Publisher's Synopsis
The Power and the Glory is considered Greene's greatest novel. It is based on actual events in Mexico in 1926, when the revolutionary government of President Plutarco Elias Calles attempted to eradicate Roman Catholicism entirely. The worst persecutions occurred in the state of Tabasco, where Governor Tomas Canabal succeeded in driving every priest from his domain. Like many of Greene's other works, it deals with religious themes, features a hunted man in a deplorable environment, and focuses on the inner spiritual struggles of a weak and sinful protagonist who is unable to live up to his ideals. He is painfully aware of his own sin, to a degree rarely found in human experience, let alone in literature. Through his personal struggles, he learns compassion for the sins and weaknesses of others, even to the extent of being able to minister to and forgive the worst of his persecutors and betrayers.
