E. M. Forster Books

Forster's wit, irony, and well-drawn characters make this an enjoyable read. If you're not used to reading pieces from this period, you may need to warm up to the style, but once you do, you'll enjoy this.

Followed the PBS special almost to the word but the book's ending was much better.

E.M. Forster does a remarkable job of illustrating the constricting social values of Edwardian England with humor and acute insight. Our heroine must decide: go along and get along or shirk her "dutites" and chose a life of remarkable rebellion (for the time).
You'll want your own trip to Italy when you're through reading! One of my absolute favorites.

Edward Morgan Foster (1879-1970) lived a long life as a Cambridge don and world traveler. However, most of this author's fiction was completed in the first 20 years of the 20th century. "A Room With a View" is a gently satirical view of the English abroad and at home in the late Edwardian Age. Perhaps we can view England as the cozy room of normality and routine while the sunny Italian landscape provides us a view of a wider world outside our usual gaze.
The short novel is divided into two parts. In part one we are introduced to a group of English travelers in Italy. We meet Charlotte
an old maid aunt who is chaperoning the upper middle class young lady the fetching Lucy Honeychurch. (Charlotte reminds one of the governess types described with right on accuracy by Charlotte Bronte). The women want a good view of Florence so reluctantly switch rooms with Mr. Emerson (a dreamy transcendentalist like older man who reminds us of the philisophical musings of Concord sage Ralph Waldo Emerson) and his stra handsome son George. (George is to become a knight saving Lucy from the clutches of the effete snob aesthete Cyril Vise). On a sightseeing picnic Lucy and George kiss and then depart. Lucy goes to Rome meeting her future fiance the artistic and bookish Cyril.
Part II is set in England. After several complications the course of true love is finally set on its right course. Lucy jilts Cyril and finds true bliss with George. The novel is cyclicalbeginning in spring and ending with Lucy Honeychurch's honeymoon with George. This occurs in the same Florentine hotel in which they met. A year has passed and it is spring again for these young lovers.
Forster provides a gallery of colorful characters: Mr Beebe the clergyman who hopes Lucy dumps Cyril for George; Eleanor Lavish a comically drawn mystery writer; Lucy's brother Fred and a Cockney hotel owner in Florence.
Forster wishes to open the stuffy door of Victorian fiction with a new frankness on sexuality and freedom of expression. His scene in which the major male characters bathe in a pond is an example of this theme. Forster favors physical and intimate love to the aesthetic passionless p love which Vise has for Lucy. George is athletic and earthy while Vise is a nerdy bookworm. Forster's book is good in the use of witty dialogue. His understanding of the British class system leads him to satirical comments on its rigidity.
A quibble. The characters don't have much depth seeming to be actors in a stage presentation. Forster is worth reading for his advocacy of true love and emotion in a society of elaborate and often hypocritcal rules. He is a good author worthy of your time.

We are spoiled by modern fiction. As great as the writing is, it is more straightforward and literal. Do you ever find yourself starting a classic and not finishing it??? You weren't getting into it immediately and lost interest. It can be the same with old movies. We watch through different eyes than the time when it was written or produced. My book club did this book this month. We all struggled. I chose this one because I wanted us to try a classic, but I wanted it to be short and pleasant. The "flow" started later, and it was more laboured to get there.It is so worth it to keep with it. It is not that we are not capable of understanding the language. We are so used to graphic, and explicit, and straightforward language. We need to train our brains, and it can take up to half the book to get to the point where you are really drawn in, forgetting to concentrate and just enjoying the ride.This is truly a lovely story. I love Florence. It is a timeless city that infects you body and soul. So will this book if you let it.

If you read this novel on your own (as in, it is not assigned to you as a form of assigned reading in school) then you will enjoy it because you obviously know what you're getting yourself into: whimsical dialogue between gossiping British ladies. I do realize how ridiculous and inaccurate this description is but I'm mad because I have been forced to read this book for school and I really hate it so therefore my opinion of it is very negative. Teachers should not force these types of books upon their students. The rate of enjoyment for this book is very limited to those who either teach English or have a keen interest in it. Very few students will be able to appreciate and enjoy this novel for its merits, of which I'm sure there are many.

I do not expect this review to be helpful to anyone who is looking at this book as a means of pleasure reading.

