The End of Love (Book)

The End of the Affair (original title: The End of the Affair) is a novel by British author Graham Greene. First published in 1951 by Heinemann in London, it is one of Greene's works in which he intensely explores Catholic themes from his novels.

The novel is set in London during and immediately after the Second World War, particularly during the Blitz. Drawing autobiographical elements from Greene’s own life, the story centers on the forbidden relationship between the novelist Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles, a married woman, and the philosophical and religious inquiries that follow the sudden end of their affair.

Plot Summary

The novel is narrated from the perspective of the protagonist and narrator, novelist Maurice Bendrix. In 1946, Bendrix encounters by chance Henry Miles, the husband of his former lover Sarah. Henry expresses his suspicion that his wife had been unfaithful to him. Bendrix, still obsessively curious about why Sarah abruptly left him two years earlier without explanation, begins to investigate the matter driven by jealousy.

The narrative unfolds through flashbacks that reveal the peak of Bendrix and Sarah’s relationship in 1944. During an air raid, a bomb strikes Bendrix’s home and he loses consciousness. Believing Bendrix to be dead, Sarah vows that if the man she loves is restored to life, she will abandon him and believe in God. When Bendrix regains consciousness, Sarah honors her vow and ends the relationship. The novel examines Bendrix’s spiritual conflict as he, an atheist, comes into possession of Sarah’s diary, learns of her vow, and realizes that the “rival” who took her from him is not a human being but God.

Characters

• Maurice Bendrix: The narrator of the novel. A obsessive, jealous and atheist writer who recounts events through his own memory and interpretation. The novel traces Bendrix’s spiritual journey from the love-hate dichotomy he feels toward Sarah to what becomes a divine jealousy toward God.
• Sarah Miles: The wife of Henry Miles and Bendrix’s lover. Initially portrayed as passionate and free-spirited, she dedicates herself to religion after making her vow for Bendrix’s life. Over the course of the novel she transforms into a figure resembling a saint, around whom miraculous events begin to occur.
• Henry Miles: Sarah’s husband, a senior civil servant. He is depicted as loyal, kind but dull and emotionally distant.

Themes

• Religion, Faith and Catholicism: The novel interrogates central themes of Greene’s Catholic belief—sin, atonement, miracle and sainthood. The struggle between Bendrix, the atheist, and Sarah’s faith in God forms the novel’s primary philosophical conflict.
• Love and Hatred: The work explores the intertwined nature of love and hatred. Bendrix’s narration aims to show that his obsessive love for Sarah is deeply entangled with intense jealousy and hatred.
• Divine Intervention and Miracles: The story addresses the miraculous events—or events interpreted as miracles—that begin after Sarah’s vow. The novel examines the tension between Bendrix’s atheist perspective and the notion of God’s “jealousy.”
• Memory and Narrative: The novel has a non-linear structure built around Bendrix’s recollections through flashbacks. The unreliability of the narrator and his filtering of events through his jealousy constitute a structural theme of the work.