A Room with a View and Howard's End

By E.M. Forster

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 1, 2000
• ISBN: 9780679641445

E.M. Forster

E.M. Forster (1879-1970) was an English novelist. Born in London to an Anglo-Irish mother and a Welsh father, Forster moved with his mother to Rooks Nest, a country house in rural Hertfordshire, in 1883, following his father’s death from tuberculosis. He received a sizeable inheritance from his great-aunt, which allowed him to pursue his studies and support himself as a professional writer. Forster attended King’s College, Cambridge, from 1897 to 1901, where he met many of the people who would later make up the legendary Bloomsbury Group of such writers and intellectuals as Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, and John Maynard Keynes. A gay man, Forster lived with his mother for much of his life in Weybridge, Surrey, where he wrote the novels A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature sixteen times without winning, Forster is now recognized as one of the most important writers of twentieth century English fiction, and is remembered for his unique vision of English life and powerful critique of the inequities of class.

Reviews for A Room with a View and Howard's End

[donnamariemerritt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Published in 1910, but I'd never read it. I was out of books to read and I found it on my youngest daughter's shelf, leftover from her high school days. Parts made me laugh out loud. Forster definitely had a gift with the English language. And it came full circle, which always satisfies me in stories. I also liked that while it was published over 100 years ago and reflected the times (particularly attitudes toward women), there were scenes that could have happened today. For instance:"You shall see the connection if it kills you, Henry! You have had a mistress—I forgave you. My sister has had a lover—you drive her from the house. Do you see the connection? Stupid, hypocritical, cruel . . ." [spoken by Margaret]Later, Margaret thinks about her outburst, reflecting, "No message came from Henry; perhaps he expected her to apologize. Now that she had time to think over her own tragedy, she was unrepentant. She neither forgave him for his behaviour nor wished to forgive him. Her speech to him seemed perfect. She would not have altered a word. It had to be uttered once in a life, to adjust the lopsidedness of the world. It was spoken not only to her husband, but to thousands of men like him . . ." (italics mine) #metooThis is a classic I overlooked. If you've overlooked it also, check it out.

[danielstj · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Nothing too remarkable.

[sadiebabie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really deep book, full of insight and theories on the world, society and people as individuals. Its quite a wordy book, but it was surprisingly captivating and wasn't a chore to read or hard to get into. I found once I channelled into the voice of the writing it all flowed very well, and it all made sense. A lot of the concepts and ideas Forster had about property and class are still kind of relevant. I particularly liked the fact, especially given when it was written and the fact that Forster was man, that women aren't patronised to the scale I have come to expect from similar books (though it isn't totally free of don't-worry-your-pretty-little-head-isms). I loved that the book is based around a range of different female characters with different roles in society, with different ideas and approaches to life, women that are not ridiculed or pushed to the side. At the time it was written, women still hadn't been given the vote and weren't really seen as having much of a place in social debate or whatever, but Forster gives some of his female characters agreeable ideals and strong convictions. I was also really pleased with the way he approaches a part of the story which, for the time, was a very scandalous issue, without laying blame or demonising anyone by taking the mainstream point of view of the time. It was a wonderful book and I'll definitely be looking to read more of his work.

[snash_44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[Howard's End] seems a study of the various classes and mind sets of England, the rich and poor, the artistic and the businessman. It's not clear in the end whether they've come to any better understanding of each other.

