A Room with a View and Howard's End
Nov 2000 · Sold by Modern Library
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558
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About this ebook
Selected by the Modern Library as two of the 100 best novels of all time
'To me,' D. H. Lawerence once wrote to E. M. forster, 'you are the last Englishman.' Indeed, Forster's novels offer contemporary readers clear, vibrant portraits of life in Edwardian England. Published in 1908 to both critical and popular acclaim, A Room with a View is a whimsical comedy of manners that owes more to Jane Austen that perhaps any other of his works. The central character is a muddled young girl named Lucy Honeychurch, who runs away from the man who stirs her emotions, remaining engaged to a rich snob. Forster considered it his 'nicest' novel, and today it remains probably his most well liked. Its moral is utterly simple. Throw away your etiquette book and listen to your heart. But it was Forster's next book, Howards End, a story about who would inhabit a charming old country house (and who, in a larger sense, would inherit England), that earned him recognition as a major writer. Centered around the conflict between the wealthy, materialistic Wilcox family and the cultured, idealistic Schlegel sisters-and informed by Forester's famous dictum 'Only connect'-it is full of tenderness towards favorite characters. 'Howards End is a classic English novel . . . superb and wholly cherishable . . . one that admirers have no trouble reading over and over again,' said Alfred Kazin.
'To me,' D. H. Lawerence once wrote to E. M. forster, 'you are the last Englishman.' Indeed, Forster's novels offer contemporary readers clear, vibrant portraits of life in Edwardian England. Published in 1908 to both critical and popular acclaim, A Room with a View is a whimsical comedy of manners that owes more to Jane Austen that perhaps any other of his works. The central character is a muddled young girl named Lucy Honeychurch, who runs away from the man who stirs her emotions, remaining engaged to a rich snob. Forster considered it his 'nicest' novel, and today it remains probably his most well liked. Its moral is utterly simple. Throw away your etiquette book and listen to your heart. But it was Forster's next book, Howards End, a story about who would inhabit a charming old country house (and who, in a larger sense, would inherit England), that earned him recognition as a major writer. Centered around the conflict between the wealthy, materialistic Wilcox family and the cultured, idealistic Schlegel sisters-and informed by Forester's famous dictum 'Only connect'-it is full of tenderness towards favorite characters. 'Howards End is a classic English novel . . . superb and wholly cherishable . . . one that admirers have no trouble reading over and over again,' said Alfred Kazin.
About the author
Edward Morgan Forster was born at 6 Melcombe Place, Dorset Square, London, on January 1, 1879, into a middle-class Victorian family of Anglo-Irish and Welsh ancestry. His father, an architect, died a year and a half after the boy's birth, and Forster was raised by a bevy of female relatives--including a beloved great aunt who left him a legacy of ú8,000. Possibly the most important aspect of his early life was his residence with his mother at Rooksnest, a cozy house in Hertfordshire that became the model for Howards End. But the family had to leave Rooksnest for Tonbridge so that Forster could attend school. There he enrolled as a day boy at the Tonbridge School--memorably depicted as the hellish Sawston School in Forster's second novel, The Longest Journey (1907)--only to be despised by boarders who viewed him as an enemy of the public school regard for leadership and team spirit.
By contrast, Cambridge University proved to be an inspiring milieu for Forster. At King's College he became a member of the Cambridge Conversazione Society, a nucleus of young men who passionately debated moral, intellectual, and aesthetic issues--and who were later active as London's Bloomsbury group. Speculative discussion, social change, and, above all, personal relationships were considered of central importance. ('I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country,' he later wrote.) It was also while at Cambridge that Forster began the process of his emotional and sexual maturation.
Forster had no particular career in mind upon graduation from King's College in 1901, although he had begun writing short stories. He was soon able to satisfy his social conscience by teaching Latin at the well-known Working Men's College in Bloomsbury. And then--as was de rigueur in his circle--Forster embarked with his mother on momentous cultural tours of Italy and Greece. A vivid diarist, he filled his journals with observations (and pages of dialogue) of moralizing English tourists who colonized the pensioni and small hotels. Over the next decade, in a burst of creative energy, he used these notebooks to write Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A Room with a View (1908). Forster succeeded at once with these two novels about bourgeois Edwardians who discover their feelings and attain self-completion through liberating journeys abroad. But it was the publication of Howards End (1910) that secured his reputation as both a comic and profound novelist. The quintessential 'Bloomsbury novel,' it eloquently addresses the question, Who shall inherit England?
