Travels with My Aunt
By Graham Greene and Giles Havergal
4/5
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About this ebook
Stage version of the popular novel, first performed at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow before two West End productions and one on Broadway, winning an Olivier award on the way.
Graham Greene
Graham Greene (1904–1991) is recognized as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, achieving both literary acclaim and popular success. His best known works include Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, and The Power and the Glory. After leaving Oxford, Greene first pursued a career in journalism before dedicating himself full-time to writing with his first big success, Stamboul Train. He became involved in screenwriting and wrote adaptations for the cinema as well as original screenplays, the most successful being The Third Man. Religious, moral, and political themes are at the root of much of his work, and throughout his life he traveled to some of the wildest and most volatile parts of the world, which provided settings for his fiction. Greene was a member of the Order of Merit and a Companion of Honour.
Read more from Graham Greene
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Reviews for Travels with My Aunt
682 ratings32 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Delightful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Locations: England, Paris, Turkey, Argentina
A retired bank manager becomes acquainted with his aunt, a well-traveled woman in her 70's with a complicated, lover-strewn past and a bohemian attitude towards life. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was perfect as the shortest day of the year approached. It is lighthearted, funny and quirky. Henry Pulling's life veers in a wildly new direction when he meets Aunt Augusta at his mother's funeral. At first I thought it was going to be a compilation of their exploits but it turned out to have a more serious undercurrent. This book is another example of how to show without telling. Henry comes to realize, as does the reader, that is is our connections with others that give life to life. Much of the book is dated but it is charming nonetheless.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry Pulling, is a retired bank manager who is leading what may be the most boring life ever when he meets his Aunt Augusta at his mother's funeral. Although Augusta is in her seventies, she is far livelier than Henry and soon he is traveling the world in her wake. This book is fun, funny and full of surprises.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Henry Pulling is a retired bank manager. At his mother's funeral, he encounters his long lost aunt, Augusta. She manages to talk him into leaving suburbia and his dahlias behind to travel with her to Brighton, Istanbul, Boulogne and Paraguay. Along the way, he encounters lots of unusual people, and unusual circumstances.This is a nice enough read, but I did find it all a bit silly. I didn't much like aunt Augusta's voice, which irritated me at times, and there were quite a few ridiculously coincidental meetings during the travels too.This is not a book I would rave about, but pleasant enough if you like that sort of thing.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book was...interesting. I liked it a lot, but sometimes I had no idea what was going on - much like the main character.Henry Pulling has spent his whole life trying to be a respectable English gentleman. He's about 50, retired from the bank, never married. At his mother's funeral he meets his Aunt Augusta. She is eccentric and doesn't care one bit about being respectable. She tells him some things about his father and mother, and Henry, intrigued, wants to further their acquaintance.Next thing he knows, his aunt Augusta is booking him as her companion on travels to other countries. He wants to say no so he can stay home and take care of his flowers, but he doesn't know how to get out of it. So he goes along.They have adventures together, and stiff Mr. Pulling begins to know his aunt, and himself, a little better.Aunt Augusta tells long rambling stories and never fully explains anything...which often leaves Henry (and the reader) a little confused. But I think this is exactly what the author wanted to do.This book is not going to be for everyone...but I'm pretty sure that if you liked Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson, you are going to like this book as well.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love the humor in this book. The fact that the aunt is so brutally honest and yet retains a compassionate nature puts her up there with Maude (from the 1971 movie _Harold and Maude_). A character she greatly resembles in terms of spirit I might add.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Life takes a new direction for retired banker Henry Pulling after his mother's funeral. At the funeral he met his mother's sister, his Aunt Augusta, for the first time in his memory. Aunt Augusta proves to be as uninhibited as her sister had been straight-laced. Despite his reservations about her conversation and behavior, a conservative Henry loosens up enough to accompany Aunt Augusta on a day trip to Brighton. This is just the beginning of Henry's adventures with Aunt Augusta. As Henry learns more about his Aunt Augusta, he also discovers more about himself and about what he wants out of life.I find it difficult to see this as much more than a period piece. It was published on the heels of the sexual revolution of the 1960s and it seems to channel the spirit of that movement into the lifestyle of an elderly woman and her middle-aged nephew. In a sense, it's a coming-of-age novel with a middle aged protagonist. