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A Gun for Sale (Penguin Classics)
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Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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 Gun for Sale (Penguin Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780143039303
ISBN: 014303930X
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2005-08-30
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780143039303
ISBN: 014303930X
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2005-08-30
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics
Editorial Review of A Gun for Sale (Penguin Classics)
Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of a European Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes. When the first of these is traced, Raven is a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him and attempts to elude the police, he becomes both hunter and hunted: an unwitting weapon of a strange kind of social justice.
Customer Reviews of A Gun for Sale (Penguin Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Exciting Thriller
Review: Graham Greene's "This Gun for Hire" is the story of a hitman that you love to hate. Slightly physically disfigured, tortured and full of anger, the hitman, Raven, sets out to seek revenge for a job for which he was not properly paid. He accidentally enlists of the help of his foil, Anne, and the two of them try to prevent a major political catastrophe. Raven's motives are mostly selfish, of course, and Anne's are purely altruistic, but their goal is the same. What makes this story unique, though, is Graham's character twists towards the end of the novel. Without ruining the ending, I will simply say that the line between good and evil is blurred and the motivations and beliefs of both of the characters change dramatically.
Although Graham's creation of the characters is a bit uncharacteristically over the top, at one point Raven's sympathy is demonstrated through his love of a kitten, the novel does flow well and you will find yourself caring deeply about what happens to a morally incorrect man. Both Anne and Raven become infinitely more real as they step out of their stereotyped shell and you will find yourself loving and hating both by the conclusion.
"This Gun for Hire" above all else is an interesting and exciting thriller (for lack of a better word) that is sure to entertain. If you can find it in the much older "Three by Graham Greene," copyright 1967, all the better because you will have at your disposal 2 more of his best entertainments.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A parable?
Review: On the face of it, A Gun For Sale by Graham Greene is a genre thriller, featuring a crime committed by a confessed and declared villain, followed by a police pursuit. In the hands of a great writer, however, even clichés such as this can be transformed into thoroughly satisfying novels.
First published in 1936, A Gun For Sale is set in a Europe over which war looms constantly and threateningly, casting a shadow of fear and even depression over all human interaction. Graham Greene appears to use this context to allow the book to make a significant, yet very subtle point, an assertion that conflicts, even grand conflicts like wars, are pursued by interests, instigated by an intention to profit. The grander the conflict, the greater the potential gain. As individuals vie for influence, prominence, control and dominance, so do societies, groups, companies, even countries. And some of the protagonists play dirty, rarely receiving the comeuppance of justice. When they do, we are gratified, sensing the same rightness that a happy ending might provoke.
A Gun For Sale has several important characters, more than a review can list. Raven is the first we meet, the blackness of his name immediately suggesting a functionality for the plot, for he is the anti-hero, the hired gun who completes the bloody assignment in the book's first pages. Hare-lipped and ever resentful of his disfigurement, both physical and, as a result of a painful upbringing, psychological, he suggests a figure that the reader might be invited to despise, perhaps a pantomime bogeyman of genre fiction, always accompanied by a threatening, trademark fanfare.
But Graham Greene is not that mundane a writer. We eventually come to know Raven well. Though we are never actually invited to like him, we eventually sympathise with his plight, if only by virtue of the fact that there are some apparent social heroes who in reality are a darned sight more deserving of our contempt. Raven is double-crossed and sets out to track down the perpetrator of his humiliation.
Raven leaves a trail and a policeman, Mather, takes up the pursuit. By chance Mather's girlfriend, Anne, boards the same train as Raven from London to Nottwich, an industrial town were she will appear in the chorus line of a pantomime. Raven and Anne meet and, viewed from the distance of the pursuer, become accomplices.
Mather's fellow copper, Sanders, is an interesting foil to Raven. Both are disfigured. Raven's problem is with appearance and he yearns to be rid of the hare-lip that disfigures his face, a disfigurement that Anne plays down, thus engendering his trust. The policeman Sanders, on the other hand, stammers. He is quick of wit, but not of voice, and is aware that his impediment has cost him promotion.
