An interview with Anthony Burgess published in the books magazine Lire in 1988 maddened the British establishment novelist Graham Greene, who looked upon Burgess as a parvenu. Greene believed that Burgess, whom he considered a lower-middle-class provincial upstart, was getting far too much attention in the Press and television. Greene appears to have regarded those media as vulgar unless - properly enough by his estimation - they featured himself, which before the advent of Burgess they had done lavishly enough.
The co-founder of Lire was Bernard Pivot, who presented the talk show Apostrophes. Burgess had appeared on Apostrophes, exhibiting among other things his considerable acuity and flair as a critic. This served further to anger Greene, who felt that the limelight was being stolen from him.
Greene, who may have spied for the Soviets himself, adored the traitor Kim Philby (they had worked as spies together) and travelled to Moscow to visit him, but resented it when Burgess drew attention to this undeniable fact, regarding it as impertinent.
Burgess had first met Greene in the late 1950s, when Greene had made it rather clear to Burgess that, as Burgess put it, he (Greene) 'had achieved much and had reached a plateau where he could afford to take leisurely breath. He had not written the definitive Malayan novel which should match the definitive Vietnamese one entitled The Quiet American, and he did not think that I would write it either'.
2 окт 2024
