Endless Love

Endless Love is a 1979 novel by American author Scott Spencer. Narrated by troubled teenager David Axelrod, the novel describes his doomed passion for Jade Butterfield and her counter-cultural family. When Jade’s father, Hugh, imposes a thirty-day no-contact period on the teenage lovers, David decides to set a fire at their house, planning to put it out “heroically.” This plan goes awry. When he is released from the mental institution to which he is committed after admitting to starting the fire, David tracks Jade across the country, where he once again comes into conflict with her family.

The novel is told by David in retrospect: he opens his narrative on the night in his seventeenth year when he decides to set a fire at his girlfriend’s house. He watches Jade and her family through the window, introducing each of the Butterfields in turn. They are an unconventional, counter-cultural family, and David loves them. Until recently, he felt like part of the family, welcomed into their home. Jade is fifteen, and David loves her madly. At least part of his passion is for her uninhibited sexuality: we learn that they have been having sex for months.

We also learn that there are some strange currents in the Butterfield family: David knows that Jade’s mother, Ann, has watched the couple having sex, and feels a vicarious thrill in their passionate relationship. The intensity of their relationship has also taken a toll on Jade’s schoolwork and social life. The result is that her father, Hugh, has told the couple that they can’t see each other for the next thirty days.



David is frustrated and hurt. He is lonely and unhappy at home—his Communist parents have a troubled marriage—and he had thought that he had found a loving family in the Butterfields. Above all, he can’t bear to be without Jade. He can’t help coming to their house to watch her through the window, and tonight he hits upon an idea. If he sets fire to the newspapers on their porch, he reasons, he can put the fire out, pretending that he was just passing by. He will be a hero, and Hugh will have to let him in.

Without stopping to think about it further, David proceeds with his plan. The fire immediately gets out of hand. Soon the house is ablaze. Desperate to save the people he loves, David bursts into the house and succeeds in rescuing the Butterfields—who, it turns out, are tripping together on LSD. David almost dies in the process.

In the hospital, David admits to starting the fire. He withholds the information that the Butterfields were on LSD in order to protect them, even though he knows it would mitigate his punishment. His parents are offered a choice: David can go to jail or to a mental institution. They choose the institution. David is told he must never see or contact any of the Butterfields again.



He is incarcerated for several years, and he spends the time pining for Jade. He swears total devotion to her, refusing even to masturbate out of loyalty to her.

When he is released on parole, he finds that Hugh and Ann are separated, and their children have all moved away. Back in his parents’ home, David is harassed by a smarmy parole officer and his parents, whose marriage is finally collapsing. Soon he snaps and goes looking for Jade. He tracks Ann down to New York. Ann tries to seduce him and is surprised when she fails (due to David’s single-minded devotion to her daughter).

David moves to Manhattan and continues searching for Jade. One day on the street, Hugh, out with his new partner, spots David. Hugh is so incensed by the sight of David that he begins to chase him. David runs away: pursuing him, Hugh is hit by a speeding cab and dies at the scene. David escapes, telling no one of his involvement at Hugh’s death.



At Hugh’s wake, he is reunited with Jade. While David has been practicing faithful celibacy, Jade has been promiscuous: David learns about her lovers, which include a former professor, a roommate, a woman who looks “rather like Joni Mitchell.” David is unconcerned: nothing can deter him.

David and Jade sleep together, in a long and intense love-scene. David weeps with joy. He follows her to her house-share in Bennington.

Jade’s brother arrives. He has learned from his father’s girlfriend that David was responsible for Hugh’s death, and he confronts Jade with this information. Jade is horrified. David tries to explain, but Keith keeps Jade away from him. David attacks Keith and is sent once more to prison.



Endless Love explores the dangers of obsessive love and the power of adolescent sexuality. The novel was well-received by critics: “With all its flaws, excesses, and perversities—daring, original, and important work” (Kirkus Reviews). The novel has twice been adapted as a movie of the same name, the first directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Brooke Shields. Both movies were critically panned.