Graham Greene recovering the religious element, the awareness of the drama of the struggle in the soul that carries the permanent consequence of salvation or damnation, and of the ultimate metaphysical realities of good and evil, sin and divine grace, could the novel recover its dramatic power. Suffering and unhappiness are omnipresent in the world Greene depicts; and Catholicism is presented against a background of unvarying human evil, sin, and doubt. V. S. Pritchett praised Greene as the first English novelist since Henry James to present, and grapple with, the reality of evil. Greene concentrated on portraying the characters' internal lives –
George S. Greene V. Greene, commanded a brigade at the Battle of Manila during the Spanish–American War. A third, Charles Thurston Greene, was a lieutenant on his father's staff at Culp's Hill. Later in 1863, Charles was wounded by an artillery shell and his leg was amputated, but he remained on active service until 1870. George Sears Greene, Jr., volunteered to serve but was not allowed to do so by his father so he could survive and carry on the family name. A memorial tablet honoring Greene was approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1910 at a sum of 460 dollars.