The End of the Affair

By: Graham Greene

Narrated by: Colin Firth

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

Audie Award Winner, Audiobook of the Year, 2013

Audie Award Nominee, Best Solo Narration, 2013

Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) won the Audie for Audiobook of the Year in 2013—for his first audio performance, The End of the Affair. The love affair at the center of this 1951 classic novel takes place in the bomb-strewn last days of World War II, and just after. Bendrix, a writer in war-torn London, has fallen in love with Sarah, the wife of an acquaintance. Though unhappily married, Sarah won’t leave her husband; she ends their affair and abruptly vanishes, reducing Bendrix's inner life to rubble. His investigation of Sarah’s disappearance reveals the role her newly-awakened Catholic faith played in her decision to leave, and other startling truths.

The End of the Affair mirrors Greene’s own relationship with a married woman, and positions religion as a pivotal element in both the inner turmoil and outer destruction occurring in his life at the time. Firth brilliantly conveys Greene’s characteristically bleak emotional terrain in an intimate, nuanced, and unhurried performance.

Explore more titles performed by some of the most celebrated actors in the business in Audible’s Star-Powered Listens collection.©1951 Graham Greene (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Beautifully read, uninteresting story

Colin Firth does an amazing job enlivening a very boring tale of a love affair ended by a silly promise to God made during a bombing in WWII London. I could not wait for this story to be over, and I have read and enjoyed many many novels that many find horribly boring (e.g., Moby Dick, Remembrance of Things Past). Daydreaming while listening to Firth's mellifluous voice and cadence, I recognized Ian McEwan in this story, and even O'Henry in the ironic twists that develop, but none of this was enough to pull this book out of the depths of dreariness. The characters are all insipid, and the plot is inane, but Firth is wonderful to listen to. Find something else he's read. I cannot recommend this novel.

Classic story of love and hate that isn't for me

This book is a classic, exploring themes of love, hate and resentment over a broken relationship in a way perhaps totally unparalleled in any other work. The narration, obviously, is absolutely world class. In terms of narration alone, this would be in my top three.

Honestly, however, the book is not my style, and I found myself becoming bored in places other readers more interested in the deepest psychological workings of another might not. For me, psychological revelations are all well and good, but they need to be backed by something more substantial to hold my interest. Simply put, I guess I'm saying I need a plot. There isn't much of one here.

Still, I cannot bring myself to give this a poor rating, because I wholly recognize the significance of this work in cataloguing a part of human experience, and feel it is an important contribution to the body of literature. Maybe when I am older and more retrospective about my own relationships, I will come back to it. It's just that at this time, in my current mindset, lifestyle, or perhaps even mood, it is not for me.

If an introspective analysis of human emotion is what you are looking for however, you will find nothing better.

Great Book. Great Narrator

What did you love best about The End of the Affair?

This is a great story anyway but Colin Firth does such an EXCELLENT job of reading it!! Wow!

What about Colin Firth’s performance did you like?

Colin Firth is one of the best actors so he could read this book doing each character to perfection.

Colin Firth a wonderful reader.

Where does The End of the Affair rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

First rate. Even though I knew the story (from the film), Firth's rendering made listening to the book mesmerizing. An exemplary performance.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Sarah was the most sympathetic character: her heartbreaking decision to break off her relationship with Maurice became understandable in light of her belief system.

What about Colin Firth’s performance did you like?

His tone of voice was superb. The characterization of the voices in the novel was spot on.

Who was the most memorable character of The End of the Affair and why?

Of couse it's Maurice, the narrator. As he changes from a man emboldened by lust for a married woman to a bereaved lover, his bittersweet acknowledgement of Sarah's sacrifice after her death and burial is a heartrending conclusion to this novel.

Poignant, Introverted

I can't say anything about Colin Firth's delivery that hasn't been said already. He won an an award for this performance and rightfully so - he handles heartbreak, bitterness, and too-bright all-consuming love with a reserved grace that captures the tone of the novel.

I would recommend this title on the strength of his narration alone.

