While the first world war had set Europe reeling back in horror at what modern warfare was capable of, the second had a more complicated effect. For the first world war had the effect of making pacifists of an entire generation—both in Europe and America. World War II, on the other hand, had a double-sided effect. In Europe it served to cripple the continent’s economy, kill off large percentages of manpower, and destroy millions of acres of land. The United States, fighting thousands of miles away from its homeland, suffered far less, losing a much smaller percentage of its population; the war also had the effect of revitalizing the United States’ economy.

In Carol Reed’s classic movie, The Third Man, written by Graham Greene, the spiritual and moral mood of post-war Europe is aptly portrayed. Set in normally picturesque Vienna, the story shows a shell-shocked city, with the beautiful old architecture of Christendom hallowed out by the devastation of war. As Roger Ebert describes it, “More shots, I suspect, are tilted than are held straight; they suggest a world out of joint. There are fantastic oblique angles. Wide-angle lenses distort faces and locations. And the bizarre lighting makes the city into an expressionist nightmare.”

This expressionist nightmare is the world of nearly all Graham Greene’s novels—particularly those written after the second world war.