Mr Davis, also known as Cholmondley, amongst other things, is the greasy lackey employed by Sir Marcus. The latter is an industrialist, owner of a steelworks in Nottwich, a business that has seen better times. Mr Davis is a right cad, regarding theatre girls as fair game, regularly picking them up and persuading them into the grubby room he rents from a truly surreal couple in order to protect his reputation. The freemason Sir Marcus is barely clinging to life, but he retains sufficient pride, or malice, perhaps, to inflict untold suffering on others, merely to retain his own status in a future he does not have.
And so Raven pursues Cholmondley, who answers to Marcus. Mather and Saunders pursue Raven, and Anne seems to be on everyone's side. And it all works out.
But Graham Greene does much more than tell a tale. Through simple language and structure, and via a plot that would grace a b-movie at best, he penetrates his characters' psyches, locates them in social class and history, and manages with a deft lightness of touch to convey a remarkably strong sense of place, setting and context. Through his simply constructed prose, we see people, places and events from a multiplicity of perspectives and are left with a complexity of associations with every character. And that, precisely, is why cliché is left far behind.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Should be considered major
Review: Mine is clearly a minority opinion, but I think this novel is actually more complex and interesting than many other critics and readers do. I remember first reading it in a college British literature class and finding Greene's juxtaposition of a typical crime novel, the backdrop of international intrigue and the paranoia conspiracy of traitors everywhere, Raven's disfigurement, and what was for me a very moving relationship between Raven and Anne a wonderful and engaging read. I just reread it for a critical study I've been doing and, while I agree there are holes in the plot, I'm not sure they are anymore distracting than the series of coincidences that drive Brighton Rock. I read BR recently also, for the first time, and I see why critics rate it higher--the psycho-sexual pathology of Pinkie, the moral-religious issues of his "Roman" identity, but I have to say I find lonely Raven a more memorable character in many respects.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: unlikely noir thriller
Review: Murder didn't mean much to Raven. It was just a new job. You had to be careful. You had to use your brains. It was not a question of hatred. He had only seen the minister once : he had been pointed out to Raven as he walked down the new housing estate between the little lit Christmas trees--an old rather grubby man without any friends, who was said to love humanity. -Graham Greene, This Gun for Hire
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Flawed, but frequently sensational early Greene.
Review: 'A gun for sale' is considered a minor Graham Greene work, two years before his acknowledged first masterpiece, 'Brighton Rock'. Admittedly, the book is hugely flawed - the plot becomes increasingly implausible; the dialogue is sometimes false; the characterisation, especially in the central relationship between Raven the runaway hitman and Anne, sometimes doesn't quite ring true. But there is so much that is excellent - the mixture of dusty, fish and chips realism with almost whimsical fantasy, precise detail clashing with a nightmare-world of physical grotesques; the brilliant control of language, in which a deliberately limited vocabulary is used to imprison characters in a social and implicitely metaphsical destiny. The first half is a superb, almost intolerably nerve-wracking, thriller, and the second, as Raven seeks revenge during a practice gas raid, is dottily surreal. The allusions to fairy tales, history , poetry, popular music, drama, philosophy etc. open the book from its generic base, and makes it infinitely richer than it first appears. It should be read anyway by anyone who loves the cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville, who based his masterpiece 'Le Samourai' on it. A flawed, yet fascinating work.
Review Summary: Exciting Thriller
Review: Graham Greene's "This Gun for Hire" is the story of a hitman that you love to hate. Slightly physically disfigured, tortured and full of anger, the hitman, Raven, sets out to seek revenge for a job for which he was not properly paid. He accidentally enlists of the help of his foil, Anne, and the two of them try to prevent a major political catastrophe. Raven's motives are mostly selfish, of course, and Anne's are purely altruistic, but their goal is the same. What makes this story unique, though, is Graham's character twists towards the end of the novel. Without ruining the ending, I will simply say that the line between good and evil is blurred and the motivations and beliefs of both of the characters change dramatically.