The work itself is more difficult to fully embrace. The writing is clean, whittled to an unflinching truth but no less rich for that. Written in first person, the narrator, Maurice Bendrix, is consumed by jealousy and hatred (which is to say, love) for his former married mistress. Set in London, when Europe is in the last throws of war, Bendrix swings back and forth on an agonizing pendulum as he struggles with the wreckage of life after the affair. In him, Greene sets both the best and worst of human nature in direct juxtaposition; he shows that love and hate are as connected as an inhale and an exhale.

He takes the feeling in all its forms: physical, platonic, spiritual, obsessive, familial, divine; and places the enormous burden of that on one man's shoulders. Then he steps back and points at his narrator as if to say: "Look at how it twists him, look at how that much love and devotion and depth burns a man."

In lean prose, Greene's man Bendrix staggers under an emotion that is only capable of being fully born by a higher power. He blurs the line between humanity and divinity until loving and hating someone becomes an act of loving and hating God.

Religious or not, this book is insightful, complex, difficult; a classic worth the read.

This is the best audiobook I have ever listened to

If you ever doubted that Colin Firth was a great actor or that Graham Greene was a great writer, this audiobook will change your mind. It is truly engrossing and hearing it read brings so much to the story.

Brilliant novel, Perfectly read

Would you consider the audio edition of The End of the Affair to be better than the print version?

No. Graham Greene is the greatest novelist of his generation and The End of
the Affair his greatest novel. The trick for a narrator in this case is to be
transparent. Colin Firth is just that. He doesn't do different voices
yet the characters are totally distinctive because they were written that way.
Mr. Firth said that Greene is his favorite British novelist and The End of the
Affair his favorite Greene novel. It shows. A profound novel and an exquisite
reading.

Which scene was your favorite?

Only Graham Greene could make a scene with a miracle work. It works
because the protagonist is an atheist.

Any additional comments?

If you're looking for a thriller, get Graham Greene's This Gun For Hire.
If you are looking for a profoundly human story by a major writer and
an superb narrator this is one.

Wonderful narration of an unforgettable story

What did you love best about The End of the Affair?

I loved the passion that seeps from every page.

What did you like best about this story?

Tragic, unconventional love that is doomed to failure is always irresistible to me, but in this particular story there is infinitely more. The narrator struggles with his love and hate (often not knowing the difference himself), his desire, his own faults and judgments, and while he dismisses faith and passionately hates its manifestations, he battles with the very God he doesn't believe in. The end of his affair makes him angry and bitter, and the revelation that he never did lose her lover's love and that ultimate happiness was incredibly close makes him impatient and greedy and propels the story towards its inevitable ending. Things happen at the wrong place and the wrong time, and we are reminded that so much of human happiness depends on sheer luck and coincidence.

Which character – as performed by Colin Firth – was your favorite?

Colin Firth did an incredible job sympathizing with the characters, their feelings and their personal stories. He is a wonderful story teller and seems to live through all the emotions which the book supplies without forcing his person or his interpretation on the reader, I mean listener. I thought I'd be distracted by his sexy voice (the way he says "already" gives me infinite amounts of pleasure for example), but from the beginning I was lost in the story and felt like I was on an unforgettable trip with an intimate friend. Thank you, Colin, thank you!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I wish I could have listened in one sitting! But I started taking the long walking route to work, so I could listen in longer stretches and when I was done, I went right back to the beginning.

Any additional comments?

This was my first audio book, and now I am scared to begin another in fear that nothing can come close to the experience I've just had.

Colin Firth is an Excellent Narrator!

What does Colin Firth bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

The range of emotions that Colin Firth manages to express by his mere voice is extraordinary.

Forget 50 Shades-This is a Sexy Story

I love Graham Greene, but had missed this one. His insights into love, sex, jealousy and mourning are profound. This is an enthralling listen and an ideal antidote to the pathetic sentences that pass for writing in the book mentioned above.

At times I wished Colin Firth's pace was a tiny bit livelier, but think you could also make the case that he does a remarkable job of guiding you through the novel without getting in its way. A real treat.