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Initially I thought this novel would cure my dislike of Graham Greene. But alas, as I read on, all the old problems began to surface. Firstly the presenting lightness of the material—as though this is going to be a comedy. Fine in itself, but Greene is class-ridden; full of contempt and spite for the working class. He paints the ordinary man as a dull, boring, timid, colourless drudge and the profligate upper middle class as entertaining, lively, inventive rascals. I see him as a sort of anti-Orwellian. Either that, or the novel has no hero and we are also meant to despise Aunt Augusta’s amoral, self-aggrandizing, bully tactics. I don’t believe that. Graham Greene, with his extensive experience of the foreign office, despises the petty rules of bureaucracy. Today he would be a member of the populist anti-PC brigade. All they want is a clean conscience to ride roughshod over fairness and consideration where it is convenient to them and to imagine that the rules and laws that they choose to break are commensurate with those that are unnecessary. Life lived with a disregard for probity is not romantic, it is selfish and puerile.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5so funny...the aunt and the nephew are great characters.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene is a comedic adventure story of Henry Pulling, a man leading a settled life who first meets his mother's sister, Augusta, at his mother's funeral. Too polite to refuse her request to travel with her, he joins his aunt on the first of a series of journeys. At first Henry is shocked at his aunt's illegal financial dealings and romantic affairs, but after he returns to his life he quickly comes to the realization that that his settled life is actually quite mundane. He concludes that he has a taste for adventure after all and away he goes to track down his aunt and lead a life he never would have imagined he would live.Aunt Augusta's unpredictable character is juxtaposed with Henry's very buttoned up British personality. Along the way they encounter many quirky and off-beat characters that enhance the zany quality of this novel.This is not a multi-layered novel full of literary tricks and turns, and the main theme is a pretty straight forward "live life to the fullest" standard message, but Greene's comedic delivery had me smiling. I am not lover of British humor, so my three star rating lies more in my own personal taste rather than Greene's execution of the novel, but if you enjoy British humor, you would probably love this book. I would categorize it as a good summer read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I've just reread this book for the first time in probably 40 years and had forgotten how truly funny it is and what a change from most of the other things that Graham Greene wrote. Here there is no Catholic guilt, nor is there the nasty overtones (or undertones as the case may be) of the cold war. Instead we have a paen to silliness and a send-up of the typical characters who appear in Greene's more serious works - Most notably James O'Toole of the CIA.Henry Pulling is a mild mannered retired bank manager living in the London suburbs peaceably tending his dahlias when his Aunt Augusta, whom he hasn't seen since he was a very small boy, appears at his mother's funeral and quickly takes over his life. She whisks him away from the service (along with the urn of his mother's ashes) to her rather dubious apartment located over a pub with an even more dubious Jamaican "man servant" who she has dubbed Wordsworth The latter, a dealer in pot and under suspicion from the local police, mixes his contraband in with Henry's mother's ashes leading to what will be come the first of many unfortunate encounters Henry has with law enforcement.Aunt Augusta's life has been everything that Henry's has not. She has been a circus performer, a kept woman in Paris, a prostitute and a lover of many, many men, the most important of which is the shadowy Snr. Visconti who is reputed to be both an art thief and a collaborator with the Nazis. None of these people sound sympathetic in the abstract, but in the skilled hands of Graham Greene they all become amazingly likeable. Is it any surprise then, that Henry also finds himself drawn to this life of adventure?The novel covers many topical events of the 1960's, so brushing up on events in Paraguay, Argentina, and Turkey during that period will greatly add to the enjoyment of this book. The novel was made into a movie in the early 1970's with Maggie Smith (who else?) in the role of Aunt Augusta, However, Hollywood made its usual hash of the story, so don't think you can watch the movie and not read the book. And besides, the book is just so much fun.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5An enjoyable read. I like Greene but this isn't his best. The writing's good but the "secret" is a little obvious. The ending is disappointing, too, probably because it's dated. I had hoped our hero would be just that, but...
