The Third Woman: The Secret Passion That Inspired "The End of the Affair" [Hardcover]

William Cash (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

This is the enthralling true story of the novelist Graham Greene and the woman who splintered his heart in one of the twentieth century's epic romances. In December 1946, on a snow-covered airfield in East Anglia, the English novelist Graham Greene fell in love with Catherine Walston, the beautiful American wife of an immensely rich gentleman farmer. Their affair lasted nearly fifteen years, until 1961, but remained hidden from the public until after Greene's death three decades later. The Third Woman, however, is more than the story of an affair fraught with blind love, tortured religiosity, thwarted passion, heart-wrenched confessions, and secret vows. It is also an investigation into the facts that Greene wove into his classic 1951 novel End of the Affair, as well as an inquiry into the creative debt that literature owes to adultery, for this was the period, too, of masterpieces like The Heart of the Matter. Out of interviews with Greene's intimates, including his wife and mistress, and with access to the 1200 love letters he wrote to Catherine as well as his correspondence with friends like Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward, Diana Cooper, Margot Fonteyn, and Alexander Korda, the book retraces the emotional and spiritual progress of an affair played out at Catherine's remote cottage on Ireland's Achill Island, at Greene's villa in Capri, and in their adjoining flats on London's St. James Street. "A remarkable achievement.... Not only has Cash succeeded in piecing together an extraordinary story, but he has painted a vivid portrait of these two complex and fascinating people." - The Spectator; "Compelling reading." - Financial Times.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While Graham Greene, private though he was, has few posthumous secrets left, journalist Cash's investigation into the central love affair of Greene's womanizing lifeDwith the fabulously wealthy socialite Catherine Walston, which began in 1946 and lasted for nearly 15 tumultuous yearsDdoes uncover some surprising new revelations. For example, despite their obsessive Catholicism, it's a surprise to read that the married Greene once exchanged wedding vows with Catherine in a secret ceremony in Tunbridge Wells. However, as one continues to read what Cash has skillfully uncovered, the exchange of vows appear consistent with Greene "as a Catholic fatalist." Certainly, their affair fueled Greene's creativity, and it is during these years that he wrote much of his best work, Cash argues. Specifically, he continues, it catalyzed Greene's guilt-rife romantic novel, The End of the Affair, and his aim here is to uncover the full background." Cash, a former correspondent for the London Times, has sifted through such recently available material as Greene's 1,200 love letters to Catherine and her diaries. Cash also interviewed numerous people who knew them both, including Greene's widow, son and daughter and his last mistress, and he visited the various sites of their liaisons, notably Walston's cottage on a remote Irish island, Greene's Capri villa and the stately home of Catherine's husband. Although Cash's level of literary criticism doesn't match his claim for "the creative debt that literature owes to adultery," his research gets as close to the heart of the matter as one can with the enigmatic Greene. For the novelist's fans, this is a necessary adjunct to biographies by Norman Sherry, W.J. West and Michael Shelden.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The recently released movie version of The End of the Affair effectively prepared the soil for this investigation of the real-life romance that inspired Graham Greene's novel. Cash weaves the story of Greene's 15-year relationship with Catherine Walston, the American wife of wealthy British gentleman, into the larger theme of the "creative debt that literature owes to adultery." Less successfully, he attempts-- somewhat in the manner of Geof Dyer in Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D. H. Lawrence (1998)--to add an autobiographical angle to the story by reflecting on the psychodrama of his own obsession with Greene. Cash reveals the details of Greene's tempestuous affair with Walston through painstaking anaylsis of the author's love letters and other correspondence. Occasionally, he loses himself in the minutiae of his source material, but on the whole, he proves an insightful interpreter of both Greene's life and his work--especially the theme of Catholic guilt that was so central to both. Neither Greene nor Catherine come off as entirely admirable here, but theirs is nevertheless a powerful and poignant love story. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers; First Edition edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786708123
• ISBN-13: 978-0786708123
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,084,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The real story - at last., January 6, 2001

By 

Dr Joanna Bratten - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Woman: The Secret Passion That Inspired "The End of the Affair" (Hardcover)

After the hulabaloo of the recent film version of The End of the Affair, William Cash's book was a timely arrival, and a refreshing one. Like Cash, many Greene scholars feel that Greene's works are too frequently confused with his life. Art and life are distinct enough with most writers, but Greene more so, as he himself made many requests to his reading public to please not confuse his fiction with fact. Neil Jordan's film, however well-done, fell into this confusing fact with fiction trap, and even went so far as to cast Julianne Moore in the role of Sarah because she so resembled Catherine Walston (despite the fact that she does not fit the description of Sarah Miles). Cash's book blows open the doors that have been shut too long on the real story of the 'end of the affair' and shows us how different, in fact, Greene's relationship was from Bendrix's.

Cash's research, which was carefully and meticulously done, is written out in a clear and readable style, and his collections of anecdotes and new stories (so much, after all, has already been written) makes the book a goldmine for a Greene scholar. Cash's interview(s) with Vivien Greene, in particular, are valuable in what they tell us about their marriage and about Greene as a person - Greene's faults are laid open for us all to see, and while some of what is revealed pains the reader, it is helpful, all the same, in putting Greene's work in perspective to his life.

An impressive piece of writing overall and a much-needed contribution to the vast field of Greene scholarship. However, the main shortcoming of the book is that it lacks an index, and should a second edition be in the works, it would much behoove Cash to compile one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing!, November 24, 2000

By 

Ruth (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Woman: The Secret Passion That Inspired "The End of the Affair" (Hardcover)

I am a lover of Greene's books and one of my all time favourite books is the End of The Affair so i enjoyed this immensely. It really made me appreciate what a complex person Greene was. I found myself being drawn in on what are at times quite mundane facts but nonetheless facinating. Catherine Walston remains a mystery to me. Well worth a read if ,like me you read the End of the Affair and wanted to find out more about the real story behind it. Very enjoyable

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Greene Addict, October 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Third Woman: The Secret Passion That Inspired "The End of the Affair" (Hardcover)

I'm a Graham Greene addict and have just really enjoyed Gloria Emerson's "Loving Graham Greene". I liked the Neil Jordan film of The End of the Affair and read a rave review of this true account of the real life love affair between Greene and his American nymphomaniac mistress Catherine Walston in The London Spectator whilst visiting England earlier this year for an antique fair. I got a signed copy at Hatchards and read it on the plane on way back to New York and loved it. The book is a sort of literary detective investiagation into the importance of adultery to literature, played out against a background of Ireland, Paris, London, Rye, New York --- where i have family -- and Cambridge. Catherine Walston is one of the most intriging muses of modern literature, like Slyvia Plath only more erotic and dangerous. How Greene managed to still write his 500 words a day i have no idea. Anyhow, I'm giving this book as Christmas presents to several of my literary friends...Pity their are no pix in the book, other than on the cover.