When Sarah Miles ends her affair with him, writer Maurice Bendrix cannot let the separation stand without an explanation. In Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair, his jealousy drives him to hire a private investigator; what he discovers links Sarah’s decision to a promise she made to God after a bombing in which she believed Bendrix’s life had been spared. Set in London during and just after the Second World War, the novel turns a private rupture into a story about love, obsession and faith.

Bendrix’s search for an explanation

The story is told from Bendrix’s point of view, keeping the reader close to his yearning and resentment as he tries to understand why Sarah has withdrawn from him. Sarah is married to Henry Miles, a civil servant. Bendrix’s affair with her and her abrupt decision to end it set the plot in motion; his response is not acceptance but investigation.

Hiring a private investigator gives Bendrix a way to pursue the reason Sarah has not given him. The answer he uncovers is not simply a new piece of information about their relationship. Sarah has promised God that she will end the affair in exchange for Bendrix’s life, which she believes was spared during a bombing. The explanation draws together the novel’s romantic conflict and its religious concerns.

Love, belief and wartime London

The bombing gives the London setting a direct role in the story. It is connected to Sarah’s belief that Bendrix survived and to the promise that shapes her choice. The setting is therefore bound up with the characters’ private lives, rather than serving only as a general historical backdrop.

Because events are filtered through Bendrix, Sarah’s motives reach the reader through his search and his emotional response. His jealousy is central to the account, but it cannot by itself explain the promise he discovers. Sarah’s religious belief offers another account of why the affair ends, bringing questions of obligation and faith into a relationship already marked by longing and loss.

The supplied article dates Greene’s writing of the novel to 1951. It also describes the book as critically acclaimed and commercially successful, but provides no reviews or sales details to substantiate those assessments. The plot and themes themselves offer a more specific account of its concerns: personal attachment, the search for an explanation and the possibility that faith may change how an event is understood.

Adaptations and the story beyond the page

The article reports major film versions released in 1955 and 1999. These adaptations brought the story to audiences beyond the novel, although the supplied material gives no further information about their production or reception. Their dates mark two occasions on which Greene’s story was presented in another form.

At the heart of the novel remains the gap between Bendrix’s experience of Sarah’s decision and the reason he eventually uncovers. His search begins in jealousy and longing; its answer involves Sarah’s promise to God and her belief about the bombing. That movement gives the love story its particular tension, without resolving faith into a simple answer.

Why The End of the Affair deserves a place in British Legacy

The End of the Affair belongs in a British literary collection because its London setting is integral to the plot. The bombing is connected to Sarah’s belief that Bendrix’s life has been spared; that belief leads to the promise she makes and the end of the affair. A wartime event thus shapes a private decision, joining the novel’s setting to its central emotional and religious conflict.

The story also offers a focused study of how jealousy can shape a search for truth. Told through Bendrix, it brings the reader close to his hurt while revealing an explanation rooted in Sarah’s faith. The reported film versions of 1955 and 1999 show that the story has also been adapted beyond the page. Its value for British Legacy lies in these specific features: a London narrative, a relationship altered by the consequences of a bombing, and a conflict in which love, belief and obligation resist easy separation.

Finding the novel

The supplied article points readers to Amazon UK as one place to find The End of the Affair: Amazon UK.