Rating: 
Summary: A tragic masterwork
Review: I had read this novel for a course when I was in college over thirty years ago, and recalled practically nothing about it. But when I recently reread it, I found that the years had worked wonders, not in the book, but in my appreciation of it. There are few writers who are as superb at creating character as Greene, and if you are middle-aged, you will identify with Scobie and his hopes and despair. I read the last twenty pages in tears, and I'm a grizzled old cuss. It is a magnificent depiction of a man torn between love for his wife, his mistress, and God.Those who have complained that this is a short story padded out to novel length are so very wrong. They should wait a few decades and give this work another try. One of the finest novels of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: A one-sentence summation of "The Heart of the Matter" does not convey this masterpiece's power and appeal. Why? Basically, this tells the story of a lonely unselfish man with great integrity who finds love in adultery and then is overwhelmed by its guilty fallout. Certainly, part of the book's greatness lies in Green's riveting treatment of circumstance, which leaves the protagonist, Henry Scobie, sympathetic, trapped, and ultimately a victim of his innocent honor. Another element of its greatness is the writing. Here's Scobie comforting a dying child in a hospital. "He heard a small scrapping voice repeat, "Father," and looking up he saw the blue and bloodshot eyes watching him... He could see the breast of the child struggling for breath to repeat the heavy word; he came over to the bed and said, "Yes, dear. Don't speak, I'm here." The night-light cast the shadow of his clenched fist on the sheet and it caught the child's eye. An effort to laugh convulsed her, and he moved his hand away. "Sleep, dear," he said, "you are sleepy. Sleep." A memory he had carefully buried returned and taking out his handkerchief he made the shadow of a rabbit's head fall on the pillow beside her. "There's your rabbit," he said, "to go to sleep with. It will stay until you sleep. Sleep."... He moved the rabbit's ears up and down, up and down. Then he heard Mrs. Bowles's voice, speaking low just behind him. "Stop that," she said harshly, "the child's dead."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent in every way
Review: This is one of the masterpieces of our time and having read it twice confirms that fact. Every true story, said Pappa Hemingway, ends in death. Greene's story is no exception. The things I liked the best were the fully developed and consistent characters, the fast pace, the amazing density, and the logical conclusion which is esthetically pleasing and morally correct. For those of us who write novels this is a textbook of how to carry the story questions and keep the reader interested. The subtle humor also helps. Read it yourself and let me know what you think.
Rating:
Summary: Truly tragic...
Review: This is the first Graham Greene book that I have read, and it definitely will not be my last. The Heart of the Matter is the tragic story of being the ultimate martyr. Scobie, who is the protagonist, has an overwhelming sense of duty to everyone but himself. Set in a claustrophobic African city Scobie's honesty and sense of justice seems to bring out the worst in everyone else. He is often accused of sleeping with the locals or taking bribes from the Syrians, all of which is not true. His largest responsibilty is his wife, Louise who he feels unhappiness is his own fault and therefore must fix it by sending her to South Africa. In order to do that he has to borrow money from a well known diamond smuggler Yusef. Throw into the mix a jealous letter censor named Wilson who is in love with Louise. Not to mention his lover Helen who has her own needs and demands. Many comparisons are drawn between Scobie and Christ in terms of sacrifice. The only difference is no one asked for Scobie's sacrafices and they provide for his unnecessary demise. While the book is heartbreaking in its failed human relations it is also beautiful and filled with insight into human greed, lust, jealousy and regret.
Rating:
Summary: The Heart of the Matter
Review: Henry Scobie is a man whose life has been marred by the tragic death of a child. He sees himself as a complete failure. Scobie is a policeman located in a fictional British Colony on the Atlantic coast of equatorial Africa during the early years of WW2. Basically a decent person, Scobie can no longer satisfy or tolerate his wife, Loiuse, emotional needs. In trying to pay the way for a holiday for Loiuse, Scobie borrows money from a welthy Syrian. This transaction leads to Scobie compromising his own ethical standards and eventually leads to tragedy. During Louise's absence, Scobie meets and falls in love with a younger woman. This affair only serves to intesify Scobie's unhappines. In the end Scobie beleives that he has let down everybody, including himself and GOD. At the end he comes to feel that his own death is the only thing that can accomplish happiness for those he loves.
