50 pages 1 hour read

Graham Greene

The Third Man

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1949

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapters 1-3

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

As the story opens, the narrator, British Colonel Calloway, recalls meeting British writer Rollo Martins. The entire work is written from Calloway’s perspective, distant from the events. He recalls Martins as “in normal circumstances a cheerful fool” (1), though he indicates that most of their time together was far more eventful than the norm. They met in Vienna, in February, at the funeral of Martins’s best friend, Harry Lime. No year is given, but as the story takes place during the Allied occupation of Austria, and the film The Third Man premiered in 1949, sometime in the early postwar years is most likely.

Calloway describes the weather as incredibly cold, “as if even nature were doing its best to reject Lime” (1-2). He notes that Martins might have averted tragedy had they become more acquainted then but that fundamentally Martins was consumed by his strong fidelity to Lime. Calloway then describes Vienna in the early years of the postwar occupation, recovering from the destruction of World War II: The Allied forces have divided the city into four zones, and a different superpower (Russia, Britain, America, France) controls each one.

Related Titles

By Graham Greene

Plot Summary

logo

Brighton Rock

Graham Greene

Brighton Rock

Graham Greene

Plot Summary

logo

Monsignor Quixote

Graham Greene

Monsignor Quixote

Graham Greene

Study Guide

logo

Our Man in Havana

Graham Greene

Our Man in Havana

Graham Greene

Plot Summary

logo

The Basement Room

Graham Greene

The Basement Room

Graham Greene

Study Guide

logo

The End Of The Affair

Graham Greene

The End Of The Affair

Graham Greene

Study Guide

logo

The Heart of the Matter

Graham Greene

The Heart of the Matter

Graham Greene

Study Guide

logo

The Power and the Glory

Graham Greene

The Power and the Glory

Graham Greene

Study Guide

logo

The Quiet American

Graham Greene

The Quiet American

Graham Greene