The Basement Room And Other Stories (Première désillusion)
The Basement Room is one of Graham Greene¡¦s short stories, told from a third person narrator about a seven-year-old boy Philip¡¦s traumatic experience in his childhood which influences his rest of life till his dying hour at the age of sixty-seven. Philip Lane lived in Belgravia with his parents, the butler Baines and his wife. Without nurses¡¦ restraint, Philip walked in this big house and enjoyed his real life. (In the text he usually thought, This is life.¡¨) He took a walk on the street, went window shopping, went to the zoo, and tasted ginger-beer and Dunkee cake. However, when Mr. Baines had an affair with Emmy and asked Philip to keep the secret for them, Philip began his nightmare. Meanwhile, Mrs. Baines also tried to coax Philip to tell her Mr. Baines¡¦ extramarital relations. Philip involved in this delicate and complex dilemma. In the end of the story, Mrs. Baines was dead in an accident while Philip still wondered who the girl was sixty years later.