Rating: 
Summary: Indulgence Leads to Demise.....A Thoughtful Read
Review: The Heart of the Matter is not a mystery, a high-octane adventure, nor does it center on an extraordinary event. Rather it is a story of one man whose faith and character is put to the ultimate test. That man is Henry Scobie. Henry Scobie is a British assistant police comissioner stationed in a West African coastal town during World War II. Scobie is a devout catholic who is unhappily married but feels obligated to fulfill his wife Louise's needs and make her happy. An honest man, Scobie has remained faithful to his wife in their fifteen years of marriage and has upheld his duties as an officer of the law. But when Louise decides to get away for a while because she does not like the town they are in, Scobie's beliefs and convictions get challenged and he fails to measure up to the man he thought he was. He winds up falling in love with a nineteen-year old girl and during the affair he feels torn over his desire to be with her yet continue to keep his wife happy and to honor God. At the same time his work also suffers, as he begins to do business with some unscrupulous characters. His good reputation and sense of self-worth deteriorates day by day. Distraught and at the end of his rope, Scobie takes extreme measures to overcome his conflicts and the story wraps up with a shocking conclusion that leaves the reader with plenty to ponder. At times the plot moved slowly, however, Greene did a fabulous job at capturing the ambiguity of the human condition and providing insight into the inner demons that plague us all. Many of Greene's famous quotes came from this book, including my favorite, "Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil--or else an absoulute ignorance." I think William Golding said it best when he stated, "Graham Greene will be read and remembered as the ultimate chronicler of twentieth-century man's consciousness and anxiety."
Rating:
Summary: accidental masterwork
Review: Scobie is an honest middle aged Colonial policeman in Africa with an unhappy wife, few friends, no money and little chance of advancement. He and his men, and Wilson--a spy who has fallen in love with Scobie's wife--are trying to break up a diamond smuggling operation in their port city, which is especially busy with the outbreak of World War II. When Scobie's wife decides to go to South Africa & prepare the way for his retirement, he is unable to raise the required cash. Yusef, a Syrian merchant suspected of the diamond smuggling, offers to lend him the money. Scobie recognizes the inherent dangers in such an arrangement but he longs to make his wife happy and so accepts the loan. With his wife gone, Scobie stumbles into an affair with Helen Rolt, a shipwreck survivor. A devout Catholic, Scobie is tormented by guilt over this affair and when his wife writes to inform him of her decision to return, he is faced with an insoluble dilemma. He wants to make both women happy and he wants "peace & solitude" for himself. Compounding his problem, Yusef and Wilson have both found out about the affair & use the knowledge for their own ends. Eventually, and inevitably, Scobie determines that there is only one way out of his predicament. I read some comments by Greene about the book in which he said that the book the critics and public read is not the book he was trying to write. Despite himself, he gave us a terrific book about Scobie's struggles to be a good man and be true to his faith in God. GRADE: A
Rating:
Summary: A Very Absorbing Read!
Review: This novel is a brilliant masterpiece which speaks directly to the reader's heart. The writing is of such finesse and the plot so powerful that you won't be able to put down the book until you find out how Major Scobie "resolves his problems" in the end (his problems centre on how to ensure his wife's, his mistress's AND [even] God's happiness even if it means he has to pay the ultimate price for it). The novel will evoke every kinds of feelings in the reader. I know I felt love, tenderness, sadness, sometimes impatience but always PITY for Major Scobie, a deeply religious man who is merciful, responsible and kind towards everyone else but whom nobody really cares about, what more pities. Even though "everyone" claims to love Scobie or to value his friendship, they are actually selfish, ordinary people who have their own hidden agenda (even if they don't realize it) and want something or other from Scobie. All these "demands" weigh the poor man down so badly that in the end, he is driven to commit the final act of damnation so that (or so he thinks) the ones he loves will be free of him and they will no longer be unhappy. It's truly wonderful and fulfilling to read a novel which offers such a great insight into the mind's psychology and the human heart. I've been a fan of Greene's works since I read "The End of the Affair" which I loved dearly. I believe that one doesn't have to be a Catholic to appreciate and understand the novel, despite its heavy references to the religion (eg. about sins, confession, communion, repentence, etc). I can't praise this novel highly enough! Just pick it up! It may even transform some of your views on life (for the better). If not, at the very least it'll transform you instantly into a Graham Greene fan (that is, if you aren't one already)!
Rating:
Summary: Greene's Mastery of Moral Ambiguity
Review: In this novel, set in a steamy west African port during WWII, an unhappily married British police officer balances the demands of his wife, his mistress, and his Catholic moral conscience. The latter translates with sensitive consideration into any moral conscience. He balances them unsuccessfully. A fine, if disturbing, read.
Rating:
Summary: 'The terrible promiscuous passion'
Review: 'The word "pity" is used as loosely as the word "love"', Greene writes in this novel: 'Pity: the terrible promiscuous passion which so few experience.' Far from being a novel about the struggle between private passion and public duty, The Heart of the Matter reveals the struggle between pity and pity. Scobie, thought by many critics to be a 'tragic hero', in the Aristotelian sense, is destroyed because his pity becomes monstrously self-centred, it becomes his 'hubris'. Sex is replaced in this novel by pity. Scobie's infidelity is in pitying another woman, not in sleeping with her. Caught between pity for his wife and pity for his 'lover', Scobie is a untypical adulterer; and caught between his belief in God and his desire to suspend the ethical norms in which he operates, Scobie is an untypical Catholic. Yet this novel is typical of Greene, in that it portrays untypical people, feeling untypical things for other untypical people. Fascinated always with paradox, Greene presents a world in which humanity is presented as 'cannon fodder in a war too balanced ever to be concluded.'
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