I love reading. There is nothing like the printed page. I also love a good movie. In this case, I must definitely say I'll take the movie over the book any day. I will say that I was exposed to the movie first but I don't believe that prejudiced me. I was wanting to view the movie again after not having seen it in a while (it had not been a long while, mind you, because it is one of my favorites) but decided, since I had the book in my library, I would read it first before viewing the movie again so as to discover any subleties that may enhance my enjoyment of the movie further. I had done that with A Room With a View (also by Forster) and it worked fine. I loved the book every bit as much as the movie. Alas, it was not to be the same with Howards End. I have been struggling for the last few weeks (I don't get much time for reading these days) to get through the book. Usually I don't want a book to end but in this case... well, the title of this review says it all. For details on why I feel that way, I refer you to any of the other 2 and 3 star reviews, as they express my sentiments exactly and make me feel better to know it wasn't just me (although I am fully aware that everyone has their own opinion). Suffice to say I will no longer torture myself with trying to get through the book. Instead I will kick back and enjoy, guilt-free, another viewing of a very fine movie. Kudos to Forster for having written the book which provided a story-line for Merchant/Ivory to make a very fine movie. Kudos to M/I for making a very fine movie from, as another reviewer so aptly put it, a "mediocre" book.

Most of us connect the notion of "home" or "childhood home" with one particular place, that innocent paradise we have since had to give up and keep searching for forever after. In Ruth Wilcox's world, Howards End is that place; the countryside house where she was born, where her family often returns to spend their vacations, and which, everyone assumes, will pass on to her children when she is dead.

But will it really? Unbeknownst to Ruth's family, the issue is put into question when Ruth forms a friendship with her neighbor-to-be Margaret Schlegel, like Ruth herself from a middle class background buth nevertheless separated from Ruth's world by several layers of society and politics: That of the Wilcox is epitomized by pater familias/businessman Henry - rich, conservative and without any sympathy whatsoever for those less fortunate than themselves ("It's all part of the battle of life ... The poor are poor; one is sorry for them, but there it is," Henry Wilcox once comments); while the Schlegels, on the other hand, have just enough income to lead a comfortable life, were brought up by their Aunt Juley, support suffrage (women's right to vote) and surround themselves with actors, "blue-stockings" (feminists), intellectuals and other members of the avantgarde. Further complexity is added when Margaret's sister Helen brings to the Schlegel home Leonard Bast, a poor but idealistic young clerk who loves music, literature and astronomy - and with him, his working class wife Jacky, the embarrassment of having to interact with her, and the even more embarrassing revelation which she has in store for Henry Wilcox; eventually leaving her disillusioned husband to comment that "books aren't real," and that in fact they and music "are for the rich so they don't feel bad after dinner."

One of the early 20th century's finest pieces of literature, E.M. Forster's novel is a masterpiece of social study and character study alike; the author brings his protagonists and their environment to life with empathy and a fine eye for detail. The story's strongest character is undoubtedly Margaret Schlegel, a young woman "filled with ... a profound vivacity, a continual and sincere response to all that she encounter[s] in her path through life," as Forster describes her, and whose friendship with Ruth Wilcox, even at the beginning, already brings the two families back together again after Helen has endangered their as-yet tentaive acquaintance by engaging in a near-scandalous affair with Ruth's younger son Paul.

Ultimately, Margaret and Ruth become so close that Ruth eventually decides to give Meg "something worth [her] friendship" - none other than Howards End, a wish that has her panicking family scramble most ungentlemanly for every reason in the book to invalidate the codicil setting forth that bestowal, from its lacking date and signature to the testatrix's state of mind, the ambiguity of the writing's content, the question why Meg should want the house in the first place since she already has one, and the fact that the writing is only in pencil, which "never counts," as Dolly, wife of the Wilcox' elder son Charles is quick to point out, only to be reprimanded by her father in law "from out of his fortress" (Forster) not to "interfere with what you do not understand." And so it is that Meg will only see the house (and be instantly mistaken for Ruth because she has "her way of walking around the house," as the housekeeper explains) when she and her siblings have to look for a new home and Henry Wilcox, who has started to court her after Ruth's death, suggests that the Schlegel's furniture be temporarily stored there - a fateful decision. And while Meg and Henry slowly and painfully learn to adjust to each other, the complexity of their families' relations, and their interactions with the Basts, finally come crashing down on them in a dramatic conclusion.

This brilliant classic of English literature features the clash of the artistic and social Schlegel sisters--Margaret and Helen--with the business oriented and pragmatic Wilcox men--Henry and his sons Charles and Paul. All are wealthy. This is a novel of comfortable upper-class Edwardian life set in London and rural England.

