For June of 2011 our next Ascotian, Mr. Artie O'Daly, has selected a 1951 modern classic, The End of the Affair.
The book was adapted into 2 movies (one in 1955 and on in 1999) and later into an opera in 2004.
Wikipedia gives us this brief synopsis:
"The novel focuses on Maurice Bendrix, a rising writer during World War II in London, and Sarah Miles, the wife of an impotent civil servant. Bendrix is loosely based on Greene himself, and he reflects often on the act of writing a novel. Sarah is based loosely on Greene's mistress at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated.
Bendrix and Sarah fall in love quickly, but he soon realizes that the affair will end as quickly as it began. The relationship suffers from his overt and admitted jealousy. He is frustrated by her refusal to divorce Henry, her amiable but boring husband. When a bomb blasts Bendrix's flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed. After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation."
To order your copy of The End of the Affair, click here to buy it on Amazon.com!
