The End of the Affair Study Guide

Henry Graham Greene was the fourth of six children born to Charles Henry Greene and Marion Raymond Greene. Greene discovered a love of reading when he was a young boy spending time at his uncle Sir Graham Greene’s estate in Cambridgeshire. Greene started attending the school his father was headmaster of in 1910. From a young age, Greene experienced serious bouts of depression that led to him being sent away for psychoanalysis in 1920 when he was 16. Greene later attended Oxford University and graduated with a degree in history, but was plagued by his depression and largely kept to himself during his time at Oxford. After college, Greene worked as a journalist and reviewer and met his wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning, when she wrote to the paper he was working for to correct something he had said about Catholicism. Over time, Greene got to know Vivien and learned more about Catholicism, ultimately choosing to be baptized in 1926. He married Vivien the following year, and the pair had two children together. Greene published his first novel, The Man Within, in 1929, and from there his career took off, though he continued to work at papers as a literary and move critic. During World War II, Greene worked for England’s MI6 in Sierra Leone and traveled all over the world for work. In 1947, Greene left his family but, due to his Catholic beliefs, never divorced his wife. Instead, Greene moved away to be closer to his mistress, Yvonne Cloetta, and the two stayed together for the rest of his life. Greene died in 1991 from leukemia while living in Vevey, Switzerland.

In The End of the Affair, Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles begin their relationship in London during the early days of World War II. From 1940 to 1941, London was the target of numerous attacks, known as the Blitz, from the Germans. German pilots would fly over London and other major cities in England and drop bombs, destroying numerous buildings and killing tens of thousands of civilians. The literal end to Bendrix and Sarah’s affair comes during a surprising air raid in June 1944, less than a year before the end of the war in Europe. In real life, outside of the pages of the novel, the German’s made a last-ditch effort to take down London by sending pilotless rockets known as V-1s or “doodlebugs” into London on June 13, 1944, killing over 6,000 people and injuring nearly 18,000. The final round of surprise blitz-like attacks came later in 1944 when the Germans sent V-2 rockets, killing almost 3,000 and injuring more than 6,500.

The End of the Affair grapples with religious belief, as Sarah transforms from atheist to follower of God. Greene’s early novel, The Power and the Glory—widely considered his best work—is an early example of Greene’s growing interest in Catholicism and how others perceive of it. Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier, like The End of the Affair, focuses on sexless and unhappy marriages, as well as the consequences of adultery. In a similar vein, Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden examines problematic romantic relationships, particularly in the context of adultery and the dangers of jealousy. William Shakespeare’s Othello examines how those with bad intentions can exploit and manipulate jealous spouses for their own gain, and, like The End of the Affair, ends with the tragic death of a beloved wife. As for more contemporary fiction that bears resemblance to The End of the Affair, Ian McEwan’s Atonement is set in England in the years just before, during, and after World War II (the same period The End of the Affair covers) and charts the progression of a relationship doomed to fail.