Although written in 1910, Howards End is amazingly contemporary and relevant. Of course, the conflict between the personal and the practical, the artistic and the commercial is ever-present. Also Forster touches cleverly on many other societal issues that are current. We read about the motor car just beginning its dynasty in 1910; indeed the automobile is almost another character in the novel--mute and ominous. There are also insightful passages about pollution and environmental issues, urban sprawl, and a wonderful discussion of the commercialization of Christmas, among many other fascinating discussions some shallow others deep. I was particularly interested in Forster's exploration of the practical and commercial as the necessary underpinning of the artistic and personal. At one point Margaret says that money is the "warp of life," a metaphor based on the warp and woof of the weaver's cloth (a clever pun also).

One aspect of reading Howards End that I felt continually, but seems not to have been mentioned by other reviewers, is the giant tentacles of the ugly octopus of World War I looming darkly over the characters and their futures. Neither the author in 1910 nor his characters, the half German Schlegel sisters nor the very British Wilcoxes, could know that a great war that would end their peaceful and prosperous Edwardian era was soon to begin. Throughout the novel the issues of German and English culture are in the background. The Schlegel sisters met the Wilcoxes in Germany. The Schlegels often have relatives visiting from Germany, and Helen returns there toward the end of the novel. Only slight foreboding hints of a coming disaster are slinking here and there. At one point just in passing early in the book Forster says that war with Germany is inevitable because the newspapers say it is. The war was a result of the commercial and military competition of Great Britain and Germany which was already anxious and worrisome in 1910, although no one could anticipate what a monumental crisis it would provoke. Almost twenty percent of all upper-class British males were killed in action in the war--over 40 million casualties total for all combatants in World War I.

Howards End is just as readable and fascinating now as it must have been in 1910, and it was a popular success. I do not believe, however, that it would have even been conceivable just five years later. So much had changed by 1915. World War I--1914-1918--was roiling the entire civilization of Europe. The old ways were dissolving on the battlefields France and Belgium. The easy intercourse of the Schegels with Germany and their German relatives would be impossible. Indeed the Schegel sisters themselves would be suspect and isolated in England. (Perhaps though they would find their fulfilment as volunteer military nurses as many Germans living in England did.) Paul and Charles would be in the trenches at Ypres if they were still alive, not in business in London or strutting about the colonial empire. Everything would change so fast so soon. As I read this novel I felt every moment the monumental disasters stalking the Schegels and Wilcoxes and their world, disasters that would make their current personal trials seem rather puny. For me this gave the novel an extra frisson of tension and awe.

It's hard to say enough about this book. Forster's novel about the tortured relations between three families and the struggle for ownership of a house is a fundamental tale -- maybe THE fundamental tale -- of class relations in England before the First World War.

The basic plot is so well known, there is no point in repeating it here. But the book is incredibly rich. Forster's depiction of the arriviste commercial bourgeoisie, the monied intelligentsia, and the threatened lower class is incredibly insightful. The manner in which he details their lives, loves, socialization, aspirations, and mentalities tells us more than any traditional history book could.

The writing is lithe and even comical. Forster's witty asides and factual embellishments impress and enhance the text rather than distract from it. It is a brilliant book, both in content and style. It is a must-read for any lover of English literature or history.

"Maurice" by E.M. Forster is one of my favourite novels. It is so simply and beautifully written and tells a story that all readers will able to relate to in one way or another. A tragic reflection of Forster's own life of closeted homosexuality - the novel itself was written in 1914 when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain and remained unpublished until 1970 - the novel tells the story of Maurice Hall, a young man trying to come to terms with his homosexuality in traditional Edwardian England where his "sort" are arrested for such "crimes". However, when he meets Clive, a fellow student at Cambridge, he realises that he is not alone in his predicament after all. As the events of the story unfold, things become deely sad as Maurice suffers more and more because of a secret that he feels he cannot tell any of his family and friends. The heartwarming ending - which Forster must have hoped for himself as well - is ultimately uplifting and allows the reader to envisage what the future will be like for Maurice themselves.

At first blush, "Maurice" seems unlike any of Forster's other novels. An unapologetic tale of love between Maurice Hall and Clive Durham, two Cambridge students during the years preceding World War I, the book is still a sensation; it's no wonder that Forster chose not to publish it--it would have ended his career. Yet this story, too, explores the preoccupations apparent in all of Forster's fiction: the hypocrisy of British traditions and, especially, the absurdity of British class structure.

