers, Renee Terry
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Very short, but very good
Review: This was the first Graham Greene novel that I have read, and considering his reputation as a Catholic author, I suspect A Burnt-Out Case is not very representative of his more famous, earlier works (which I hope to read soon). A lot of the reviews here compare this novel to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but aside from the mutual setting of Africa, I don't really see much of a thematic connection. The novel that I was most strikingly reminded of, actually, was Camus' The Plague. In both novels we see men faced with a world of suffering and disease and their various attempts (religion, philosophy, etc) to combat the senselessness of it all. Ultimately, Greene's novel is a strongly atheistic work, echoing the famous line from Camus' novel (that I can only paraphrase): 'I refuse to love a God that causes children to suffer.' Greene's novel, despite being a slim 196 pages, has a lot more depth and a lot more issues to deal with than this one, however. The main character, Querry, is a fascinating study of the effects of fame on an artist (presumably reflecting Greene's own struggles after his own success), and there are a lot of parallels between physical and spiritual disease.
This probably isn't the best book to start with if you've never read anything by Greene before, but I highly reccomend it, particularly to those interested in philosophical fiction along the lines of Camus, Dostoevsky, Kafka, etc.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The chronicle of a man's consciousness and anxiety
Review: A remote leproserie in the Congo is the place where the protagonists meet in this novel by Graham Greene: Dr Colin, Querry, the Ryckers, Parkinson and Father Thomas. In the author's own words, in a letter addressed to Docteur Michel Lechat, the situation in the novel is an attempt to give dramatic expression to various types of belief, half belief and non-belief, in the kind of setting removed from world politics and household-preoccupations, where such differences are felt acutely and find expression. Indeed, exigencies of faith seem to be of little help in a place like the Congo in the 1950s, beset with disease and death as it then was.
The corrupting presence of the journalist Montagu Parkinson who comes in search of the architect Querry and who alters the truth to hype things up is the reason why A Burnt-Out Case continues to be relevant today. This is also why this novel resembles Heart Of Darkness by J. Conrad and parallels can be drawn between Querry and Marlow: both have a sense of moral disgust and inner desolation. Thus Querry retreats to a kind of hell, the leprosarium, and finds a peace of sorts there, a respite that comes to and end with the arrival of Parkinson. Nevertheless Querry himself becomes a burnt-out case in the end, like a leper whose disease has run its course.
Strong, powerful prose by one of the greatest British writers of the 20th century.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Dark Hearts And Greenland
Review: Graham Greene novels are like pizza. Even the bad ones are good.
And this one is far from bad. Granted, it's another journey into life's laments, which Greene is exceptionally skilled at, but like the best of
his other work, the journey is filled with interesting sojourners you're
pleased to spend a couple of hundred pages with. And happily, his storytelling prowess and dramatic plotting are both fellow journeymen as well.
In Burnt Out Case, Greene takes us deep into Africa, and the parallels to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness are easily made. But Greene's story of lepers and healers and builders and believers is its own. Replete with the lies, misunderstandings, regrets and revenge that often populate Green's pages, you can rest assured that not unlike life, what can go wrong, will. go But in the hands of a skilled writer like Greene, you consider yourself lucky for having been along for the ride.
Burnt Out Case is well worth a dark trip down the winding river of men's souls.