Graham Greene`s The Tenth Man is one of his most startling and unexpected major novels. Set in wartime occupied France, it is about a man who buys a life in a moment of fear. It begins in the depths of a Gestapo prison, where ten men have been taken hostage by the Germans. Three of them must die, but it makes no difference to the Germans which three - the ten must choose among themselves by ballot.
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"A masterpiece - tapped out in the lean, sharp-eyed prose that film work taught Greene to perfect." - Sunday Times
"A smoothly plotted psychological thriller."- Time
"All the Greene hallmarks are there: pace, ingenuity--profundities suggested but never insisted upon." - Penelope Lively --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"A smoothly plotted psychological thriller."- Time
"All the Greene hallmarks are there: pace, ingenuity--profundities suggested but never insisted upon." - Penelope Lively --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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"A masterpiece - tapped out in the lean, sharp-eyed prose that film work taught Greene to perfect." - Sunday Times
"A smoothly plotted psychological thriller."- Time
"All the Greene hallmarks are there: pace, ingenuity--profundities suggested but never insisted upon." - Penelope Lively
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
MOST OF THEM TOLD THE TIME VERY ROUGHLY BY THEIR meals, which were unpunctual and irregular: they amused themselves with the most childish games all through the day, and when it was dark they fell asleep by tacit consent-not waiting for a particular hour of darkness for they had no means of telling the time exactly: in fact there were as many times as there were prisoners. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
MOST OF THEM TOLD THE TIME VERY ROUGHLY BY THEIR meals, which were unpunctual and irregular: they amused themselves with the most childish games all through the day, and when it was dark they fell asleep by tacit consent-not waiting for a particular hour of darkness for they had no means of telling the time exactly: in fact there were as many times as there were prisoners. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Format:Paperback
Greene presents us with a brilliant morality tale. He quickly sets up his protagonist's choice and then moves to the surprising consequences. If you had the means to buy your 'salvation' would you? Even if it meant that another man would have to die in your place...literally paying someone to die for you? And for the man who is willing to take your offer, what does his sacrifice mean for those he's left behind? Greene deftly entertwines both of these stories into one. I agree that the characters are not well-drawn enough to make us truly care for them. However, the book succeeds on how it makes you consider the consequences of one's choices.
Format:Paperback
This little story is tightly constructed and gripping. A rich lawyer is incarcerated during the war with a bunch of ordinary joes. As a result of hostage-type negotiations, a set number of them are designated for random executions. The prisoners draw lots to determine those to die, and the lawyer is one of the losers. Desperate to live, he offers all his estate to anyone who will trade places. The man who drew the 10th lot takes him up on the offer, accepts the estate as payment for his life, and has the lawyer make out a will leaving the wealth to his family. The guilt over this "act of cowardice" haunts the lawyer to his grave.
This story is hard to put down and gracefully written, but the characters are relatively flat, 2-dimensional figures. They are useful symbolically, but not terribly convincing as real people. All in all the tale reads more like a parable than a novel.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I found this book very well-written in the sense that you couldn't put it down if you were half way through it. I read it about twelve times in a month .
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