More Greene

Rediscovered this today:

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ransomedition/2008/fall/greene.html

My favorite excerpt from this piece about Greene's revisions to The Power and the Glory:


"Near the end of the manuscript, Greene crossed out three lines in the elaborated scene of the execution of the "whisky priest." The episode is told by the only witness—a secondary character—who sees the execution from the window. He had first met the priest by pure chance at the beginning of the novel, thus bringing the novel full circle. This pattern is further enhanced by the inclusion of the buzzards already present on the first page (changed into vultures in the later editions).

The published text runs as follows:

"Then there was a single shot, and opening [his eyes] again he [Mr. Tench] saw the officer stuffing his gun back into his holster and the little man was a routine heap beside the wall—something unimportant that had to be cleared away. [added on the manuscript and published: Two knock-kneed men approached quickly]."

After "cleared away," Greene crossed out the following lines that were not included in the published version:

"But looking down Mr. Tench caught a look on the officer's face—an uneasy look, the look of a disappointed man and it suddenly sunk to him, as the buzzards flipped down again after the explosion's shot, as though the blood had been cleared away from a whole region of the world."

The erasure of this passage seems to underline Greene's intention to allow his readers a greater freedom of interpretation. Those suppressed lines, with the look of disappointment read on the lieutenant's face after the execution of the priest made the priest appear to be too much of a Christic figure, a martyr, possibly on the way to Sainthood at the moment when, following the explosion, "the blood had been cleared away from a whole region of the world.""

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This is a fantastic find by François Gallix.