Stamboul Train

by Graham Greene

The novel focuses on the lives of individuals aboard a luxury express making a three-day journey from Ostend to Istanbul (though Greene uses the old name for the city, Constantinople). The novel opens on board the ferry, on which several of the novel's major characters have travelled from England. Mabel Warren and Janet Pardoe join the train later in Cologne and Josef Grünlich joins it in Vienna. Although these characters are travelling for different purposes, their lives are intertwined in the course of the journey. Other scenes in places through which the train passes are also described, as well as Myatt's high-speed journey by car through the snow-laden countryside to and from the railway station at Subotica.

A major part of the plot focuses on Carleton Myatt, a shrewd and practical businessman who trades in currants and has business interests in Istanbul. He is travelling because he is concerned that the firm's agent in Turkey, Eckman, has been cheating him. As he crosses interwar Europe, Myatt has to face antisemitic attitudes, both on and off the train. Because he feels sorry for the sick dancer Coral Musker, who is travelling 2nd class to join a show in Turkey, he buys her a 1st class ticket. The grateful Coral falls in love with him and spends the night in his compartment, during which, to his surprise, he discovers that she is a virgin. After she disappears from the train at Subotica he travels back to rescue her, but fails and barely escapes after rescuing the crook Grünlich under gun fire.

Dr. Czinner is an escaped communist leader and former physician, travelling on a forged British passport after five years teaching in an English boys' school. He plans on leading a communist revolution in Belgrade, but discovers that the uprising has taken place too early and failed. Nonetheless, he decides to go back to Belgrade to stand trial as a political gesture. But he has been recognised by Mabel Warren, a lesbian journalist living in Cologne, who is travelling with her partner, Janet Pardoe. Warren now believes that she is onto a major news story. When the train arrives at Vienna, she leaves the carriage to phone her office but is stranded in the city when her bag is stolen. The thief is Grünlich, who has just killed a man during a failed robbery and now boards the train with Warren's money. Left behind, the angry Warren vows to get Czinner's story through other means.

At Subotica the train is stopped on the Yugoslav border and Czinner is arrested. Also arrested are Grünlich, for having a revolver, and Coral, to whom Czinner has given a letter to deliver for him. A court martial is held at which Czinner is allowed to give the pointless political speech he intended for his show trial. He is sentenced to be shot that evening, while Grünlich is to be imprisoned for a month and then deported back to Vienna, where the police will be looking for him. Coral is to be deported back to England the next day.

The three prisoners are kept in a waiting room, but when they realise that Myatt has returned in a car, the resourceful Grünlich breaks open the door and all three make a run for it. Only Grünlich escapes; Czinner is wounded and Coral hides him in a barn, where he dies. Next morning, Mabel Warren arrives at Subotica in pursuit of her news story and takes Coral back to Cologne. Mabel fancies Coral as a new partner but the account breaks off as Coral has a heart attack in the back of the car and her ultimate fate is left open.

After the train arrives at Istanbul, Myatt discovers that Janet Pardoe is the niece of Stein, a rival businessman and potential business partner. He steals her from the proprietorship of the Cockney novelist Savory, who is travelling to the East in search of copy for his next book. Despite his own brief encounter with Coral, Myatt now considers marrying Janet and confirming the contract, signed by Eckart, to take over Stein's currant business.