The Comedians (novel)

The Comedians

First edition cover
Author	Graham Greene
Language	English
Publisher	Bodley Head
Publication date	1966
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
OCLC	365953
Preceded by	A Burnt-Out Case
Followed by	Travels with My Aunt

The Comedians (1966) is a novel by Graham Greene. Set in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police, the Tontons Macoutes, the novel explores political repression and terrorism through the figure of an English hotel owner, Brown.

The story begins as three men, Brown, Smith, an "innocent" American; and Major H. O. Jones, a confidence man; meet on a ship bound for Haiti. Brown, Smith, and Jones, their names suggesting a curious facelessness, are the "comedians" of Greene's title. Complications include Brown's friendship with a rebel leader, hotel guests who are politically active, and an affair with Martha Pineda, the wife of a South American ambassador. The fictional Hotel Trianon, the setting for much of the novel, was inspired by the Hotel Oloffson in central Port-au-Prince.^[1]

The novel was adapted as a feature film of the same name, released in 1967 and starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson, Paul Ford and Lillian Gish.