The Human Factor.

GREENE, Graham.

$40.00

Item Number: 10098

London: The Bodley Head, 1978.

First edition of this espionage novel, which was later adapted into the 1979 film, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Michael Harvey.

In his 1980 autobiography Ways of Escape, Greene wrote that his aim with this book was "to write a novel of espionage free from the conventional violence, which has not, in spite of James Bond, been a feature of the British Secret Service. "I wanted to present the Service unromantically as a way of life, men going daily to their office to earn their pensions." Writing in his 70s, Greene drew on his own experience in MI6 and explored the moral ambiguities raised by his old boss, legendary Soviet double agent Kim Philby, although Greene stated that Castle, the main character in the novel, was not based on Philby. Another theme Greene explored was what he considered the hypocrisy of the West's relations with South Africa under apartheid. He thought that even though the West publicly opposed apartheid, "they simply could not let South Africa succumb to black power and Communism."