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he finds himself obsessed by Clara and seduces her with a pair of highly decorative sunglasses. They then begin an affair in which he remains emotionally distant from her. "Caring is the only dangerous thing," Plarr says in the novel. "Love was a claim which he wouldn't meet, a responsibility he would refuse to accept, a demand. So many times his mother had used the word when he was a child; it was like the threat of an armed robber. 'Put up your hands or else ...' Something was always asked in return: obedience, an apology, a kiss which one had no desire to give." When Clara becomes pregnant
Fortnum, believing the child is his, drinks less.
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Rivas and Aquino take Plarr to a squalid hut in a shanty town while bargaining with the authorities. Plarr has been taken to the hut to treat
Fortnum, who has been shot in the leg while attempting to escape, lies drinking whisky. Fortnum spends much of his time, as he faces up to his impending death,
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Visiting the town brothel with
Saavedra, Plarr is attracted to a girl, Clara, but she is taken by another man. Later, when he is called to treat Fortnum's new wife, Plarr recognizes Clara. Although he has never been to England, Plarr regards himself as a cool, self-controlled Englishman. Nonetheless,
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surround the hut while the failed priest, Rivas, conducts a makeshift mass inside with the rain coming down. When the police deadline is about to expire, Plarr goes out to talk with them, with Leon shooting him in his leg. The paratroopers shoot Plarr, Leon and Aquino dead, with Plarr's death blamed
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schooldays turn up at his surgery. One is Leon Rivas, a married priest, now defrocked, the other Aquino, a failed lawyer. They tell Plarr his father is alive and in a jail in
Paraguay, and that they have a plot for which a doctor's assistance is needed to kidnap the US Ambassador on his trip to
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to see ruins. They intend to ransom the ambassador for the release of political prisoners in
Paraguay, including Plarr's father. However, they are incompetent and mistakenly kidnap Fortnum instead. Meanwhile, Colonel Perez of the
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When Plarr moves to
Corrientes, a quiet, subtropical backwater, he meets the two other English inhabitants: Humphries, a bitter elderly English teacher; and Charles Fortnum, the unimportant British
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sentimentalizing about Clara and remembering the fearsome figure of his father. He overhears Plarr confessing his adultery with Clara and that the child is Plarr's.
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Plarr's mother, once a beauty and now bloated, along with some of his previous mistresses, attends his funeral. Saavedra reads a homily. The
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in the next honours list. In the last scene, Fortnum and Clara reconcile and name the child
Eduardo, after Plarr.
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on the kidnappers. The surviving kidnappers and Rivas's wife are captured, and
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Eduardo Plarr is an unmarried medical doctor of
English descent who, as a boy, fled to
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Cunningham, John (19 December 1983). "Plain thoughts of an
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then relieves Fortnum of his consulship and tell him he will be appointed an
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Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement
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Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement
381:"Graham Greene: The Honorary Consul (programme notes)"
244:with his Paraguayan mother to escape the political
330:as Fortnum. The soundtrack theme was composed by
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225:The story is set in the provincial city of
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280:questions Plarr on the kidnapping.
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999:The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen
806:A World of My Own: A Dream Diary
357:Conversations With Graham Greene
924:The Last Word and Other Stories
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359:. Penguin Books. p. 136.
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28:1973 novel by Graham Greene
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688:Doctor Fischer of Geneva
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1277:Novels by Graham Greene
1104:The Heart of the Matter
1032:The Future's in the Air
596:The Heart of the Matter
580:The Power and the Glory
572:The Confidential Agent
233:, on the shore of the
217:' in the early 1970s.
1297:The Bodley Head books
1192:The End of the Affair
1112:The End of the Affair
841:The Complaisant Lover
616:The End of the Affair
477:and their adaptations
418:(30 September 1983).
1176:The Honorary Consul
1160:Travels with My Aunt
943:The End of the Party
739:Journey Without Maps
664:Travels with My Aunt
588:The Ministry of Fear
172:Travels with My Aunt
32:The Honorary Consul
18:The Honorary Consul
1272:1973 British novels
992:A Shocking Accident
672:The Honorary Consul
516:Rumour at Nightfall
355:Allain, M. (1991).
311:The Honorary Consul
246:turmoil of Paraguay
202:The Honorary Consul
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1200:The Quiet American
1136:The Quiet American
1064:Went the Day Well?
908:A Sense of Reality
900:Twenty-One Stories
624:The Quiet American
548:The Bear Fell Free
532:It's a Battlefield
508:The Name of Action
425:The New York Times
387:. 15 October 2020.
314:(also released as
231:Argentine Littoral
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16:For the film, see
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1184:Monsignor Quixote
1144:Our Man in Havana
1056:This Gun for Hire
971:Alas, Poor Maling
964:Across the Bridge
957:The Basement Room
892:Story collections
747:The Lawless Roads
696:Monsignor Quixote
640:Our Man in Havana
334:and performed by
286:Army paratroopers
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85:Publication place
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1235:Shades of Greene
1168:The Human Factor
1072:Ministry of Fear
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849:Carving a Statue
833:The Potting Shed
680:The Human Factor
648:A Burnt-Out Case
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429:. Retrieved
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324:Richard Gere
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235:Paraná River
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221:Plot summary
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79:Bodley Head
1266:Categories
1128:Saint Joan
873:Yes and No
342:References
304:Adaptation
273:Corrientes
227:Corrientes
473:Works by
215:Dirty War
150:823/.9/12
102:Paperback
75:Publisher
67:Published
1253:Category
987:" (1954)
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973:" (1940)
966:" (1938)
959:" (1936)
952:" (1930)
945:" (1929)
257:machismo
98:Hardback
59:Language
1048:21 Days
611:; 1949)
609:novella
322:, with
96:Print (
62:English
1251:
1229:(play)
1211:(2010)
1203:(2002)
1195:(1999)
1187:(1985)
1179:(1983)
1171:(1979)
1163:(1972)
1155:(1967)
1147:(1959)
1139:(1958)
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1123:(1956)
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919:(1967)
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868:(1981)
860:(1975)
852:(1964)
844:(1959)
836:(1957)
828:(1953)
809:(1992)
801:(1984)
793:(1980)
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766:(1984)
758:(1961)
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742:(1936)
723:(2005)
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492:Novels
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268:Jesuit
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109:Pages
433:2024
361:ISBN
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70:1973
385:BBC
298:OBE
209:by
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