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The End of the Affair
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
Non-member price: $23.41
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Editorial Reviews
Publisher's Summary
Audie Award Winner, Audiobook of the Year, 2013.
Audie Award Nominee, Best Solo Narration, 2013.
Graham Greene's evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house.
Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King's Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release. The End of the Affair, set in London during and just after World War II, is the story of a flourishing love affair between Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles. After a violent episode at Maurice's apartment, Sarah suddenly and without explanation breaks off the affair.
This very intimate story about what actually constitutes love is enhanced by Mr. Firth's narration, who said "this book struck me very, very particularly at the time when I read it and I thought my familiarity with it would give the journey a personal slant. I'm grateful for this honor," Firth said when this production was recognized by the Audie Awards as Audiobook of the Year for 2013, "and grateful for the opportunity to narrate one of my favorite stories. A great novel told in the first person makes for the best script an actor could imagine. None better than The End of the Affair.... Theater and film each offer their own challenges and rewards, but narration is a new practice for me and the audiobook performance provides exhilarating possibilities for both actors and listeners. I'm thrilled to be involved in bringing this remarkable work of fiction to a wider audience, and thankful to Audible for offering me the opportunity to perform it and to engage with so many who share my passion for storytelling."
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What listeners say about The End of the Affair
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Adam Sutherton
- 15-06-2015
Colin Firth makes this story mesmerizing
I got this book purely because I wanted a British accent audio book to listen to so got this book with no idea what it was about other than it had been made into an award winning play.
The story itself had me wondering mid-way why i was listening to it but Colin's British 'proper' english kept me going with it and was an enjoyable, yet unusual book. Thank you from Australia!
6 people found this helpful
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- vicster
- 25-11-2018
Loved this classic and the way it was read .
Narrated beautifully by Colin Firth. Smooth as silk, with wonderful words ebbing and flowing from the superb writer that is Graham Greene.
2 people found this helpful
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- Mark Killen
- 08-03-2018
brilliant
beautiful moving and so true. no better written understanding of the human condition and love
2 people found this helpful
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- Jude
- 24-08-2015
Narration at its best
An amazing trip into life love loss. I listened to this book over and over again mainly because Colin's voice was so calming I used it to relax and sleep.
2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 15-09-2019
lovely voice and pronounciation!
a little depressing loved the narrator though whatever happened to happy endings. I wasn't surprised as have read other Graham greene
1 person found this helpful
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- Graeme W Horne
- 19-12-2018
Memories
Unforgettable performance by Colin Firth that takes you in the pain and joy of loss
1 person found this helpful
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- Jenny
- 05-10-2018
Outstanding performance
Colin Firth was the best thing about this audiobook for me. I can understand why it is so critically acclaimed, however it simply did not resonate with me personally.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-10-2018
Excellent performance by Colin Firth
the story drags on a little but Colin Firth is nice to listen to anyway
1 person found this helpful
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- Natasha Langford
- 14-01-2021
Human and heavenly love. Well read.
Listening to this novel felt like a kind of literary Bible reading. Greene's pen loves and judges his characters throughout. Hearts are exposed, yet there is grace, along with an overt catholic spirituality permeating the book. (As a side note I did wonder if many of the evangelistic talks I heard growing up that included the idea of a spiritual leap of faith were the product of a generation that grew up on Greene's writing?) Colin Firth has a good grip on reading with different voices for the individual characters and the female characters sound reasonably plausible.
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- Madeleine O'Dea
- 09-01-2021
Truly brilliant
A brilliant book, unfolded in all its anger, sadness, and faith, in a bravura performance by Colin Firth. Just extraordinary.
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- Julian
- 21-02-2019
Baptism of desire
I rate this tale of a woman who leaves her lover for God as Graham Green's masterpiece. Structurally it is sophisticated, framed as a novelist's first-person recollection of his affair with the wife of a civil servant, laced with flashbacks and with an extended section in her voice as he reads extracts from her stolen diary. I had to read it through again once I finished and found it much the richer once I understood the structure. The three-cornered drama is shot through with ironies and missed opportunities, with a tragic climax and an odd coda in which a supernatural element comes close to the surface. Some may find the overt religious themes off-putting but as a way into the big questions of life, love, and death it has never been equalled in Greene's opus. Colin Firth's reading - performance, really - is riveting throughout. His virtuosic variations of pacing and tone perfectly match the narrator's turmoil of mind. He effortlessly differentiates the characters with the subtlest shades of timbre and colouring. The minor characters sparkle, too, particularly the sentimental gumshoe Parkis. I can't resist re-quoting St Augustine's beautiful dictum "Time flows out of the future, which does not yet exist, into the present, which has no duration, into the past, which has ceased to exist." Time with this gem of an audiobook is well spent indeed.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-01-2018
Excellent adaption, Excellent writer.