[piefuchs · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent portrait of British society.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read this, initially confusing it with "A Room With a View", which I read ages ago; I was a third of the way through before I realized my mistake. While there were parts of this book I liked very much (Margaret's outrage that Henry sees no parallels between his behaviour and that of Helen, for example), by the end I was glad to say goodbye to a cast of characters who were either unlikeable or inconsistently portrayed. Margaret's willingness to compromise everything she had previously stood for, simply to marry Henry, was puzzling, and Helen's behaviour SPOILERSin sleeping with Leonard while his wife was presumably in the next room was so unlikely as to be unbelievable to me. The ending, with Henry being a shadow of his former self and agreeing to share a house with Helen and her baby was rather convenient; the idea that he and Helen would become fond of one another utterly impossible.Both Helen and Margaret muse at different times about how their affluence cushions them from having to make the compromises and hard choices most people live with on a daily basis, but seem to feel pretty good about that when push comes to shove. Morality is not really a focus of this book and (probably very bourgeois of me), I was appalled by most of the decisions the characters made. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[imperfectcj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel is beautifully written and, for a book written before World War I, surprisingly relevant to today's political and social climate. The central conflict seems to be between Margaret's ideals and how these manifest in real life. She is intellectual, well-educated, and has a strong will, which makes it disappointing to see her make choices that seem counter to these aspects of herself. I felt so irritated with her for some of the mistakes I saw her making, but in the end, she seems to come to a place of compromise that is better for (nearly) everyone involved than what would have been available had she dug in her heels from the beginning. The novel seemed to be gearing up for a grand confrontation and dramatic decisions, and so at first this compromise ending was unsatisfying to me. But upon reflection, I decided that the ending is all the more realistic for the lack of fireworks. Gradually I saw that the decisions Margaret made that were so frustrating to me were frustrating because they're the kinds of decisions I think anyone makes who has ideals and also lives in the world. It's more satisfying to read about people bucking convention, throwing off everything they once valued and making a clean breast of it as a shiny, new person, but it's not realistic. We can make external changes, but we don't really become new people, or if we do, it's a slow metamorphosis, and one we can't govern ourselves, contrary to the promises of self-help books, talk shows, and websites selling fitness programs.Compromise doesn't give the dopamine release that I crave, and it doesn't feed the desire I still feel despite my constant efforts to the contrary to see punished people I think have done wrong, but it provides a much more loving and sustainable model for change than the dramatic ending. Only connect.Some quotes that spoke to me:p.25: "It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven."p. 52: "I'm tired of these rich people who pretend to be poor, and think it shows a nice mind to ignore the piles of money that keep their feet above the waves."p.91: "Actual life is full of false clues and signposts that lead nowhere. With infinite effort we nerve ourselves for a crisis that never comes. The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have moved mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken...Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty."p. 128: "The feudal ownership of land did bring dignity, whereas the modern ownership of movables is reducing us again to a nomadic horde. We are reverting to the civilization of luggage, and historians in the future will note how the middle classes accreted possessions without taking root in the earth, and may find in this the secret to their imaginative poverty."p.132: "I don't believe in suiting my conversation to my company. One can doubtless hit upon some medium of exchange that seems to do well enough, but it's no more like the real thing than money is like food. There's no nourishment in it."

[benuathanasia · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story as a whole is take-it or leave-it. Nothing special, groundbreaking, breathtaking, etc; no characters of particular interest or note. Whatever. What I enjoyed about this book was the philosophical discourse and how amusingly outdated - and yet somehow prescient - it was.

[sasham-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can't decide if I like this book. I like the style of writing the language and descriptions I found poetic but the characters themselves I thought horrible for the most part. The Wilcox's are all stuffy, spoilt and snobby. Meg spouts feminist ideals but as a wife is a total doormat. Helen is a hysterical idiot. Tibby is a sort of caricature of a young man without any thought beyond himself.
All of the prose makes the book readable but at the same time it is sometimes so wordy I find myself switching off and then having to reread and missing plot points.

It is a book about a changing nation and changing society. The end of the height of the empire when to be English is to be the best and brightest but before the First World War which changed England's relationship with Europe and society as a whole. Each character seems to be looking for stability when everything is changing around them. Charles wants the security of money Henry wants a return to the comfort of marriage. Meg wants a home to feel secure in. Helen wants to find truth and justice and doesn't comprehend that no one else cares for either. I do wonder if Forster was totally sexist and really thought women were as they are portrayed, or if he was just writing the commonly held views of the time.

[katherinegregg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Howard's End seemed like it could have been written by Jane Austin. Social classes and mores clash in this story set in turn of the century England. Margaret and Helen Schlegel value culture and the arts; the Wilcox family are more interested in business and commerce; and the Basts are a lower class couple whom the Schlegel sisters want to help out. When Ruth passes away, the only Wilcox to truly appreciate Howard's End, she leaves her family estate to Margaret. Greedy and wanting to rent the estate for profit, the Wilcox family tell Margaret nothing about her inheritance. In time Margaret falls for Ruth's former husband and eventually moves into Howard's End, a fitting end since Margaret is simpatico with the history and beauty of the old family estate.

