Stamboul Train, by Graham Greene On a train from Ostend to Istanbul, assorted characters from Greeneland – an exiled politician, a beautiful woman, a journalist, a fleeing criminal – are thrown together with amorous and violent consequences. There are plot complications in Vienna and desperate dangers at a stop in Serbia, where Greene's protagonist, the businessman Myatt, finds himself plunged into murderous political rivalries. Other protagonists join the train en route. Janet Pardoe, a woman of great beauty and complete vacuity, steps aboard at Cologne to visit an uncle in Istanbul. She is seen off by Mabel Warren, a terrifying lady journalist with an Eton crop, tweed suit, collar and tie. Mabel works up and down the Rhine, filing human-interest stories (rape, murder and the death of children) for a London paper. Janet is her paid companion. In the week she’s away Janet is hoping to find something better. Mabel is just hoping to stay sober. Then, as the express is about to leave, she recognizes Richard John alias Czinner and leaps aboard, knowing that the financial results of a scoop like this will make Janet more likely to return. In Vienna a final passenger joins the express – a Herr Grünlich (Mr Green-ish), a desperate man on the run from the police for murder and robbery. Greene later labeled it one of his “entertainments” but, as Christopher Hitchens says in his Introduction, it doesn’t fit with the other books Greene classifies thus.

Stamboul Train by Graham Greene - AbeBooks Stamboul Train by Graham Greene - AbeBooks

He could do nothing for his own people; he could not recommend rest for the worn-out or prescribe insulin to the diabetic, because they had not the money to pay for either. The book fits its epigraph from George Santayana, "Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence", to a t. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-11-08 06:10:11 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40279711 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Stamboul Train (entitled Orient Express in the USA) was written by Graham Greene and published in 1932. It was his first commercial success, making his name. Stamboul Train: TitleThat's some baggage there for all of us born Jewish whatever religion or philosophy we actually espouse. And yet -- just one year after the publication of Stamboul Train, Hitler came to power in what was very much a Western European country... Orientalism certainly leaves us vulnerable to blind spots.

Orient Express (1934) - IMDb Orient Express (1934) - IMDb

The plot follows a group of passengers as they travel from Ostend to Istanbul on the Orient Express. All in all, though, this is not exactly a ride full of touristy sights. There is always a sense of unease, of paranoia in the cold, frosty, European atmosphere and it is further complicated by how Greene takes on, boldly and provocatively, potshots at a gradually hardening capitalist stance and, of course, the much-talked-about Anti-Semitism at the crux of the novel. The Complete Entertainments comprised of The Stamboul Train; A Gun for Sale; The Confidential Agent; The Third Man; The Ministry of Fear and Our Man in Havana It's books such as this and Eric Ambler's Journey into Fear that make me wish I could have gone on journeys such as these in my own life.The chief characters include Coral Musker, a chorus girl who develops a brief relationship with Carleton Myatt, a rich (Jewish) businessman (as Petra correctly notes, though this might not be seen as an anti-semitic portrayal, why is he identified as Jewish and no one else is identified as anything but English?); the spiteful journalist Mabel Warren and her companion, Janet Pardoe; Josef Grunlich, a cunning, murderous burglar, and Dr. Czinner (not particularly a sinner), the communist returning to sacrifice himself in a public way--with publicity for the cause--in Belgrade.