"VICTOR, DEAR VICTOR, WHY CAN'T WE SOMETIMES, JUST ONCE, HAVE OUR CAKE AND EAT IT?"

GREENE, Graham. The Complaisant Lover. London: William Heinemann, (1959). Small octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $400.

First editions of Greene's comic play.

Greene did not write his first play, The Living Room, until 1953; he found the process surprisingly enjoyable. "Greene learned that unlike a film script, where the writer is excluded from the act of creation once the script has been completed, the playwright doesn't become a forgotten man. He thought he would be 'an unwelcome stranger lurking ashamed in the stalls,' but it was not so. He discovered that with a play the writing continues after the play goes into production: 'It would extend through rehearsals and through the opening weeks of tour.' He thoroughly enjoyed rehearsals and was struck by the fact that the actors all played a part in suggesting improvements: 'in the play as a whole… nearly a dozen lively informed intelligences criticising and suggesting'" (Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene II: 454). .

Fine condition.