The Power and the Glory

by Graham Greene

This story of bravery, cowardice, and moral decay is set in Mexico during the Calles regime of the 1930s, when the practice of Christianity was violently suppressed. It portrays the heroic and doomed efforts of a priest to minister secretly to the Catholics of the region. The "whiskey priest" is one of Greene's most memorable characters: a drunkard and fornicator, he nevertheless attempts to keep the Church alive in his province and puts his life at risk in the process. He is pursued throughout the story by the Chief of Police, a Javert-like figure who is a model of decorum, human decency--and coldheartedness. Widely acclaimed as one of Greene's finest books, THE POWER AND THE GLORY was the work that first established Green's reputation as a master of the novel form.

Editions of The Power and the Glory

ISBN 9780786101047	Binding/Format Audio Cassette	Publisher Blackstone Audiobooks	Date 1994	Price $47.45	New
ISBN 9780670569793	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Penguin Group USA	Date 1982	Price $29.94	Good
ISBN 9780792711421	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Curley Pub	Date 1991	Price $5.00	Good
ISBN 9780140155068	Binding/Format Book	Publisher Penguin Books	Date 1977	Price None Available
ISBN 9780142437308	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Penguin Group USA	Date 2003	Price $7.50	New
ISBN 9780670018062	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Penguin USA	Date 1968	Price $20.44	Good
ISBN 9780884116561	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Amereon Ltd	Date 1977	Price $116.95	New
ISBN 9780140017915	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Penguin USA	Date 1982	Price $1.00	Good
ISBN 9780140184990	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Penguin USA	Date 1995	Price $1.00	Very Good
ISBN 9780670835362	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Penguin Group USA	Date 1990	Price $8.26	Very Good
ISBN 9780745127637	Binding/Format Audio Cassette	Publisher Chivers Audio Books	Date 1999	Price None Available
ISBN 9780822010715	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc	Date 1986	Price $4.20	Fine
ISBN 9780792711414	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Chivers North Amer	Date 1991	Price None Available

Media Reviews

"In 'The Power and the Glory,' as elsewhere, Mr. Greene is extremely successful in creating a squalid and painful world. He has a palette of sour colors, a repertory of of sickening suggestions, a talent for selecting and rubbing in unpleasant details of modern civilization, such as cheap panes of stained glass, inferior dental drills, and insipid correspondence courses, that make good writing and are entirely his own. But the trouble is, it seems to me, that here he has too little to set against them. The canvas is pretty well painted, but the picture is somehow dead....Dispensing with the excitement of the mystery story, Mr. Greene has not wholly succeeded in creating the higher kind of excitement. His priest who is merely a victim, who is merely pursued and executed, does not stir us with the spiritual passion that ought to be conveyed by the life of a saint."

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