The Affair - A novel by C.P.Snow

Sep 28, 2026

“The Affair” is a highly dramatic novel centered on a moral crisis at a great English university in 1960s Cambridge. The story unfolds after a young scientist, Donald Howard, is dismissed for a supposed scientific fraud and withdraws without a convincing defense. His wife believes in him and manages to reopen the case, prompting the college’s tight and powerful fellowship to confront truth, prejudice, and the complex motives behind right and wrong.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Plot overview

The dismissal and the alleged fraud

Reopening the case

The college and its power structure

Themes of right and wrong

MAY 2060 Book-of-the-Month Club NEWS May 1960 For JINe A novel by C.P.Snow,one of England'smost celebrated writers T H Eune PRICE $450— This highly dramatic novel will introduce to members oneof England's outstanding writers—one who has acquireda brilliant reputation abroad and who is long overdue forwider recognition here.The Afair deals with a moral crisisat a great English university,which develops after a youngscientist has been dismissed from his teaching post becauseof an alleged fraud.Was the fraud his,or his superior's?“Anotably intelligent book,"reports Gilbert Highet,in whichthe author manages “to show us men and women caughtin difficult problems of right and wrong...and still makeus feel a deep sympathy for them all.” C*P*SNOW Thc picture on the cover is RACE HoRSESby Edgar Degas(description on page 12) Walter Bird HE AFFAIR started quietly.In-deed,it might have beentactfully hushed up;slowly for-gotten;at last interred under the softlayers of the years.It was a shocking thing,of course.Yet it involved very few people.Hardly anyone knew the facts.Perhaps itwould have receded into the past,dwindledinto nothing,if it had not been for adetermined woman.She kept it alive.Shestirred pcople up.Gradually there was afaint suspicion that justice still waited,unappeased.There was,after all,some-thing wrong. What had happened?It was.painful,but simple.Donald Howard,a youngscientist at Cambridge University,pub-lished a scientific experiment which provcd(when tested)to be a fake:a lie.He wasdismissed fron his post,a Fellowship ina good collegc.His carcer was over.Heleft the university and became a school-master.When accused,he scarcely troublcdto offer any defense,as though he cithcrknew he was guilty or thought his accuscrswere bound to win,whatever hc said.Per-sonally,Howard was a bittcr,ill-naturcdfellow.Also,he was a loud-voiced Com-munist fellow traveler,and kept soundingoff about "progressives"and "this bombnonsense"and "your system"and so forth.Few people were sorry to sce the last ofhim.Fcwer still doubted his guilt.He did nothing to vindicate himself,and sullenlydisappeared. Yet his wife believed in him.She setout to have his case reopened.And,toeveryone's surprise(even Howard's),re-opened it was. A College in Cambridge(or Oxford)isa curious thing.It is not at alllike anAmerican college,with a board of pow-erful trustees,a president appointed bythe trustees,a large administrative staff,and a faculty concerned almost whollywith teaching and research.It is more likea cross between an intellectual monasteryand a small,rich,elite club.For all prac-tical purposes,the College is the Masterand the fifteen or twenty Fellows.Theyown the property of the College,andadminister it through a Bursar,who is oneof themselves and is often busily engagedin teaching at the same time.(J.M.Keyneswas Bursar of King's College,Cambridge,and is said to have doubled its propertyby his financial acumen.)The Fellows alsocontrol one another's behavior,and mayreprimand,or in extrcme cases dismiss,one of their own number.And,every tenor fifteen years,they elect their own pre-siding officer.Provost,or Warden,or Prin-cipal,or Master,however he may be styled,he has attained great honor,and holdsconsiderable power for the rest of hisactive life. GIL B ER T HI GHET may be there,although never voiced inwords.Sir Charles Snow,who was him-self a Cambridge don before he enteredgovernment service,has in an earlier novel,The Masters,eloquently described the quietbut passionate struggles which split atypical college when its new head is to beelected.Now,in The Affair,he describesanother kind of struggle:the struggle todiscover and expose the truth about whatmay have been a piece of youthful folly,or a mean act of prejudice,or an un-forgivable fraud. Sir Charles is a notably intelligent writer,with a sharp and illusionless knowledge ofthe world.This,like his earlier novels(with which it joins to form part of a largepanorama of Bri

FAQs

What triggers the central crisis in The Affair?

A young scientist is dismissed from a Cambridge teaching post for an alleged fake experiment, which is treated as a fraud.

Why does the case get reopened?

Howard’s wife believes in his innocence and pushes to have the matter reconsidered, surprising even Howard.

What role does the university college’s system play in the story?

The college is portrayed as a small, self-governing elite society controlled by the Fellows, where a newly elected head and internal authority shape how accusations and truth are handled.

Sep 28, 2026

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