Although Graham's creation of the characters is a bit uncharacteristically over the top, at one point Raven's sympathy is demonstrated through his love of a kitten, the novel does flow well and you will find yourself caring deeply about what happens to a morally incorrect man. Both Anne and Raven become infinitely more real as they step out of their stereotyped shell and you will find yourself loving and hating both by the conclusion.
"This Gun for Hire" above all else is an interesting and exciting thriller (for lack of a better word) that is sure to entertain. If you can find it in the much older "Three by Graham Greene," copyright 1967, all the better because you will have at your disposal 2 more of his best entertainments.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A parable?
Review: On the face of it, A Gun For Sale by Graham Greene is a genre thriller, featuring a crime committed by a confessed and declared villain, followed by a police pursuit. In the hands of a great writer, however, even clichés such as this can be transformed into thoroughly satisfying novels.
First published in 1936, A Gun For Sale is set in a Europe over which war looms constantly and threateningly, casting a shadow of fear and even depression over all human interaction. Graham Greene appears to use this context to allow the book to make a significant, yet very subtle point, an assertion that conflicts, even grand conflicts like wars, are pursued by interests, instigated by an intention to profit. The grander the conflict, the greater the potential gain. As individuals vie for influence, prominence, control and dominance, so do societies, groups, companies, even countries. And some of the protagonists play dirty, rarely receiving the comeuppance of justice. When they do, we are gratified, sensing the same rightness that a happy ending might provoke.
A Gun For Sale has several important characters, more than a review can list. Raven is the first we meet, the blackness of his name immediately suggesting a functionality for the plot, for he is the anti-hero, the hired gun who completes the bloody assignment in the book's first pages. Hare-lipped and ever resentful of his disfigurement, both physical and, as a result of a painful upbringing, psychological, he suggests a figure that the reader might be invited to despise, perhaps a pantomime bogeyman of genre fiction, always accompanied by a threatening, trademark fanfare.
But Graham Greene is not that mundane a writer. We eventually come to know Raven well. Though we are never actually invited to like him, we eventually sympathise with his plight, if only by virtue of the fact that there are some apparent social heroes who in reality are a darned sight more deserving of our contempt. Raven is double-crossed and sets out to track down the perpetrator of his humiliation.
Raven leaves a trail and a policeman, Mather, takes up the pursuit. By chance Mather's girlfriend, Anne, boards the same train as Raven from London to Nottwich, an industrial town were she will appear in the chorus line of a pantomime. Raven and Anne meet and, viewed from the distance of the pursuer, become accomplices.
Mather's fellow copper, Sanders, is an interesting foil to Raven. Both are disfigured. Raven's problem is with appearance and he yearns to be rid of the hare-lip that disfigures his face, a disfigurement that Anne plays down, thus engendering his trust. The policeman Sanders, on the other hand, stammers. He is quick of wit, but not of voice, and is aware that his impediment has cost him promotion.
Mr Davis, also known as Cholmondley, amongst other things, is the greasy lackey employed by Sir Marcus. The latter is an industrialist, owner of a steelworks in Nottwich, a business that has seen better times. Mr Davis is a right cad, regarding theatre girls as fair game, regularly picking them up and persuading them into the grubby room he rents from a truly surreal couple in order to protect his reputation. The freemason Sir Marcus is barely clinging to life, but he retains sufficient pride, or malice, perhaps, to inflict untold suffering on others, merely to retain his own status in a future he does not have.
And so Raven pursues Cholmondley, who answers to Marcus. Mather and Saunders pursue Raven, and Anne seems to be on everyone's side. And it all works out.
