The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen Essay

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A short story "The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen" was written in 1965 by an English writer, playwright and literary critic Henry Graham Greene. The action of the story takes place at a restaurant in London. The narrator, represented as an integral part of the setting, is sitting at a table, obviously unaccompanied, alongside with a group of eight Japanese gentlemen who have dinner together at the next table, and a young couple behind them. While the dinner the Japanese speak quietly and politely to each other, courteously smiling and bowing, toast each other and make speeches in their incomprehensible tongue which the narrator doesn't understand. Within the narration the Japanese gentlemen are described as the ones wearing glasses, eating fish and a fruit salad for dessert and expressing themselves in broken English. Their presence adds some festive and carefree mood to the background. But the main focus is given to the young couple. Although they sit far away from him, the narrator catches their conversation. The pretty young woman, pictured as a gorgeous girl with blonde hair, lovely oval face and a harsh way of speaking, turns out to be a writer-beginner, who’s going to be published for the first time. The young man besides is her fiancé. While the conversation she touches upon 2 subjects: firstly she's boasting of being appreciated by her publisher, he praises her talent, and in order to feed inspiration she ponders over going to St. Tropez. Later she passes onto the marriage with her young fiancé the following week, as she’s assured, according to her words, that she’s about to get financially secured after releasing her book "The Chelsea Set". Her fiancé, portrayed from the beginning to be distraught and worried, is more prudent and doubts that they should count extremely on the young woman's professional prospects and talent. The young man is involved into

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