Well worth downloading. I recommend listening to it at nightime in the dark, gloomy atmosphere of a winter!!
1 person found this helpful
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- Yasmine Zitouni
- 18-06-2017
Excellent
Loved it! Colin Firth was delightful. My favorite thus far! A must buy from Audible.
1 person found this helpful
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- Sofie Grønnegård-Rexen
- 31-07-2020
so many feels
you are almost fooled to think that Sarah is Colin firths Long lost love and this is merely his own hate and confusion being related
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- Debby Clements
- 21-04-2019
Not just a story...
I thoroughly enjoyed this almost lyrical novel. The poison/passion drips from his pen as he writes, his heart splayed out honestly within the pages.
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- Amazon Customer
- 19-10-2016
Much too obsessed with God
The narrator was exceptionally good!
Too much hesitation btw compulsory faith and disbelief ín God
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- taryn
- 23-01-2016
excellent rendition o
I liked Collin firth's rendition of this story. such a wonderful read about relationships. he characterised the protagonists well
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- fathimath
- 16-07-2015
Loved it!
Beautiful narration by Colin Firth. Fell asleep to his voice a couple of times even. This is my first time listening to an audio book as well as to this story, and i must admit, it was a sensational experience! 5*!
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- Dr
- 31-10-2016
Depressing story but beautifully performed
Colin Firth does a wonderful job here of telling the story of a man tortured by the loss of his love affair. There is much reference to Catholic guilt as Greene explores his own relationship, troubled as it was, with the Catholic faith.
It was a great listen, if not exactly uplifting.
26 people found this helpful
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- Spa2004
- 14-02-2016
Wonderful words; beautifully read
I love Graham Greene's writing style and Colin Firth gives a super performance narrating the masterful prose. Great story-telling, I just couldn't quite "buy" the key relationship between Bendrix and Sarah. Can we petition Colin Firth for some more books?
21 people found this helpful
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- Haifa
- 29-03-2016
Beautiful
Loved it!! Beautifully read..Colin Firth makes it even more enjoyable..but nevertheless the book is so heartbreaking
11 people found this helpful
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- KatDLF
- 03-07-2016
The perfect performance of an extraordinary book
This has got to be the most realistically heart-breaking book I have ever read.
What's worse is that the beauty of its language and imagery, and its theological arguments are likely to drive me back to it over and over again.
I suspect I am going to drown in this book
10 people found this helpful
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- Izabela
- 07-04-2016
Slow start
It was a slow story to start with but very addictive towards the end. Brilliant performance from Colin Firth, he could make a telephone book sound exciting!
14 people found this helpful
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- ruth
- 16-07-2015
A -MA-ZING!!!!!!!!!!
I love this book. It is such a compelling story. It is beautifully written, the words are selected one by one like an artist chooses his colors and shapes. I will listen to it again. The narrator was impeccable. He let you dive in the story of every character so well, that even a simple breath can make you believe this is real. Just close your eyes and let him take to London 1945. A story of love, a story of hate, a story of love again. Believe...
13 people found this helpful
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- james
- 23-05-2016
Wonderful
This story is brilliantly told and performed. I have issues with the Christian mumbo - jumbo at the centre of this novel. It seems dated now. However, when on form Greene was a consummate novelist with spellbinding storytelling abilities. Firth is the perfect conduit.
7 people found this helpful
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- Craig
- 23-11-2015
challenging
Excellent in every department. Characters excellent, particularly Maurice and Sarah. Henry maybe a little stereotyped. Gritty and earthy struggles with believable emotions and managed to introduce a real spiritual struggle without resorting to clichés.
17 people found this helpful
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- Geoff Hearn
- 29-11-2016
So good
This book is so cleverly written.
The story is so good.
The final chapters linger in the mind.
This book was written when the English language was so descriptive and not tainted by, dare I say, American influence !
9 people found this helpful
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- Florence
- 11-04-2016
fantastic
This had me mesmerized, a stand out book and excellently narrated - a must listen
9 people found this helpful
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