• The End of the Affair

  • By: Graham Greene
  • Narrated by: Colin Firth
  • Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (11,395 ratings)

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The End of the Affair  By  cover art

The End of the Affair

By: Graham Greene
Narrated by: Colin Firth
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Publisher's summary

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.

Go Behind the Scenes with Colin Firth

An accomplished stage and screen actor embraces a new medium: audio performance.
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Publisher's summary

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.
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Our favorite moments from The End of the Affair

Jilted lover and oblivious husband at the pub.
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The first glimpse of Sarah.
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Is he loved? The dour Bendrix has doubts.
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The thrill is gone, or so Bendrix jealously fears.
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  • The End of the Affair
  • Jilted lover and oblivious husband at the pub.
  • The End of the Affair
  • The first glimpse of Sarah.
  • The End of the Affair
  • Is he loved? The dour Bendrix has doubts.
  • The End of the Affair
  • The thrill is gone, or so Bendrix jealously fears.
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About the Performer

Colin Firth was heart-stoppingly perfect as Darcy in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, won an Oscar for playing the tongue-tied king in The King’s Speech, and continued to gain fans with his roles in Bridget Jones’s Diary, A Single Man, Love Actually, and many more films. In addition to having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Firth won Audiobook of the Year in 2013 for his narration of The End of the Affair.

About the Author

Graham Greene, widely recognized as one of the most important writers of the 20th century, was born in Hertfordshire, England, and studied history at Oxford. A restless spirit, he traveled the world before settling in London and starting to write novels, including The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, Our Man in Havana, and many more. Later recruited as a spy for his government, he based several of his novels in the shadowy world of double agents. But love and passion also caught his imagination, and he explored them from the perspective of an "agnostic Catholic" whose interest in Catholicism also played a big role in his work.

What listeners say about The End of the Affair

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    5,473
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    3,223
  • 3 Stars
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Performance
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Story
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Love then Hate then ?

An British tale of an affair and love and all the complications. Lots of twists and turns and emotions. Very enjoyable.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Listen please

Engaging and great right to the end. I really enjoyed as an audible book you will too

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A wonderful classic

A gripping story of a man who hates himself and others in so doing learns to love.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

It pierced my heart

Graham Greene reminds me of the great Russian Authors. His familiarity with pain and our fallen human nature speaks simply. You cannot help but understand a little about suffering

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The end of the Adair

This was superb and beautifully narrated. Much enjoyed.
Highly recommend I’ll any Graham Green fan

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent

Beautifully read and beautifully written. I will listen to this story many times as I read the book many times. I recommend this book to anyone.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An epic story of the human struggle to love…and hate.

It seems to be the story about infidelity, maybe a sort of hedonistic living… but turns into a deeper telling of the raw struggle of love and hate, and the stories we try to tell , as well as the ones we try to refuse to hear , to make some sense of whatever this is that is the life we live and the chaos of confusions we experience.
What seems so eternal is passing.
What is eternal is rejected

The easy shibboleths of answers by which the inner questions, longings or salved , or worse , used to subordinate are grappled with. In the end staring into that abyss , is rejected

What is left when all the easy answers are dismissed?
Left to do? To think? To be?
What then?

These are the closing questions. Maybe like Dante and Paradise Lost, or any of the great stories, Parsifal, or even the Passion - if it could be stripped of all the encrusted religious nonsense,, there is another volume to be written.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

I found it a bit repetitious.

I wasn't prepared for this reading to lead toward some kind of religious awareness for any of the characters. I found it preachy. Dissapointed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Enter the psyche of a man in love!

If you could sum up The End of the Affair in three words, what would they be?

The inner world of a man tortured by a romance ending too soon.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The End of the Affair?

It was the period when he finds her again and there is hope for their romance.

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

The investigator..love the accent.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The coming together of Bendrix and his lover's husband after her death.

Any additional comments?

Please have Colin Firth be a featured narrator again! I would buy anything he narrates.

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I loved this story

and I especially loved Colin Firth reading it....your life will be better if you hear this :)

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19 people found this helpful