Spies & espionage · 1978 · novel

The Human Factor

by Graham Greene

The Human Factor is an espionage novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1978 and adapted into the 1979 film The Human Factor, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Maurice Castle is an aging bureaucrat in the British MI6 secret service. Married to a black South African woman with whom he fell in love during his previous stint in apartheid South Africa, he now lives a quiet life in the suburbs and looks forward to retirement. As the book begins, a leak has been traced to the African section in London where he works and threatens to disrupt this precarious tranquility. Castle and younger colleague Davis make light of the resulting inquiry, but when Davis is accused on circumstantial evidence and quietly "disposed of", Castle begins to wrestle with questions of loyalty, morality and conscience. On the one hand, Castle undertakes his day-to-day job professionally, and is willing to do what is more than required for both Davis and Daintry, his boss. On the other hand, Castle is grateful to Carson, who, as a Communist, helped Castle's wife escape South Africa. In return, Castle decides to help the Communists and believes that by helping...

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