ABSTRACT
Henry Graham Greene’s earliest novels were technically flawed in numerous ways: the descriptive passages were often romantically turgid. Nevertheless, Greene’s ‘leopards’, which help to establish the atmosphere and preoccupations of Greeneland, remain distinctive. Such ‘leopards’ can be found in Greene’s writing at earlier and later periods; but their use seems to be most frequent in the period 1936 to 1948. Greene knew well the ‘conceits’ of Metaphysical poetry and the grotesque, bizarre similes of Jacobean drama. Greeneland again: the prison-cell, mosquitoes omnipresent. In detail and in large conception, some of Greene’s works employ theological shock-tactics which generate a near-blasphemous dramatic effect. An Americanism which can be found in Greene’s writing across the decades is a solecism: the idiomatic but ungrammatical use of ‘like’ in positions where ‘as’ should be used. Yet, only eight pages after the self-criticism, Greene recalls a Norwegian visitor who brought him a measure of hope, ‘carrying it like a glass of akvavit down the muddy lane’.