[shadowbarbara · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Story of two sisters, Margaret & Helen, with themes about money, class, learning, England

[casualfriday_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Far from a ponderous, castor-oil classic, this is a wonderfully readable book, with many concerns that resonate today: feminism, class prejudice, the encroachment of suburbia on rural life. The narrator's voice was sometimes pompous and intrusive, although the content of his buttings-in was always interesting.

[mrjgyfly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having been enthralled by A Room With a View, I expected a similar experience with Howards End, especially since it is hailed by many as Forster's masterpiece. By the time I reached the climax, I discovered that the piece did have quite the impact on me. Forster's critique of the social tenets of turn-of-the-century life in early 1900s Britain is certainly progressive. It is positively eye-opening, if one is willing to imagine the stir it would certainly have make upon readers in Forster's age. While not even coming close to being as good from start to finish as A Room With a View was to me, Howards End seems to be the most important of the two novels.Because of the lack of immediate page-turning storyline, patience is certainly the most important virtue a reader requires when approaching this novel. However, Forster's writing style is extremely easy to follow, which helps to delve into the story. This is helpful because the story seems to drag for a majority of the novel, leaving the reader wondering where in the world Forster is planning on taking them.One of Forster's core beliefs concerning the novel was that plot was of minimal importance. Plot is simply to serve as a means-to-an-end--it is a device simply utilized to suggest a broad social critique. When the novel is concluded, it becomes clear this is the case with Howards End. Characters such as Leonard, an insurance clerk of the lower echelon of Britain's socioeconomic ladder are presented as incredibly complex, but developed briefly and not touched upon for large chunks of the novel. Leonard lacks intelligence concerning fine art, but not or lack of trying. After encountering Forster's two protagonists who are of a high-art, liberal (and borderline feminist) persuasion, Leonard desires to increase his knowledge of art and fiction, and begins to resent his simplistic wife, who represents everything he loathes within himself.Leonard's complexity comes to us in the span of two short chapters and is not touched upon for most of the novel. I had a sense of him being key to the conclusion of the story (and was correct!), though I had no idea how. Because of his disappearance from the plot, much of the novel, especially the middle bits, seem to needlessly drag. I almost began to hate reading the novel, but the last one hundred pages turned brought me back around and caused me to love the story, and the points Forster made.The core of the story deals with political struggles. The liberal Schlegal sisters alternate between being disgusted by the aristocratic and conservative Wilcox family and admiring them. The Schlegals are introduced to the Wilcoxes before the story even begins. They start to constantly intersect the Wilcox's affairs both intimately and casually. The first chapter describes to us how the youngest sister (Helen) hastily becomes engaged to one of the youngest of the family. The engagement quickly turns to be a sham. Besides, with their alternating world-views, would it have worked out anyway? After this, the Wilcox family becomes a constant physical, emotional, and even spiritual presence in the sisters' lives, fueling the banter of ideas between the two clans. The Schlegal sisters (mainly the older one, Margaret) come under their influence and begin to question their own ideals, such as the belief that women should someday be allowed employment the same as men.The banter between the two families serves as much of the entertainment of the novel, but because of the length of the book, it becomes exhausting. Luckily, Forster saves his reader from utter boredom with the final third of the novel. This concluding section tackles taboo (for the early 1900s) subjects such as pregnancy out-of-wedlock, and how societal reactions negatively impact the pregnant woman in question. Many pieces written circa the same period (the book was published in 1910) would be undoubtedly condemn this type of woman as a harlot who is not fit for Christian society. Forster remains hopeful on the subject, treating it with compassion and acceptance. He urges his society to do the same, which for the time was quite a bold statement.Like all Forster novels, Howards End is tame when compared to what is being written today. However, if this novel is read for the time piece that it is, it should be an all-together inspiring experience. It is comforting to know that people such as Forster existed in a time of intolerance. His works were anything but groundbreaking.

