Graham Greene on The
End of the Affair:
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Time magazine featured the novel in a 1951 story, with Greene on the cover and the caption "Adultery can lead to sainthood". | The story which now began to itch at my mind of a man who was to be driven and overwhelmed by the accumulation of natural coincidences, until he broke and began to accept the incredible | |
the possibility of a God. Alas! It was an intention I betrayed.There is much that I like in the book it seems to me more simply and clearly written than its predecessors and ingeniously constructed to avoid the tedium of the time sequence (I had learned something from my continual rereading of that remarkable novel The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford), but until I reached the final part I did not realize the formidable problem I had set myself. | ||
Sarah, the chief character, was dead, the book should have continued at least as long after her death as before, and yet, like her lover, Bendrix, I found I had no great appetite to continue | Greene took little pains to disguise the fact that the novel was based on his own affair with Lady Catherine Walston, who also did not appear disturbed by the book. The British edition of the novel is dedicated to "C" while the American version is made out to "Catherine." | |
now she was gone
beyond recall and only a philosophic theme was left
behind. I begin to hurry to the end, and although, in the
last part, there are scenes, especially those which
express the growth of tenderness between Bendrix and
Sarah's husband, which seem to me successful enough, I
realized too late how I had been cheating the
reader
The incident of the atheist Smythe's
strawberry mark (apparently cured by Sarah after her
death) should have had no place in the book; every
so-called miracle, like the curing of Parkis's boy, ought
to have had a completely natural explanation. The
coincidences should have continued over the years,
battering the mind of Bendrix, forcing on him a reluctant
doubt of his own atheism. The last pages would have
remained much as they were written (indeed I very much
like the last pages), but I had spurred myself too
quickly to the end. So it was that in a later edition I tried to return nearer to my original intention. Smythe's strawberry mark gave place to a disease of the skin which might have had a nervous origin and be susceptible to faith healing.
from Ways of Escape, pp.114-115 © Melody Yiu Images and quoted text on this website may be protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. They are presented here for academic interest and personal entertainment. No distribution, reproduction, re-transmission or other rights are given or implied by their appearance. If you have any copyright concerns, please notify me. |