"Most critical studies have seen Greene's fiction as projections of his own experiences and as reflections of his changing religious beliefs. Roston rejects that approach on two grounds - that Greene deliberately misled his biographers and interviewers concerning both his life and his faith, and that incidents from an author's life inevitably become distorted in the process of being fictionalised. Instead, this study focuses upon the texts themselves, highlighting the innovative strategies that Greene developed to cope with a twofold problem, the mid-century invalidation of the traditional hero and the potential hostility of readers to his advocacy of Catholicism. The result is an essentially new reading of the major novels."--Jacket.