Graham Greene’s 1951 novel, The End of the Affair, was one of the final unread books on my Classics Club list, which I’ve been neglecting recently. As I had left a few empty slots on my 20 Books of Summer list for random reads, I decided this would be a good opportunity to read it.
The End of the Affair is narrated by Maurice Bendrix, a writer living in London. As the title suggests, the novel begins at the end of an affair between Bendrix and neighbour Sarah, the wife of Henry Miles, a civil servant. It was Sarah who ended the relationship, leaving Bendrix confused, hurt and bitter. In January 1946, almost two years after the affair ends, Bendrix meets Henry by chance crossing the Common that separates their two houses. Henry never knew about the affair, but he now confides in Bendrix that he suspects Sarah is seeing another man. This revives Bendrix’s suppressed feelings for Sarah and he decides to hire a private detective to follow her and try to find out who her new lover is.
I really enjoyed the first half of this book. Greene writes so convincingly about Bendrix’s regret for his lost love and the mixture of emotions it provokes in him: disappointment, anger, resentment and – after hearing Henry’s suspicions – jealousy. The private detective he employs, Alfred Parkis, is a wonderful character and I wished he’d played a bigger part in the book. Although he’s not particularly successful in his detecting, he’s so eager to please and to set a good example for his young son, Lance, that I found him very endearing. He also adds a touch of comedy to what is otherwise a very serious story.
In the middle of the novel, the focus switches to Sarah and through some passages from her diary, we see her side of the story and discover her reasons for ending the affair with Bendrix. I found the second half of the book less compelling as discussions of Catholicism, religious conversion and the existence of God begin to dominate. There are lots of interesting ideas being explored, but I felt that it completely changed the direction and the feel of the story I had previously been enjoying. Still, I liked the book overall, loved the quality of the writing and thought the 1940s setting was perfectly evoked.
This is the first book I’ve read by Graham Greene and maybe it wasn’t the best place to start with him, but I do want to read more. Any recommendations are welcome!
Book 14/20 for 20 Books of Summer 2025.
This is also book 47/50 from my second Classics Club list.
She Reads Novels 
I read this book so long ago it’s hard to remember, but I think I was affected the same way by the discussions of Catholicism and religious conversion. I must have been, because that’s about all I remember about this book.
The religious aspect really dominates the second half of the book, so I’m not surprised that’s all you remember!
I think this was my experience too. All I wrote on Goodreads was that it was a good read but the end was “meh” (very good literary criticism haha).
“Meh” is exactly how I felt about the end of the book too! It’s a shame because I really enjoyed the first half.
I haven’t read this one, but The Heart of the Matter has the same kind of tormented romantic situation with (in my memory) less Catholicism, and both The Ministry of Fear and The Human Factor are great spy novels—worth checking out if you’re keen on more Greene!
I’ll keep The Heart of the Matter in mind, but I think I would like to try something different next so the spy novels sound more appealing. Thanks!
I have to read Green but I agree with you that we might start somewhere else. Maybe as Elle said the spy novels!
Yes, maybe one of the spy novels would be a better place to start! I did like this book overall, but not as much as I’d hoped to.
Thank You for the nudge ! I want ro read Greene but I was not sure what to start with!
I liked this one, though the religious parts do get a little much. I also enjoyed reading his books Up at the Villa, Travels With My Aunt and The Quiet American. But I really didn’t like Stamboul Train, so I would not recommend reading that one next.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed so many of his books. I’ll look out for the ones you’ve mentioned.
My first was The Third Man, which was paired with The Fallen Idol: they contrasted well and I did enjoy them. I’d be curious about what my reaction to this would be if I came across it, though!
I’ll look out for those two. Maybe I would get on better with them than I did with this one.
This is one of my least favourite Greenes so my recommendation is – almost anything else! Haha, to be a bit more helpful, I loved The Quiet American – set in Vietnam before the war, jaded journalist; Brighton Rock – a chilling young psychopath and a wonderfully empathetic older woman character; Our Man in Havana – a satire that is actually funny about spies during the Cold War; and Stamboul Train – politics and peril for a group of disparate people crossing Europe on a train. If the Catholic stuff in this wasn’t to your taste, I’d maybe avoid The Power and the Glory and The Heart of the Matter as your next read, although both are much better than this one (imo).
Thanks – you’ve given me plenty of options there! All of the books you’ve described sound better than this one. I’ll avoid the other Catholic ones for now, though.
As you know, I read this last October. Its definitely a book of two halves. I didn’t like Sarah very much to begin with, but at least understood her a bit more when we had access to her diary. Although the Catholic bits didn’t interest me a great deal (despite, nominally at least, being one!) they did make me muse on the no-doubt probable crisis of faith in the immediate post-war period with not only the war itself to deal with but the horrific revelations of both the atom bombs and the death camps/Holocaust.
The only other 2 Greene books I’ve read so far (I intend to read as many as I can) are ‘Our Man in Havana’ which I enjoyed as a funny Cold War drama and ‘The Quiet American’ about the French & early American involvement in Vietnam. There’s a bit of Catholic guilt in that one but (I think) ‘Havana’ is mostly Catholic free.
I picked up another 2 by Greene today from my fave Indie shop – ‘Brighton Rock’ and his 1st novel ‘The Man Within’. My next read by him, probably early next year, will be another fun one (by the looks of it) ‘Travels with My Aunt’.
I didn’t like Sarah much at the beginning either, but yes, the diary was important in helping us to understand her as a character. Although this book wasn’t a complete success with me, I did like it enough to want to read more! Our Man in Havana and The Quiet American both sound more appealing than this one.
It’s a long time since I’ve read this, but I think I had the same issue as you (although I might find it different nowadays). There are many Greenes I’ve enjoyed more – Stamboul Train is great and The Ministry of Fear is a particular favourite.
A few people have mentioned Stamboul Train and The Ministry of Fear, so I’ll definitely look out for those two. Thanks!
Books I liked were The Heart of the Matter, The Third Man and A Burnt Out Case. And with I really enjoyed and already read for a second time is The Tenth Man.
I’m glad you liked so many of his books. Thanks for the recommendations – I’ll look forward to trying them.
I thought Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter (about a good British military policeman stationed in Africa who is emotionally destroyed trying to do the right thing) and The Power and the Glory (the protagonist is a “whisky priest who secretly fights an evil regime) were so good, they were monumental. The only problem is he is such a good writer and the material does get rather sad and while reading them I was walking around in a grey sort of despair 🙂 That is how effective Greene is in conjuring moods. There is nothing melodramatic in his writing. I think I read somewhere that he worked as a reporter. His narration is simply straight forward. But it packs a subtle punch of feeling. Also, his Brighton Rock, an early book of his. It was later made into a movie. It is a Murder/Thriller genre novel set in Brighton, UK in the 1930’s, about a 15 year old gang leader and a whimsical sort of middle aged woman amateur detective (she believes in magic) who goes after him because she knows he had a man she liked killed. She also tries to get the gang leader’s teenage girlfriend to turn on him. The girl is a devout Catholic. This is a theme in all Greene’s books, it seems. It is a bit dated – but for an early work and in that genre, I thought it was masterful.
Sorry, Caroline – I somehow missed your comment until now. Thanks for those recommendations! I think Brighton Rock appeals to me the most at the moment.
I’ve got this on my classics list and I’m going to change it! Lots of good suggestions here, maybe Stamboul Train instead? I’ve read The Power and the Glory which was good and Brighton Rock which I think is in my top 5 books ever!
I didn’t think this was a bad book, but definitely not the best place for me to start with Greene. I’ll have to try Brighton Rock!