GRAHAM GREENE AND JANSENISM

In the church of Lissewege, near Zeebrugge,

you can admire a crucifix, painted by Duvenede around 1713. 

To understand the meaning, read Graham Greene's "The third man", p.40 :

"...Turning away from dr.Winkler, he confronted yet another crucifix, the figure hanging with arms above the head : a face of elongated El Greco agony. That's a strange crucifix, he said. Jansenist, dr.Winkler commented and closed his mouth sharply as thoug he had been guilty of giving away too much information. 
Never heard the word. Why are the arms above the head ? Dr.Winkler said reluctantly : Because He died, in their view, only for the elect..."

GRAHAM GREENE " Our Man in Havana"

• GRAHAM GREENE TELLS ABOUT FRENCH HISTORY IN "OUR MAN IN HAVANA" (1958)

"...but the main source of the French intelligence at the time of Dreyfus was a charwoman who collected  the scraps out of the waste-paper baskets at the German Embassy.." (p.29)";;;I said I sympathized with the French officers in 1940 who looked after their families ; they didn't anyway put their careers first. " (p.217)

• GRAHAM GREENE HAD A PRESENTIMENT OF THE CUBAN CRISIS IN 1962 :"...Havana could be a key-spot. The Communists always go where there's trouble..." (p.47)"...They've become very active in Cuba - apparently with the help of the police. Our man in Havana has had a difficult time. His best agent, as you know, was killed, accidentallly of course, on his way to take aerial photographs of the constructions..." (p.146)"...Is there anything in Cuba important enough to interest a Secret Service ?  Of course we are only a small country, but we lie very close to the American coast. If a country is surrounded, as Russia is, it will try to punch a hole through from inside..."   (p.150).