Classics · DarkMajor Scobie, a police officer in a wartime West African colony, faces a moral crisis
The Heart of the Matter
A colonial police officer is pulled between duty and his private life in wartime
Major Henry Scobie is the deputy commissioner of police in a British colony on the west coast of Africa during World War II. The novel does not name the place, but Greene confirmed in his 1980 memoir Ways of Escape that it is Freetown, in Sierra Leone. Scobie is caught between his professional duties and the growing strains in his personal life, which include his devout Catholic wife Louise and Helen Rolt, a newly arrived widow. William Heinemann published it in 1948, and it sold more than 300,000 copies in the UK on release.
More about this book
Who
Major Henry Scobie, his wife Louise, Edward Wilson, Helen Rolt and Yusef.
World
A British colony on the west coast of Africa in World War II, confirmed by Greene as Freetown.
What makes it different
It was adapted as a 1953 film starring Trevor Howard and Maria Schell.
Feel
Weighty and troubled.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Heart of the MatterWikipedia