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Synopses & Reviews
"This is a record of hate far more than of love," writes Maurice Bendrix in the opening passages of
The End of the Affair. And it is a strange hate indeed that compels him to set down the retrospective account of his adulterous affair with Sarah Miles — a hate bred of a passion that ultimately lost out to God.
Now, a year after Sarah's death, Bendrix seeks to exorcise the persistence of that passion by retracing its course from obsessive love to love-hate. At the start he believes he hates Sarah and her husband, Henry. By the end of the book, Bendrix's hatred has shifted to the God he feels has broken his life but whose existence he has at last come to recognize.
Originally published in 1951, The End of the Affair was acclaimed by William Faulkner as "for me one of the best, most true and moving novels of my time, in anybody's language." This Graham Greene Centennial Edition includes a new introductory essay by Michael Gorra.
Review:
"No serious writer of [the twentieth century] has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination as did Graham Greene." Time
Review:
"Undeniably a major work of art....It remains from first to last an almost faultless display of craftsmanship and a wonderfully assured statement of ideas." The New Yorker
Review:
"One of the most true and moving novels of my time, in anybody's language." William Faulkner
Review:
"[His] best novel...its focus on the irrational is very relevant to contemporary life." Neil Jordan, Independent on Sunday (U.K.)
Review:
"An absorbing piece of work, passionately felt and strikingly written." Atlantic Monthly
Review:
"Singularly moving and beautiful....[T]he relationship of lover to husband with its crazy mutation of pity, hate, comradeship, jealousy and contempt is superbly described....[T]he heroine is consistently lovable." Evelyn Waugh
Review:
Review:
"Graham Greene was in a class by himself....He will be read and remembered as the ultimate twentieth-century chronicler of consciousness and anxiety." William Golding
Synopsis:
The love affair between Maurice Bendix and Sarah, flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends when she suddenly breaks it off. A chance meeting rekindles his love and jealousy two years later, and Bendix hires a private detective to follow Sarah. Slowly his love for her turns into an obsession.
Synopsis:
The novelist Maurice Bendrix's love affair with his friend's wife, Sarah, had begun in London during the Blitz. One day, inexplicably and without warning, Sarah had broken off the relationship.
It seemed impossible that there could be a rival for her heart. Yet two years later, driven by obsessive jealousy and grief, Bendrix sends Pakris, a private detective, to follow Sarah and find out the truth.
About the Author
Series Description
Penguin celebrates the centennial of Graham Greene's birth with commemorative editions of his greatest works.
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