[startingover_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its highest. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.This is the story of the Schlegals, and the Wilcoxes (who own the house called Howards End).The Wilcoxes represent the 'outer world', a masculine world of industry, finance and commerce. The Schlegals represent the 'inner world' - relationships, liberal politics, the arts. The novel's epigraph, 'Only connect', suggests that these two worlds are inter-dependant. As Margaret Schlegal says, "Don't brood too much on the superiority of the unseen to the seen. It's true, but to brood on it is medieval. Our business is not to contrast the two, but to reconcile them".The two families meet on holiday, and Helen Schlegal later visits the Wilcoxes at Howards End, where she becomes briefly engaged to Paul Wilcox. The affair ends unhappily and in embarrassment, but the two families later meet up again in London, when Mrs Wilcox and Margaret Schlegal enjoy a brief friendship before Mrs Wilcox's sudden death.Helen Schlegal introduces Leonard Bast into the family after a casual meeting when Helen 'steals' his umbrella. He is a young, bookish clerk who lives with a woman to whom he is not married.After the wedding of Mr Wilcox's daughter, Helen turns up with Leonard and his 'wife', who seems to be drunk. Separately, Margaret and Helen learn that Jacky Bast was once the mistress of Mr Wilcox. Helen goes abroad. Margaret and Mr Wilcox marry, quietly. Margaret observes that, "When men like us, it is for our better qualities, and however tender their liking we dare not be unworthy of it, or they will quietly let us go. But unworthiness stimulates woman. It brings out her deeper nature, for good or for evil".When Helen returns to England, she is visibly pregnant, by Leonard Bast. Margaret is furious with her husband for his hypocrisy, his inability to connect Helen's 'disgrace' with his own dalliance with Jacky Bast. Margaret considers leaving her husband and moving abroad with Helen, but everything changes when Charles Wilcox accidentally kills Leonard and ends up serving a three-year sentence for his manslaughter. A broken man, Mr Wilcox lives - with Margaret, Helen and Helen's son - at Howards End, the home around which the story and its protagonists all revolve and to which, one way or another, they all return. [Jan 2005]

[terris-7 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I know this is a classic and it's been on my list for a long, long time. But I just didn't like it at all. :(

[marti.booker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's one of those books I should give 4 stars to for writing quality but it's kind of a 2 in terms of how well it reverberated in my mind (which is to say it is Not For Me), so I'll split the difference and call it a 3. Forster and I do not see eye to eye and I didn't understand what he even really meant half the time. Just not my kind of thing.

[mickyfine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Margaret and Helen Schlegel are idealistic, artistic, and seem to exist in a world untouched by the realities of the increasingly modern world in which the Wilcoxes thrive. When the lives of the Schlegel sisters intersect with those of the Wilcox clan, it is a surprisingly long lasting connection that will ripple through their lives for years to come.A lovely novel that is as much about the encroachment of modern life as it is about the fascinating relationship between the Schlegel sisters. Written with gorgeous prose, Forster creates a beautiful world for the Schlegels to exist in within a bubble of money and ideals that is constantly buffeted by the realities in which the Wilcoxes reside. Fascinating for its depiction of Edwardian society in the years prior to WWI, this is a quiet but enthralling classic novel to experience.

[oldblack-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

If you identify with early 20th century upper class British, then you might like this book. Others will find it dated and irrelevant. I did. It might have been good in its time, but I read it 100 years after its time.

[jfslone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Howards End is a wonderful adventure into the lives of Edwardian England. By the end of the novel, I not only wanted to be a Schlegel sister, I wanted to inhabit Howards End itself and make a wonderful, artsy, educational life for myself. The characters are so believable, and they seem to move throughout the story of their own accord. There were a few moments when I felt as though I could skip ahead through some long narrations, but other than that, I enjoyed the book and looked forward to every turn of the page! I would recommend this book to anyone with an imagination!

[morryb_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The novel seems to be will written. The author does use Capitol letters and periods and commas, so it essentially seems to be will written. The main focus of story is always on relationships and so makes it somewhat of a chick novel. None of the men in this novel seem to have any character and their flaws are always glaring and makes it hard to like them. Paul Wilcox is mentioned only briefly but is a Mama's boy and is easily manipulated by the opinion of others. His brother Charles Wilcox is a bully and somewhat of a dim bulb. Tippy Schligal appears to be immature and self absorbed and can never be counted on in a time of crisis. Leonard Bast whom the girls chose to help is weak and spineless and does not the the ability to make a good decision. Finally Henry Wilcox from the very first appears to be self absorbed and confused and is never apparent why Margaret marries him in the first place. He is a man who cannot forgive others for the very things he has done. While the women have faults, these faults are always shown in a more endearing light. Forster may not have taken sides in the struggle between different classes, but he certainly did in the struggle between genders. The property, Howard's End belonged to the late Mrs Wilcox. In a surprise move, after her surprise death, in her will, Howard's End is left to one of the Schlegels. None of the Wilcoxes really wanted Howards End, they just didn't want the Schlegels to have Howard's End. While it is not a complete waste of time, there are better books out there to read.