"England has always been disinclined to accept human nature," says a mesmerist to Maurice when he is seeking a cure for his "condition." In this scene, the doctor is referring, of course, to sexuality, but considered in the light of all six of his novels, Forster judges English attitudes toward the human condition as a whole. Once Maurice and Clive fall in love, "no tradition overawed the boys. No convention settled what was poetic, what absurd." But it is, in part, this knowledge of being outside the law (or, as Maurice admits, "outlaws") that ultimately rends the couple in half.

The last section of the book brings together all these themes. Maurice's unanticipated and tense liaison with Scudder--a servant, no less--is seemingly impossible not only because they are both the same sex but also because they hail from different classes. To society, the sexual element is intolerable, but to Maurice the class difference makes such a relationship even more inconceivable--"if the will can overleap class, civilization as we have made it will go to pieces."

To Forster, however, both taboos stem from the same tyrannical tradition; he had similarly depicted the futility of mixed-class relationships in his previous novel, "Howards End," with the illicit relationship between the blueblood Henry Wilcox and the lowborn Jacky Best. But here he brings to the story the possibility of hope. Indeed, only when Maurice has thrown over both proscriptions--that of class and of sex--can he "fully bring out the hero": to "live outside class, without relations or money," and to understand that love must be its own reward for an "outlaw" in England.

In many ways, "Maurice" is the least polished of Forster's books--if one judges such things on the basis of prose style and narrative structure alone. Scenes often feel sketched; transitional elements are scant; characters enter and exit the stage willy-nilly. Perhaps because the manuscript was revised in 1960, it has an occasionally minimalist, even modernist tone. Yet the abandonment of traditional considerations suits the story--and Forster has instead created two fully realized characters in what is surely his most caustic, most emotionally raw satire of British manners.

Maurice is one of the greatest books I have ever read. In terms of a gay novel, it is the only one that I can really stand. And it is the best one I have read thus far. This novel helped me to hope and dream at the start of a long sexual journey (I'm still young, so I have a long way to go).
Now, you might wonder for all my high praises, why I didn't give Maurice five stars. Maurice is not a simple a novel as one might figure. It's extremely layered, and more than most novels esp. the 'classics' different people get widely different things from it. If you read it at the surface, you get the story of the sexually confused/frustrated Maurice Hall who falls in and out of love with Clive, and eventually forms a lifelong companionship with Alec Scudder, a man of the lower classes who works on Clive's estate. But if you look closer, then look away real quickly the picture becomes clearer. Archetypes form, and a beautiful story takes shape. It might not come to you like a bolt, but more like a rainy day that floods the passages of the mind until it spills all over.

I must say though that while I commend Mr. Forster for his presence in the literary landscape, but I feel like he didn't work to his potential. I think he was bound by the time he was born in. If he was born nearly 100 years later, Maurice would have been a bestseller and a classic.

Born in 1879 England, E.M. Forster attended King's College at Cambridge; thereafter his family fortune enabled him to live as please. He traveled extensively; dabbled in the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, which included the celebrated Virginia Woolf; and strove to conceal his homosexuality from the general public until his death in 1970. Although he was widely read during his lifetime, a series of films based on his novels prompted a major re-evaluation of his work during the 1980s and 1990s, and he is now considered among the finest English prose stylists of the early 20th Century.

Written in 1913, MAURICE (prounced in the English fashion as 'Morris') was suppressed by Forster during his lifetime, and was not published until 1971--when it made quite a stir by exposing the author's long hidden sexuality through its story of a young homosexual man striving to find his way in late Edwardian England. As a teenager, Maurice Hall is given rudimentary male-female sexual instruction, but finds himself vaguely repelled. He quickly develops a sense of alienation from those around him, an alienation that continues unabated until he enters university and meets Clive Durham. Their relationship begins as aesthetic one, but soon evolves into a physical romance in which Maurice believes he has found peace with himself.

Unfortunately, the pressures of society work to separate the two men: Clive is of a socially well-placed family and is unwilling to reject the social and financial opportunities it affords. He ends the affair and continues on to a respectable yet loveless marriage, leaving Maurice to obsess about their relationship and to seek a way of escape from his own differentness. Ironically, a later chance meeting with Clive not only brings Maurice to recognize Clive's failings, it also has the effect of placing Maurice in the path of a new, more compatible relationship.

