What is one to make of "Scobie" being the name of the saintly main character of THE HEAR OF THE MATTER?
It's a good question, right? The first book of the Alexandria Quartet, from which I took the name Scobie, was published in 1957. The Heart of the Matter was published in 1948. It's possible that Lawrence Durrell was inspired by Graham Greene. I was wondering if both characters were both inspired by the same person. Both Joshua Scobie and Henry Scobie are police officers, posted in Alexandria, Egypt and Freetown, Sierra Leona, respectively. Beyond that, I have no idea what the similarities are, since I haven't read Heart of the Matter yet.*
Based solely on a Wikipedia search, I've got these candidates:
Ronald Scobie, a British army officer
Scobie Breasley, an Australian jockey
Jonathan Scobie, alleged rickshaw inventor
James Scobie. He's a dead gold miner. Definitely read the story on the link.
It would not surprise me if both Greene and Durrell were familiar with all four. Just guessing, but I bet Greene was inspired by Ronald, and Durrell was inspired by the other three all rolled together.
* I may read it this weekend. Or I may not. I love Graham Greene so much that I find it hard to read him. I mean, he's easy to read, but his books are very intense. To me, qua lapsed Catholic.
3 comments:
I just read that book!
And I definitely held the mental image I had made for Scobie, patchy beard, grizzled
But they don't share much else
So you think of yourself as Mr. Scobie? And all this time I thought is was a reference to B. D.
DAD
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