The Human Factor
First Edition Cover
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| Author | Graham Greene |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Published | 1978 |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 344 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 3741600 |
| 823/.9/12 | |
| LC Class | PZ3.G8319 Hu PR6013.R44 |
| Preceded by | The Honorary Consul |
| Followed by | Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party |
The Human Factor is an espionage novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1978 and adapted into the 1979 film The Human Factor, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard.
Maurice Castle is an aging bureaucrat in the British secret service MI6. Married to a black African woman with whom he fell in love during his previous stint in apartheid South Africa, he now lives a quiet life in the suburbs and looks forward to retirement. As the book begins, a leak has been traced to the African section in London where he works and threatens to disrupt this precarious tranquility. Castle and younger colleague Davis make light of the resulting inquiry, but when Davis is accused on circumstantial evidence and quietly "disposed of", Castle begins to wrestle with questions of loyalty, morality and conscience. On the one hand, Castle undertakes his day-to-day job professionally, and is willing to do what is more than required for both Davis and Daintry, his boss. On the other hand, Castle is grateful to Carson, who, as a Communist, has helped Castle's wife escape South Africa. In return, Castle decides to help the Communists and believes that by helping them, he is helping his wife's people—not knowing that Moscow has all along been using him for entirely different purposes.
Rather than action or high politics, the novel builds its suspense by focusing on the psychological burdens of the pawns in the game: doubt and paranoia bred by a culture of secrecy, the sophisticated amorality of the men at the top, and above all, loyalties (to whom and what and at what cost?) Greene's characters are complete psychological portraits located within the context of the Cold War and the impact of international affairs on the complicated lives of individuals and vice versa. The interplay of international politics on the individual level is a trademark of this author.
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