The Confidential Agent (1939) is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fueled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction while working, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in an apartment below him. He used that apartment in the novel (it's where D. hides for a day) and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted ...
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The Confidential Agent (1939) is a thriller novel by British author Graham Greene. Fueled by Benzedrine, Greene wrote it in six weeks. To avoid distraction while working, he rented a room in Bloomsbury from a landlady who lived in an apartment below him. He used that apartment in the novel (it's where D. hides for a day) and had an affair with the landlady's daughter. He wrote the book for money and was so displeased with his work that he wanted it published under a pseudonym. But critics took a far different view; the New York Times, for example, called the novel "a magnificent tour-de-force."
"D", a patriot from a country suffering a civil war is in England to secure a contract with coal magnate Lord Benditch that will greatly assist the faltering loyalist cause. The country is kept nameless and the details of its history, geography and current politics remain vague; still, there could be little doubt - and Greene himself admitted as much - that the Spanish Civil War was the main...
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