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Duel Duet

Selected Stories

Edited by Yiyun Li
Introduction by Yiyun Li
Twenty-two short stories by Graham Greene, arranged in pairs to be read as either a duel or a duet.

A Penguin Classic

Few twentieth-century writers are as celebrated for their craft as Graham Greene, whose acclaimed political thrillers and morally complex characters influenced generations of authors and filmmakers. Greene’s explorations of human nature—its harmonies and contradictions—ranged from tales of secret agents, murder, and war to dramas about love and fear, morality and faith. This balance of vigour and virtuosity is also present in Greene’s prodigious body of short stories. In this new collection, Pulitzer Prize winner (and Graham Greene devotee) Yiyun Li arranges a selection of twenty-two classic Graham Greene short stories into pairs, to be read together either as a duel or a duet, offering a new perspective on a writer we thought we knew and the lasting power of his short fiction.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Graham Greene was born in 1904. While at Balliol College, Oxford, he published his first book of verse. He continues to write throughout his lifetime, and is the author of The Third Man, Our Man in Havana, The Quiet American, and The End of the Affair, in addition to many other novels, short story collections, plays, essays, travel books, and film scripts. During World War II he served with the British Secret Intelligence Service. He died in 1991. View titles by Graham Greene
Introduction: Return to Home Key by Yiyun Li

Dream of a Strange Land
The News in English

The End of the Party
The Case for the Defence

The Basement Room
A Day Saved

Across the Bridge
A Drive in the Country

The Innocent
The Destructors

Men at Work
A Little Place Off the Edgware Road

A Visit to Morin
The Hint of an Explanation

Cheap in August
The Moment of Truth

The Root of All Evil
A Branch of the Service

Two Gentle People
Church Militant

The Other Side of the Border
Under the Garden

About

Twenty-two short stories by Graham Greene, arranged in pairs to be read as either a duel or a duet.

A Penguin Classic

Few twentieth-century writers are as celebrated for their craft as Graham Greene, whose acclaimed political thrillers and morally complex characters influenced generations of authors and filmmakers. Greene’s explorations of human nature—its harmonies and contradictions—ranged from tales of secret agents, murder, and war to dramas about love and fear, morality and faith. This balance of vigour and virtuosity is also present in Greene’s prodigious body of short stories. In this new collection, Pulitzer Prize winner (and Graham Greene devotee) Yiyun Li arranges a selection of twenty-two classic Graham Greene short stories into pairs, to be read together either as a duel or a duet, offering a new perspective on a writer we thought we knew and the lasting power of his short fiction.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author

Graham Greene was born in 1904. While at Balliol College, Oxford, he published his first book of verse. He continues to write throughout his lifetime, and is the author of The Third Man, Our Man in Havana, The Quiet American, and The End of the Affair, in addition to many other novels, short story collections, plays, essays, travel books, and film scripts. During World War II he served with the British Secret Intelligence Service. He died in 1991. View titles by Graham Greene

Table of Contents

Introduction: Return to Home Key by Yiyun Li

Dream of a Strange Land
The News in English

The End of the Party
The Case for the Defence

The Basement Room
A Day Saved

Across the Bridge
A Drive in the Country

The Innocent
The Destructors

Men at Work
A Little Place Off the Edgware Road

A Visit to Morin
The Hint of an Explanation

Cheap in August
The Moment of Truth

The Root of All Evil
A Branch of the Service

Two Gentle People
Church Militant

The Other Side of the Border
Under the Garden
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