After Howards End, Forster experienced great difficulty in writing long fiction, although he did produce short stories and literary criticism. (He also made a fateful journey to India to immerse himself in Indian sights and life.) The society he had captured so well in his novels had begun to disintegrate; furthermore, Forster lost interest in hetero-sexually oriented narratives and became preoccupied with writing Maurice, his novel about a homosexual love affair. It was a disastrous step in a novelist's life because the book was unpublishable under British law. (Maurice was post-humously published in 1971.) While working for the Red Cross in Egypt during World War I, Forster defied barriers of both class and race to experience his first sexual affair--with a young Egyptian tram conductor.
In 1921 Forster made a second trip to India to become secretary to Maharajah Bapu Sahib; upon his return to England he completed what would be his final novel, A Passage to India (1924). Afterward he concentrated on writing essays and a critical treatise, Aspects of the Novel (1927). From the 1930s on, he also played a leading part in campaigns for civil liberties and intellectual freedom. Following the death of his mother in 1945, Forster accepted an honorary lifetime fellowship at King's College; in his remaining years he produced the incisive Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) and The Hill of Devi (1953), reminiscences of his experiences in India. To the end of his life Forster continued to be an influential voice on the modern cultural scene and an admired presence in Cambridge--and was awarded the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1969. E. M. Forster died on June 7, 1970, following a massive stroke; among the many mourners at his funeral was Bob Buckingham, the policeman who had been his close friend for forty years.
By contrast, Cambridge University proved to be an inspiring milieu for Forster. At King's College he became a member of the Cambridge Conversazione Society, a nucleus of young men who passionately debated moral, intellectual, and aesthetic issues--and who were later active as London's Bloomsbury group. Speculative discussion, social change, and, above all, personal relationships were considered of central importance. ('I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country,' he later wrote.) It was also while at Cambridge that Forster began the process of his emotional and sexual maturation.
Forster had no particular career in mind upon graduation from King's College in 1901, although he had begun writing short stories. He was soon able to satisfy his social conscience by teaching Latin at the well-known Working Men's College in Bloomsbury. And then--as was de rigueur in his circle--Forster embarked with his mother on momentous cultural tours of Italy and Greece. A vivid diarist, he filled his journals with observations (and pages of dialogue) of moralizing English tourists who colonized the pensioni and small hotels. Over the next decade, in a burst of creative energy, he used these notebooks to write Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A Room with a View (1908). Forster succeeded at once with these two novels about bourgeois Edwardians who discover their feelings and attain self-completion through liberating journeys abroad. But it was the publication of Howards End (1910) that secured his reputation as both a comic and profound novelist. The quintessential 'Bloomsbury novel,' it eloquently addresses the question, Who shall inherit England?
After Howards End, Forster experienced great difficulty in writing long fiction, although he did produce short stories and literary criticism. (He also made a fateful journey to India to immerse himself in Indian sights and life.) The society he had captured so well in his novels had begun to disintegrate; furthermore, Forster lost interest in hetero-sexually oriented narratives and became preoccupied with writing Maurice, his novel about a homosexual love affair. It was a disastrous step in a novelist's life because the book was unpublishable under British law. (Maurice was post-humously published in 1971.) While working for the Red Cross in Egypt during World War I, Forster defied barriers of both class and race to experience his first sexual affair--with a young Egyptian tram conductor.
In 1921 Forster made a second trip to India to become secretary to Maharajah Bapu Sahib; upon his return to England he completed what would be his final novel, A Passage to India (1924). Afterward he concentrated on writing essays and a critical treatise, Aspects of the Novel (1927). From the 1930s on, he also played a leading part in campaigns for civil liberties and intellectual freedom. Following the death of his mother in 1945, Forster accepted an honorary lifetime fellowship at King's College; in his remaining years he produced the incisive Two Cheers for Democracy (1951) and The Hill of Devi (1953), reminiscences of his experiences in India. To the end of his life Forster continued to be an influential voice on the modern cultural scene and an admired presence in Cambridge--and was awarded the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1969. E. M. Forster died on June 7, 1970, following a massive stroke; among the many mourners at his funeral was Bob Buckingham, the policeman who had been his close friend for forty years.
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