My Dearest Augusta: A Biography of the Honourable Augusta Leigh,Lord Byron's Half-Sister Book

3.75 stars

First published by Bodley Head in 1969 amid his literary fame, this seemingly rarely seen nowadays 345-page paperback would entertain and inform both Greene newcomers as well as readers since he has written them during his long career as one of those famous English novelists in the 20th century. It is interesting because:
Collected Essays contains nearly eighty essays, reviews and occasional pieces composed between novels, plays and travel books over four prolific decades. From Henry James and Somerset Maugham to Ho Chi Minh and Kim Philby, the range of subjects is eclectic and stimulating, and the characters - are brought vividly to life. Collected Essays is as revealing as autobiography and as characteristically rich in humour, insight and doubt. (back cover)
There are four parts in this collection: I Personal Prologue, II Novels and Novelists, III Some Characters, and IV Personal Postscript. Each part itself would amaze us because it covers different topic and content lengths as follows: [Some topics I read in the brackets, first round]

Part I: 1 essay (The Lost Childhood)
Part II: Subparts 1: 7 essays (Henry James: The Private Universe, . . .); 2: 5 essays (Fielding and Sterne, The Young Dickens, . . .); 3: 26 essays (G. K. Chesterton, Ford Madox Ford, Some Notes on Somerset Maugham, The Town of Maguldi, . . .)
Part III: Subparts 1: 11 essays (John Evelyn, Background for Heroes, Inside Oxford, . . .); 2: 7 essays (-); 3: 15 essays (Samuel Butler, Simone Weil, The Man as Pure as Lucifer, The Spy, . . .); 4: 7 essays (Portrait of a Maiden Lady, George Moore and Others, At Home, . . .)
Part IV: 1 essay (-)

I found reading his essays a bit different from his novels due to probably the years he wrote dating back before I was born or when I was a child, a sort of time mismatch, that is, what he wrote belongs to the past, not contemporary. For instance, from the first three essays mentioned above, 'The Lost Childhood' was written in 1947, 'Henry James: The Private Universe', in 1936, and 'Fielding and Sterne', in 1937. For some reason, I didn't claim I enjoyed reading all of them; first, it would be the unpredictability regarding their lengths normally covering 1.8 to 9.2 pages so it was an arguably furious reading instead when I kept reading these first, second and third lengthy essays, 'Henry James: The Private Universe', and 'The Paradox of a Pope' (each covering 13.5 pages); 'George Darley' (11.5 pages); 'Henry James: The Religious Aspect' (10 pages). Second, knowing French is an inevitable advantage if we want to better understand his essays because we would come across French words, phrases, sentences, etc. or even in junks of paragraphs in 'Francois Mauriac' (pp. 91-96), 'Bernanos, the Beginner' (pp. 96-99), etc. I had no choice but consolingly skipped them.

All in all, it's not a dull book since it depends on how we read each essay. As for me, I kept reading him as a nostalgic tribute related to my first reading of his The Power and the Glory in my college years that, eventually, has since empowered and inspired me to read him as many as I could and I've found reading his novels and some essays amazingly rewarding at some points. For instance, I'd like to recommend his last essay in this book entitled The Soup Sweetland (Part IV Personal Postscript) written in 1968; it's one of his best in this collection (to cite some brilliant pieces I liked: Simone Weil, The Man as Pure as Lucifer, The Spy, etc.), Greene's newcomers or fans should read this essay because he has divulged some of his past intelligence assignments based on his secret service life as well as a few novels' backgrounds as we can see from the following excerpts sentimentally tinged with his powerful reminiscences in which few writers could arguably surpass him.
The start of my life as 59200 was not propitious. I announced my safe arrival by means of a book code. (I had chosen a novel by T. F. Powys from which I could detach sufficiently lubricious phrases for my own amusement), and a large safe came in the next convoy with a leaflet of instructions and my codes. The code-books were a constant source of interest, for the most unexpected word occurred in there necessarily limited vocabulary. I wondered how often use had been made of the symbol for 'eunuch', and I was not content until I had found an opportunity to use it myself in a message to my colleague in Gambia: 'As the chief eunuch said I cannot repeat cannot come.' . . . (p. 342)
It was not very often I went to the City Hotel, where The Heart of the Matter began. There one escaped the protocol-conscious members of the secretariat. It was a home from home for men who had not encountered success at any turn of the long road and who no longer expected it. They were not beach combers, for they had jobs, but their jobs had no prestige value. They were failures, but they knew more of Africa than the successes who were waiting to get transferred to a smarter colony and were careful to take no risks with their personal file. . . . (p. 343)