Gumilar Manuela
Karl Tornayg. 45-47/2/2
1230 Vienna, AUSTRIA
Tel.: ++43 1 609 36 86
E-Mail: [e-mail]

Graham Greene: “The third man”

Author

Graham Greene was born in 1904. After Balliol College, Oxford, he worked as a sub-editor at
”The Times” for four years. In 1935 he made a journey through Liberia described in ”Journey
Without Maps”. Then he worked for the Roman Catholic Church and visited Mexico to report
on religious persecution there. He wrote ”The Lawless Roads” and later ”The Power and the
Glory”. He became literary editor for the ”Spectator” for one year and worked for the Foreign
Office in Sierra Leone from 1941 to 1943. He wrote several collections of short stories, travel
books, plays, autobiographies, biographies and books for children. Many novels and short
stories have been filmed. Graham Greene died in April 1991.

Characters

Rollo Martins.......... second-rate novelist

Herr Kurtz.......... Lime’s friend

Benjamin Dexter..... Martins’ pseudonym

Colonel Cooler... Lime’s friend

Harry Lime..............Martins’ best friend

Anna Schmidt..... Lime’s girlfriend

Colonel Calloway... policeman

Dr. Winkler.........Lime’s doctor

Herr Koch............... Lime’s neighbour

Mr. Crabbin........ porter of the Sacher’s

Plot

Rollo Martins comes to Vienna to meet his old school-friend Harry Lime. He is not at the
airport so he takes a taxi to his flat. There Lime’s neighbour Herr Koch tells him that his
friend died because he was run over by a car and that he died immediately. So Rollo goes to
the funeral at the Central Cemetery. There he meets Colonel Calloway. They visit a bar and
Martins tells him stories about his school-time with Harry. Calloway wants to tell him about
Lime’s problems with the police but the novelist does not want to hear about them. Another
policeman brings Martins to Sacher’s, where he was already expected as the writer Benjamin
Dexter. The porter, his name is Crabbin, tells him about Lime’s girlfriend Anna Schmidt that
she is an actress at the Josefstadt Theatre. In his room he gets a call from a friend of Harry
Lime’s. His name is Kurtz and he was with Harry when he died. He tells him that he promised
the dying Harry to look after Rollo. Martins wants to say that Herr Koch told him Harry was
dead as once but he does not. They meet at the Old Vienna in the Kärntnerstrasse. What he
does not like is Herr Kurtz’s toupee. They talk about Harry’s accident. Kurtz tells him that
there was another man when Lime died, it was Colonel Cooler, an American. The two men
carried Harry to his flat and the doctor came to prove his death. After that Martins goes to the
Josefstadt Theatre to speak with Anna Schmidt but she was told the same as Martins. Dr.
Winkler also cannot tell him anything new. In the evening he goes to Herr Koch who tells him
the same as before. He is sure that there were three men who carried the dead friend in his
flat. But he cannot say who the third man was. In a bar in the American zone of Vienna he
meets Colonel Cooler. He tells him the exactly the same things as Kurtz. Martins has drunk to
much whisky and so he feels alone and visits Anna. They want to visit Harry’s flat. There are
many people in front of the house because Herr Koch was murdered. A boy, whose father

Gumilar Manuela
Karl Tornayg. 45-47/2/2
1230 Vienna, AUSTRIA
Tel.: ++43 1 609 36 86
E-Mail: [e-mail]

Martins is talking with, says, that a foreigner has done it. So Martins flees. At Sacher’s a
porter tells him that Colonel Calloway is waiting for him at the hotelbar. But a soldier takes
him to a literature-group which is arranged by Crabbin. He talks a bit with the listeners and
gives signatures. Suddenly Colonel Calloway comes with the MP. Martins tries to escape but
he looses his way and a soldier takes him to the policeman. Calloway tells him about Lime’s
problems with the police, that he smuggled penicillin. He sold it and a number of children
died because it was bad stuff. He was the boss and he worked with Kurtz and a man called
Harbin. After Martins leaves Calloway he goes to the bar and after that he tells Anna
everything about Harry’s career as a criminal. In the street he sees a man looking exactly like
Harry and follows him, but soon Lime’s ghost disappears in a solid iron kiosk, not in a
newspaper kiosk. Calloway whom Martins tells this story cannot believe that it was a ghost.
He tells his assistant to dig up Harry Lime because he thinks that Harbin has been killed, not
Lime. He believes that he wanted to see Anna and that he used the kiosk because there is the
entrance to the main sewer. So he visits Kurtz to tell him that he wants to see Harry. Martins
meets his old friend at the Big Wheel. Lime admits his friend that he is living in the Russian
zone. Sometimes he must give information about people with false papers to the Russians.
Martins goes to the police and tells Calloway everything Harry said to him. The two men are
working together now. They only can catch him if he is in their zone. Harry always goes
through the sewer between midnight and 2:00 a.m. because there is no police in the central
sewer. In the night Martins is waiting in a café near the kiosk. When Lime appears Rollo and
another policeman called Bates are following him. Martins goes before the policeman because
he knows that Harry would not shoot at him. A gunfight begins in which Lime gets shot. The
criminal is dead.

Narrative Art

This novel is written in the 1

st

person singular, the narrator is Colonel Calloway. Graham

Greene is easy to read because he was a reporter and he wrote as one. There was no special
vocabulary.

Interpretation

You cannot really get a message from this novel because it is a crime-story and it only wants
to entertain. But I think it shows very good how people can change. Two year before your
best friend would do anything to help you but now he would do everything to get money. He
would even sell you if you made a good price. It does not mean that you cannot trust anyone.
Harry and Rollo are living in to cities, one of them is under occupation. When your friend
lives near you one might know what he does.