The Third Man by Graham Greene

A favourite author + a favourite film = The Third Man. A classic story that I finally got to read, or listen too. I have seen the film of course, one of my favourite.  Graham Greene seldom disappoints you, and I think that this might be one of his very best stories. I think most of us think of the film when we hear the title. Green actually wrote first a novella on which the screenplay was based.

The story is set in post-World War II Vienna. American writer Holly Martins arrives to meet his old school friend Harry Lime. Upon arrival he receives the news that Harry Lime died in a car accident a few days earlier. He attends the funeral, visited only by a few friends and what turns out to be Lime's girlfriend. Martins is contacted by the British military who ask him questions about Lime's business in Vienna. Martins, quite innocent on the behaviour of his old friend, is surprised by what he is hearing.

There is a mystery surrounding the car accident and Martins sets out to try to find out what really happened. That is how he gets to know that there was a third man present when the accident happened. In search of this man he moves around a grey and gloomy Vienna, where he cannot trust anyone. It is very atmospheric, which might be because you have the film in mind, but the novella also conveys the spooky, foggy and mysterious surroundings. Greene manages as always to characterise very well the ordinary man (it is mostly a man in his novels) falling into circumstances, quite out of the extra ordinary, often related to a world of spies. Martins does find out in the end what is wrong with Harry Lime and it comes as a chock. Has he lost his innocence in his fight to clear Harry Lime's name?

From Wikipedia I learn that "in 1999, the British Film Institute voted The Third Man the greatest British film of all time. In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the second best British film ever." The film is something special. Don't we all know the wonderful theme by Anton Karaswrote, the good actors and Carol Reed, directing this film noir. The audio book is very well narrated by Martin Jarvis, with a wonderful English accent à la Colin Firth.