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Early late-period Greene and, as late-period Greene goes, not my favourite at that. Buoyed in parts by amusing set-pieces and witty dialogue, and dragged down in others by scenes and characters that are embarrassingly dated products of a bygone time and place. At its best its Greene at his funniest. At its worst its just downright offensive.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At the funeral of his mother, his aunt Augusta, aged 75, appears in the life of the stodgy nerd and retired banker Henry Pulling. From the earliest moments of their involvement, Henry's life changes from quiet and boring to a roller-coaster of adventure, in which no cliche of slap-stick is left unused. Aunt Augusta develops as a kind of diametric personality to James Bond. She is adventurous, eccentric, practical and pragmatic, and very, very unconventional. Up to a high age, she has been having a sexual relationship with an African servant, Wordsworth, who is completely devoted to her. She cannot see any wickedness in Wordsworth's smoking of marijuana. Aunt Augusta herself regularly engages in illicit trade, smuggling currency, gold and art to finance her trips and secure financial independence. She is under constant vigilance by the police, but is clever at eluding them, and leading her extravagant, international lifestyle.Aunt Augusta's interest in Henry is far from coincidental, as suggested at the beginning of the book. Her influence shows, as Henry is persuaded to marry a 14-year-old girl, tat the end of the novel, as he settles with Aunt Augusta and her life-long criminal lover, Mr Visconti in Paraguay.Travels with my aunt is an unexpectedly funny novel by Graham Greene.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Totally different from the other Greene novels I've read - hilarious and surprising.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Not my favorite Greene novel but rereading it after many years I was surprised to note that in this novel he begins to write like the Greene who wrote his later novels (Monsignor Quixote, The Bomb Party). Also, a priceless little episode while Pullen, the narrator is on a river boat toward the end of the book--only striking to a member of our family, however.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/55 stars for giving me the best sleep ever!!!
Seriously, I would read 3 pages and zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Since this book was part of a group read I was participating in I gave it my best effort but I only managed about 50 pages before I had to throw in the towel. I did like the first chapter. It was promising and I found myself chuckling at the chemistry between Aunt Augusta and Henry. After the first chapter it became boring and down right weird. Aunt Augusta's mood changes varied from paragraph to paragraph. I didn't find her as amusing as the first chapter and by the third chapter I wanted to stab her in the face. Henry was so freaking boring and his following Aunt Augusta about was seriously out of character for him. His personality was just bland. Wordsworth (Aunt Augusta's lover/drug supplier) was another character that needed a good facestabbing for sheer annoyingness. Then came the weird 1960's drug references. I won't even get into that. That was the point where I just had to stop. I couldn't take one more of Augusta's mood swings or weird reminiscent past stories or Henry's bland assessment of the whole situation. So in short, this is one that I don't plan on picking up every again and it has seriously turned me off of Greene's writing. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bank clerk Henry Pullen has lived a very quiet life- but then meets his exotic aunt...
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book delights and entertains as one may reasonably expect from Graham Greene. He spins a tale of a stodgey, middle-aged man who meets his Aunt Augusta at his mother's cremation at which event she informs him that she was once present at a Premature Cremation. Horrified and fascinated, he must know more. Eventually they travel throughout Europe and Africa and he gradually comes to believe that there may be much much more to his aunt than he originally thought. The movie, while fun, did not do justice to this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Classic Greene. One of the funniest books I ever read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5tThis book published in 1970, is a far lighter book than Greene's great novels of his earlier career: The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, and The End of the Affair, but it is light-hearted and often funny as it tells of Henry Pulling, a retired English bank officer whose main interes t has been in dahlias. He meets his aunt, whom he has not seen in 50 years, at his (purported) mother's funeral and is drawn into traveling with her and coming to know her unconventional and exciting life, even though she is 75. The book is very well-written and is often funny and holds one's interest well, even though it at least to me, did not appear to be a serious work
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gentle laughs on nearly every page.Published in 1969 so that the British manners, of which fun is poked, are dated, but still recognisable as those of my parents.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Henry Pulling is just a little bit dull. He has taken early retirement from the bank, where he was manager, he has never married, and leads a quiet and uninteresting life pottering in the garden and tending his dahlias. At his mother’s funeral he meets her sister, Augusta, again for the first time in 50 years, and she tells him that the lady he considered to be his mother was actually not. He travels back to her home and meets Wordsworth, a man from Sierra Leone and who is his Aunt’s confident and lover, after several drink he returns home. Soon after the police come round asking to see what is in the urn, he explains it is his mothers ashes, but they take it from him for sampling.