[stephenmurphy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My book. Perhaps my favourite. Like a sweet shop for the mind. There is something precious on every page.

[terena_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The perfect example of a book with a strong message/moral, but it doesn't push the message over the characters.

[themiddlemoffat · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Most interesting aspect is the way Zadie Smith updated situations into a century later. Race issue here = class issue. Margaret is annoying rather than inspiring, as is the mirror character in On Beauty. Why did she marry brute loser Wilcox? But it's good to read about single women in that time. Tedious narrative style, over complex, although some stunning insights, especially about the countryside in England (compare with less sentimental The Enigma of Arrival by VS Naipaul) and the price of `progress'. The Imperial assumptions are truly shocking now..

[samantha464 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful protrait of the shifting society of Edwardian England, Forster's novel vividly ilustrates the fears and struggles that each class faced in the wake of socail change and the decline of he aristocracy.

[andreablythe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Howards End is a tale that expresses the circularity of life, how things thought lost come around again in unexpected ways. It begins with one Schlegel sister falling rapidly in love and then out of love with the youngest Wilcox son while visiting at Howards End. This scandal in minuscule goes away, but manages to tie a knot between these two families, so that their lives become interconnected in unexpected ways as time goes on. I didn't love this novel quite as much as I loved A Room with a View, but it was still a lovely story about how some people deliberately misunderstand each other, while others make similar efforts at understanding (which becomes in and of a conflict), how people make mistakes and are forgiven, and how life can come around to happiness if only you have a good home to take root in.

[laudemgloriae · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent characterization... even if the characters will drive you nuts. It has very little to do with a dispute over a house, but rather, if one will 'only connect'... it is about the dispute with providence.

[anderlawlor · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just re-read this and now am reading Zadie Smith's On Beauty. I was obsessed with Forster in high school (Maurice, etc) and am happy to know that Howards End not only holds up but in fact is improved by time. I found myself thinking of Mrs. Dalloway quite a bit. Also, I enjoyed the depiction of the posh ladies' discussion circles, in which rich British ladies debate how best to give their money away to the poor. I was also shocked by how obvious/explicit the queer content is now. I thought I was reading so naughtily and detectivishly when I first read it, but it's laid quite bare. Odd.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an elegant book--one of those that gets better each time you come back to it and look further into the characters and settings. I'd see it as halfway between Kazuo Ishiguro and Charles Dickens, with thoughtful characters and clever conversation. I was too young for it when I first had it assigned to me in a class (twenty, maybe?), but coming back to it in my late twenties was a pleasure once I found my way back in. I'd recommend it for a quiet day by the fire--it's not a traditional page-turner by any means, but it's worth a look.

[amelish · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Only connect..." The book's epigraph is a succinct way of stressing the importance of human relationships and connections, because they enrich life. Also (secondarily), they are nothing to shrink from.

[raschneid_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel had so many lines that I wanted to write down and save for later. I might have done so but after a while it seemed less than feasible. There were just too many! Forster is pretty remarkable as a twentieth-century writer for being able to produce floaty philosophical prose from his narratorial perch.

The introduction to my edition (Everyman) approached it as a novel about the English class system and critiqued it for arguing that you could solve the class wars with the power of true love.

But really I think to write anything about this book without using the word "feminism" at least once is appalling. This is a great feminist novel, and it's not trying to solve the problems of a society - it's showing how an individual can learn to become an authentic, integrated person and thus overcome gender roles and cultural norms. Love doesn't solve anything; love is in fact imperfect until the characters figure out who they are and what they really want.

Of course, I could still fault Forster for creating a protagonist who tries to reform a man with the power of love and arguably succeeds. Margaret's efforts do fail miserably until Henry is overcome by his own wrongdoing in the person of Charles (the Mr. Rochester solution, so to speak), but for Margaret to have married him and then to be vindicated by the plot is questionable. "Marry losers because eventually they'll reform themselves" is bad advice. But Henry Wilcox isn't a really bad loser, and Margaret loves him, and we're shown the real consequences of her marrying him pre-reform (she's even willing to leave him when he rejects Helen), so that's all right I suppose.