Forster's works are inevitably centered on class structure and struggle, and MAURICE is no exception: the demands of class force Maurice and Clive apart; the demands of an overbearing and indifferent society drive Maurice to both devalue himself and to seek a cure for homosexuality. In both instances Forster writes with tremendous power grace and clarity of the unthinking brutalities that Maurice must endure and the novel progresses with great power--but only up to a point, suddenly faultering at the end into a series of deus ex machina devices that are abrupt, artificial, and ultimately implausible.

Even so, the novel must be read within the context of its era. Forster was working distinctly new ground; English literature had produced nothing similar to MAURICE up that particular point, and it would be another three decades or more until such novels as THE CITY AND THE PILLAR began to paint a reasonably realistic portrait of homosexual men and the pressures society exerts upon them. Given this, and in spite of the flaws these circumstances produced, MAURICE is a truly remarkable book; although it is distinctly romantic and rather discreet in tone, in many respects it is as modern as today. Strongly recommended, but primarily to established Forster fans and those interested in gay and lesbian literature.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer
still laughing at the negative voter

This is one of the few books I plan to read again. What a beautiful story. For those of us who have not had a same-sex relationship, it illustrates that, love is just love, the emotions and feelings are the same regardless. This book was impossible to put down yet difficult to finish and say goodbye to.

This shortish book is composed of the transcripts of Forster's 1927 series of talks about the novel, and is divided into chapters on story, characters, plot, and pattern & rhythm. In my opinion the two chapters on fantasy and prophecy are less successful, but if you are considering this book then you should definitely read it. It's filled with wonderful lines and terrific criticism (both positive and negative) of contemporary novels by Austen, Wells, Scott, Dostoevsky, Proust, James and others, and it was this latter aspect that I found most enjoyable. There is also an index so you can find these references when you want to. Forster discusses the sense of time and space in literature, round and flat characters, food, sex, love, POV, story vs. plot and causality. I've been reading novels for several decades and have read a fair number of books about writing, and I still gained insight from this lively little book.

I've tried for the fourth time to read this book. For the fourth time, I had to give up half-way. This book is just too dense for my simple mind.

I am sure that it contains more substance than most books on writing (hence, the generous two stars), but the packaging and, maybe, relevance compelled me, once more, to use the time I would on it to some other book more suitable for my Philistine tastes.

I will read this again and again. It's loaded, packed, stuffed with fabulous writerly advice.

Sandra Glahn, Lethal Harvest

This book is an enjoyable monograph about fiction writing. While entertaining, it doesn't contain practical advice nor does the author take much time to describe his work or writing process. I believe this book will appeal mostly to academics or those who would take pleasure in whiling away an afternoon with an affable writer.

One insight I found very helpful was a suggestion for interpreting the work of Gertrude Stein. Forster describes the process by which she attempted to destroy time in a novel. I had never understood Stein's writing and this theory seems to provide an effective window through which to view her work.

Sometimes one reads a book and it opens up the brain and heart in such a way that one views the world differently thereafter. This is such a book. You will never again read a novel and think about the book in front of you or how it was written in quite the same way. There is nothing else like it.

Delving into this book was part of a quest over the past year to read books on writing by writers. The books did not address HOW to write a novel other than tangentially. Although there are a plethora of dubious choices along those lines, I stayed away from them. The books that I searched out were books on the process of writing, the very lonely experience of the writer in creating fiction.

Several of the books were fogettable. A surprising number of them were memorable, including Mystery & Manners by Flannery O'Connor, On Writing by Stephen King, and anything by Margaret Atwood.

Of all of the books that I read, this one was the best by far. It covered not only the process of writing but also provided a structure for discussing and understanding the novel art form.

As a result, I highly recommend this book for book clubs. When presenting this book recently to my book club of 14+ years as my pick, there was a collective groan. Upon finishing the book, we all thought that it was one of the best of the 125+ books that we had read. It gave us a missing structure and tools for moving discussions and disagreements forward. Several times over the years, one or more of us have disagreed over some book selection or an aspect of it, but the discussion would stall for lack of a way to bridge the various viewpoints. For the first time, we were able to go back through those arguments in a new light using the tools presented in the book. It was very enlightening.

The books's title tacitly promises dry intellectual discourse, but the text reads off the page as fresh as it certainly did when it was originally presented by Forster as a series of guest lectures at Cambridge.

Highly recommended reading.

