England Made Me (novel)

1935 novel by Graham Greene

First edition (publ. Heinemann)

England Made Me or The Shipwrecked is an early novel [1] by Graham Greene. It was first published in 1935, and was republished as The Shipwrecked in 1953.[2]

It is set in Stockholm (which Greene visited in 1933 to prepare for writing the novel[3]) and concerns the travails of ne'er-do-well Anthony Farrant who finds himself working as a bodyguard to a dubious Swedish financier whose character is loosely inspired by Ivar Kreuger. In typical Greene fashion, the seedy antihero wrestles with his conscience as murky moral dilemmas begin to trouble even his disreputable soul.

## Plot

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Anthony, in his thirties, charming and broke, is back in London from the Far East after being fired from every job, kicked out of every club and left by every woman. His twin sister Kate comes over from Stockholm to rescue him. She is secretary and mistress to Krogh, a self-made millionaire who owns a multinational financial empire. The austere Krogh likes Anthony's devil-may-care attitude and hires him as a personal bodyguard. But Anthony always lets people down. He lets down Kate, who hoped for his company as an antidote to Krogh's, by chasing women. And he lets down Krogh by failing to protect him from an embittered employee, upon which an old associate of Krogh's called Hall beats the man up. Unhappy with the job, Anthony betrays both Kate and Krogh by resigning. When a further betrayal emerges, that Anthony has been leaking secrets of Krogh's private life and business to the press, Hall quietly kills him and tips the body into the sea. Losing brother, lover and job, Kate decides to move on "like Anthony" heading for Copenhagen. Krogh has lost his right-hand woman and bedmate, but his fraudulent empire continues.

## Themes

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A strong theme is the questionably close bond between the protagonist, the always ineffectual Anthony, and his twin sister Kate. Their parents are dead and her life as aide and live-in mistress to the crooked tycoon, Krogh, who is no great lover, absorbs her time and energy but leaves her emotionally unfulfilled. By getting Anthony to Stockholm and on Krogh's payroll, she is hoping for a much closer relationship with her brother, who is charming, unreliable and always broke. His failure to respond, and the unhappy ending, leaves her in an even worse position as Krogh's artificial empire threatens to unravel.

## Reception

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In its review the New Statesman said that "Greene arouses responses of curiosity and attention comparable to those set up by Malraux, Faulkner and Hemingway" while The Daily Telegraph termed him never less than "wonderfully readable". The New York Times concluded its review by asserting that "Too often the author of England Made Me seems to be shadow-boxing, not delivering the full punch. But the story is skillfully fabricated, and the suspense so well maintained that any one who starts it is certain to go to the end."[4]

## Adaptations

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It was made into a film in 1973, starring Michael York as Anthony, but the setting was changed to Nazi Germany.[5]

## Footnotes

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1. ^ Fantastic Fiction
2. ^ "Books: Early Graham Greene". Time. 19 January 1953.
3. ^ Greene: A Life in Letters, p. 51
4. ^ Hutchinson, Percy (8 September 1935). "Graham Greene's Novel of a Ne'er-Do-Well". The New York Times.
5. ^ Canby, Vincent & Thompson, Howard (19 November 1973). "Film: 'England Made Me': Novel by Greene Is Lost in Adaptation". The New York Times.

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Works by Graham Greene and their adaptations

Bibliography

Novels|

* The Man Within (1929)
* The Name of Action (1930)
* Rumour at Nightfall (1932)
* Stamboul Train (1932)
* It's a Battlefield (1934)
* England Made Me (1935)
* The Bear Fell Free (1935)
* A Gun for Sale (1936)
* Brighton Rock (1938)
* The Confidential Agent (1939)
* The Power and the Glory (1940)
* The Ministry of Fear (1943)
* The Heart of the Matter (1948)
* The Third Man (novella; 1949)
* The End of the Affair (1951)
* The Quiet American (1955)
* Loser Takes All (1955)
* Our Man in Havana (1958)
* A Burnt-Out Case (1960)
* The Comedians (1966)
* Travels with My Aunt (1969)
* The Honorary Consul (1973)
* The Human Factor (1978)
* Doctor Fischer of Geneva (1980)
* Monsignor Quixote (1982)
* The Tenth Man (1985)
* The Captain and the Enemy (1988)
* No Man's Land (2005)

Travel books|

* Journey Without Maps (1936)
* The Lawless Roads (1939)
* In Search of a Character (1961)
* Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement (1984)

Autobiography|

* A Sort of Life (1971)
* Ways of Escape (1980)
* Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement (1984)
* A World of My Own: A Dream Diary (1992)

Plays|

* The Living Room (1953)
* The Potting Shed (1957)
* The Complaisant Lover (1959)
* Carving a Statue (1964)
* The Return of A. J. Raffles (1975)
* The Great Jowett (1981)
* Yes and No (1983)
* For Whom the Bell Chimes (1983)

Story collections|

* Twenty-One Stories (1954)
* A Sense of Reality (1963)
* May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967)
* The Last Word and Other Stories (1990)

Short stories|

* "The End of the Party" (1929)
* "Proof Positive" (1930)
* "The Basement Room" (1936)
* "Across the Bridge" (1938)
* "Alas, Poor Maling" (1940)
* "The Blue Film" (1954)
* "The Destructors" (1954)
* "A Shocking Accident"
* "The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen"
* "The Last Word"

Films|

* Orient Express (1934)
* The Future's in the Air (1937)
* The New Britain (1940)
* 21 Days (1940)
* This Gun for Hire (1942)
* Went the Day Well? (1942)
* Ministry of Fear (1944)
* Brighton Rock (1947)
* The Fallen Idol (1948)
* The Third Man (1949)
* The Heart of the Matter (1953)
* The End of the Affair (1955)
* Loser Takes All (1956)
* Saint Joan (1957)
* The Quiet American (1958)
* Our Man in Havana (1959)
* The Comedians (1967)
* Travels with My Aunt (1972)
* The Human Factor (1979)
* The Honorary Consul  (1983)
* Monsignor Quixote (1985)
* The End of the Affair (1999)
* The Quiet American (2002)
* Brighton Rock (2010)

Other|

* Brighton Rock (play)
* Shades of Greene

Category

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

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