Affairs in fiction

[Derelictwreck]

Can anyone recommend anything?

Having experienced this recently I've become (probably unhealthily) interested in the how's and why so wanted to read about one from any point of view.

But fiction only as couldn't handle someone's real actions!

On Green Dolphin Street by Sebastian Faulks

OK, slightly odd request, but the three that spring to mind immediately are Madame Bovary, The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, and The English Patient. I'll post again if I remember any more that I've read.

Damage by Josephine Hart - the ultimate "when affairs go wrong" novel. Quite old (early 90s) but absolutely gripping. Also a good film starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene - obvs

Any Human Heart by William Boyd - not really "about" affairs but the main character does have a lot of them! Plus it's a good book, one of my favourites.

Any Jilly Cooper novel - they all contain lots of extra-marital antics. Rivals is my favourite.

A Bouquet of Barbed Wire.

On Green Dolphin Street - highly recommend

Mill on the Floss manages to be surprisingly human under the Victorian tweeness. I warn you though, the end is really fucking annoying, a complete cop out on the novelist's part!

Almost anything by Nancy Mitford. Though through the lens of upper class prewar society, so not terribly relevant.

The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins. Mary Wesley’s Not That Sort of Girl. For something more recent I’ve reserved ‘Here is the Beehive’ from the library after reading a favourable review but haven’t read it yet.

Anna Karenina, Lady Chatterly’s Lover.

Watermelon by Marian Keyes

You Closer You Get by Mary Torjussen is brilliant.

Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon. Not on the same literary level as those above, but great fun.

Second The English Patient and The End of the Affair.
Also Patrick McGrath - Asylum
'Talking it over' by Julian Barnes is a great read but I can't remember if there is an affair or if it is just a love triangle (read it a very long time ago)
Alison Lurie - Foreign Affair

Anita Shreve has written several -The Pilot's Wife; Fortune's Rocks and The Last Time They Met all spring to mind.

Pretty much all of John Updike.

Playing Away by Adele Parks

The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey. Of course the interesting parts are about the mechanical toy not the affair.

Following. Love a good fictional affair.

Fidelity by Susan Glaspell. It is available for free on gutenberg.org and is also published as a Persephone book. Well written and a very very good description of the affair and the (long term) consequences for all involved.

Little Children by Tom Perrotta.

The Rector's Wife by Joanna Trollope. I've just re-read it and loved it. It's very 90's.

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce. It's a bit OTT but definitely a page turner.

The two I thought of have been suggested already. Ie. Jilly Cooper books, and Blood orange.

Here Is The Beehive by Sarah Crossan is absolutely beautiful and devastating. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A Little Learning by Caro Fraser (married middle-aged woman has affair with younger man).