His aunt persuades him to join her on a trip to Brighton, as she feels that he needs to travel more, something that a psychic predicts will happen as well. Turns out that the urn with his mothers ashes had drugs added, probably by Wordsworth, who has now disappeared. Henry decides to join his aunt on a trip to Paris, and then onto Istanbul on the Orient Express. The journey is relatively uneventful, but Henry does meet a young lady called Tolley who he develops a friendship with. Very soon after they arrive in Istanbul, they are both approached by the police and questioned. Henery is starting to learn that he Aunt is not always the conventional type, and seems to have had many dodgy dealings and associations. They are soon deported back to the UK.
Back in the UK, Henry returns to his dahlias, but it now doesn’t have the same appeal. The police are asking more question about his aunt too, and one of her former associates, but she has vanished of the face of the earth. Until one day he receives a letter asking him to come to South America, so he sets off to join her once again.
It was quite an enjoyable read. Green has managed to blend a mystery story with travel, a dash of thriller with a healthy dollop of classic British farce. The characters are not particularly deep, but you do see Henry develop from the staid, and serious bank manager to a free spirited man. It was very readable too; Green has a way of pacing the story so you don’t get bored. It was a touch predictable, but entertaining nonetheless. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this one; it didn’t turn out to be what I was expecting. It’s my first Graham Greene, so I didn’t really know much about his style, but I should probably have guessed that the characters would be more complex than they appear on the surface.
“I was sunk deep in my middle age..... ‘I have been happy,’ I said, ‘but I have been so bored for so long.’”
Lost a point for the ending, though. Too Lolita-ish. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'd be pretty easy, not to mention tempting, to classify "Travels With My Aunt" as a novel about the comic collision of British middle-class conformity (Henry Pulling) and British eccentricity (Aunt Augusta). It's also one of those novels drawn from that period in late sixties or early seventies in which people who'd been heretofore immersed in utterly unadventurous British culture were forced to reckon with new, strange cultural youth movements (Tooley). The passage of time seems to weigh heavily on Greene in this one: not only is much of the book about Henry Pulling's evolving relationship with his long-dead father, but the Europe he seems around him also seems to be transforming in unpredictable ways. The Orient Express is a ghost of its past self, while the Europe he sees from his train window is full of both bucolic scenes and new radio towers and apartment blocks. Currency restrictions still seem to be in place, though. You could call it one of Greene's "entertainments," except that a fair amount of evil lurks around the novel's edges. It's not just that Aunt Augusta has a colorfully shady past, it's that her whims might have taken her into the orbit of some historically unpleasant people. Meanwhile Henry gets involved in businesses he wouldn't have touched as a bank manager in a comfortable London neighborhood, and his former potential paramour slowly gets used to a new way of looking at racial relations after she moves to South Africa. There's a part of me that thinks that "Travels With My Aunt" has something to say about how easy it is to slide into moral hazard when one escapes the cultural confines of a comfortable, well-regulated British existence. By the novel's end, Aunt Augusta is nicely settled and Henry has settled into a sort of peaceful retirement that he never expected. This book may not be as light as it seems, but I think it represents a pleasant blend of Greene's lighter and heavier themes.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A little bit travelogue, a little bit humorous, a little bit mystery, a little bit philosophical, and a whole lot entertaining.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What a wonderful tale. Combining the staid world of the retired bank manager with the glamourous, fantasy world of his aunt turned mother. Wistfulness, loneliness and longing matched against duty, routine and social standards of the middle classes. Snatches of the grey, relentless boredom of Britain in the 1950s show why the social revolution of the 60s came about. Our hero ends with his own revolution.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Graham Greene tended to separate his books into "entertainments" (lighter, more disposable works) and his serious fiction. While he considered this one of the former, it's still sharp and biting, and has a very clear satirical eye. I found the first half difficult to slog through and the second half immensely readable. The ending left me feeling deflated, and this is coming from someone who generally likes it when a story's plotlines DON'T resolve.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Who in the world could use a big shake more than the stodgy Henry Pulling? Henry never married and spent his life locked up behind the safe and tedious walls of a bank. Then, at his mother’s funeral, Henry met his Aunt Augusta and he was sent spinning out into a world he never knew existed.Graham Greene is that Graham Greene, he of The Power and the Glory and Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American. So Travels With My Aunt is a totally different Graham Greene. Every chapter had me. I now have a new gloriously inspiring role model for my last years.