But Graham Greene does much more than tell a tale. Through simple language and structure, and via a plot that would grace a b-movie at best, he penetrates his characters' psyches, locates them in social class and history, and manages with a deft lightness of touch to convey a remarkably strong sense of place, setting and context. Through his simply constructed prose, we see people, places and events from a multiplicity of perspectives and are left with a complexity of associations with every character. And that, precisely, is why cliché is left far behind.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Should be considered major
Review: Mine is clearly a minority opinion, but I think this novel is actually more complex and interesting than many other critics and readers do. I remember first reading it in a college British literature class and finding Greene's juxtaposition of a typical crime novel, the backdrop of international intrigue and the paranoia conspiracy of traitors everywhere, Raven's disfigurement, and what was for me a very moving relationship between Raven and Anne a wonderful and engaging read. I just reread it for a critical study I've been doing and, while I agree there are holes in the plot, I'm not sure they are anymore distracting than the series of coincidences that drive Brighton Rock. I read BR recently also, for the first time, and I see why critics rate it higher--the psycho-sexual pathology of Pinkie, the moral-religious issues of his "Roman" identity, but I have to say I find lonely Raven a more memorable character in many respects.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: unlikely noir thriller
Review: Murder didn't mean much to Raven. It was just a new job. You had to be careful. You had to use your brains. It was not a question of hatred. He had only seen the minister once : he had been pointed out to Raven as he walked down the new housing estate between the little lit Christmas trees--an old rather grubby man without any friends, who was said to love humanity. -Graham Greene, This Gun for Hire
Raven is a hired killer with a harelip. His profession and his deformity combine to give him a passion for privacy. But when he's hired to kill a socialist minister who's active in the peace movement and ends up also shooting an elderly woman from his household staff too, he's suddenly one of the most sought after men in England. And when the man who hired him, Mr. Cholmondeley, pays him off in counterfeit notes, he becomes an easy man to track. In addition, his strong sense of professional ethics lead him to try and find Cholmondeley and whoever's behind him, rather than simply hiding out.
Through a circuitous set of circumstances, Raven is helped in his search by a young woman, Anne, whose boyfriend just happens to be the lead detective on his case. She recognizes how dangerous Raven is, but feels sorry for him and, with Europe sliding into war, thinks she can use him to strike back at the shadowy forces who wanted the peace loving minister dead.
Though it lacks the universal moral tension of some of Greene's better work, this is an entertaining noir thriller. The plot depends on a few too many fortuitous twists, but if you take it in the spirit of say The 39 Steps or a Hitchcock movie, the implausabilities aren't unbearable. Perhaps the most interesting reading of the book is as a forecast of the central ethical dilemma of WWII. Think of Raven as the USSR and of Anne as the Allies. She accepts Raven out of sympathy for his physical and spiritual deformities and assumes that he, despite his amorality, can be twisted to serve her own noble purposes. In the end, a lot of folks die as a result of her naiveté.
GRADE : B-
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Flawed, but frequently sensational early Greene.
Review: 'A gun for sale' is considered a minor Graham Greene work, two years before his acknowledged first masterpiece, 'Brighton Rock'. Admittedly, the book is hugely flawed - the plot becomes increasingly implausible; the dialogue is sometimes false; the characterisation, especially in the central relationship between Raven the runaway hitman and Anne, sometimes doesn't quite ring true. But there is so much that is excellent - the mixture of dusty, fish and chips realism with almost whimsical fantasy, precise detail clashing with a nightmare-world of physical grotesques; the brilliant control of language, in which a deliberately limited vocabulary is used to imprison characters in a social and implicitely metaphsical destiny. The first half is a superb, almost intolerably nerve-wracking, thriller, and the second, as Raven seeks revenge during a practice gas raid, is dottily surreal. The allusions to fairy tales, history , poetry, popular music, drama, philosophy etc. open the book from its generic base, and makes it infinitely richer than it first appears. It should be read anyway by anyone who loves the cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville, who based his masterpiece 'Le Samourai' on it. A flawed, yet fascinating work.