Mulk Raj Anand has contributed a timeless and poignant account of the plight of the untouchable of India. Although this is a novelization of untouchable life, it reads like real life. For those beginning their education about the untouchable outcasts of India, this book will give them an immediate, up-close and personal look into the hellish world that was untouchability. The lead character Bakha (a street sweeper) experiences the furious oppression and scorn of being a polluted untouchable, and at the end of the book witnesses the arrival of Mohandas Gandhi, who preached the abolition of untouchability, and wanted to uplift the "harijan", as he called them. Inspired by Gandhi, he hopes to lead a better life, and to escape a life of torment and squalor. This short book is a quick and engaging read for those who wish to have an inside look at what life was like for the untouchables.

Documents the life of the untouchables in a way that would shock any reader who had no prior knowledge of how these people live.

I do not remember why I first bought this book, but when I was reading it, it sure fired up some long gone memories into my system of the times when I was a six year old boy use to visit my grandparents in a remote village in Punjab, India.

I have always heard of the Untouchables but did not remember how disrespectfully the Indians have been treating their own people known as the Untouchables.

To summarize the book in some sentences -

1 It is an excellent story, which may not be true, but 99.9% of the Untouchables and the rest in India will relate to it.

2 The story also describes very clearly the Context in which these people have/had to work for their Masters (Jats, Brahmins etc.) in the villages of India.

3 If you do not wish to do extensive research on this topic but you want to understand the meaning and get a handle on 'the Untouchablility' existing in India then this book is for you.

4 I have also read an excellent book by John D. Morley called "Pictures from the Water Trade" which describes how a very similar Caste system also flourishing in Japan. My point here is that India is not alone, guilty of subhuman practices. In India there exists, perhaps, a more established hierarchical Caste system structure than any other place, and you will get a clear picture of it after reading the book.

Looking at the title some people might say: "Oh, well, it is another one of those stories about poor, suffering Indians...It is probably just another tearjerker, nothing more...and this and that..." They would be only half-right. Yes, it is another story about unimaginable suffering of out-cast Indians, The Untouchables. Yes, if you call yourself a HUMAN being and have a heart, you WILL empathize with them. However, this book doesn't ask you to pitty its characters and/or cry for them. Instead, it makes you think about them, not only in the context of Indian culture, but in a context of a much larger world. It also forces you to draw parallels to your own culture, whether you like it or not. Today, this book is especially potent, as we no longer live in our "little isolated cultures", separated by endless preconceptions and stupid prejudices about each other. In addition, this book is simply a piece of excellent writing, thanks to the wonderful writing skills and creative methods of its author. The story is narrated through the eyes of a main character, who directly addresses you as a reader, and yet sometimes seems to ignore you completely, while going about his own business (those are particularly interesting moments in the story). So, read this book, follow the lives (actually, try to live their lives with them) of its numerous and vivid characters, not one of whom is like the next one. I garantee that you will learn something new about India and also about yourselves, in the process of reading this book.

Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand, 1933
We thought this was a valuable book because it was motivated by passionate political convictions to inform people about the plight of the `Untouchables' in Hindu society in the 1930s and was well written. We felt that, apart from the contrived ending, the novella worked very well in telling a believable story. We felt that Anand represented the main protagonist of the narrative - a young man called Bakha - as someone to identify with and feel for. He was not a `cardboard' hero but someone pitiable in his eagerness to please and his gratitude for the smallest crumbs of kindness from his superiors. Because there are no chapter headings the readers are drawn on and on to follow him in his path.
The characterisation was considered to be vivid with the story being told in a succession of short `set pieces' entailing dramatic encounters with the friends and the enemies of the Untouchables. The novella covers just one day from sunrise to sunset in the life of the eighteen year old Bakha. It seems to be a day when he `comes to consciousness' in many ways as to his position at the bottom of the social and spiritual hierarchy. We learn that he is imprisoned by an invisible wall of prejudice so that he cannot walk in the streets freely, nor buy food, nor worship or even visit someone's house normally. Through following his sister briefly we learn that Untouchables are even unable to collect water for themselves but must beg others to obtain it for them. Nor is he allowed an education or medical care. Nevertheless Anand portrays him as capable of some happiness. Even in his restricted position he takes some pleasure in his clothes, enjoys part of his hard work and a game of hockey.
Anand provided a contrived ending so as to offer the varied solutions to the problem of Untouchables as put forward by Ghandi, a Christian, a Muslim and a social reformer cum poet. Bakha is left at the end of the day only with the comfort of knowing that his situation has been noticed as something which needs to be addressed.
We thought that it was very much of its time in the sense that Anand cannot conceive of getting Bakha to perform his own liberation. He must be freed by someone else: whether by radicalising Hindus, or becoming a Christian or a Muslim, or by being given flush toilets by western industrialists.
We also felt that society in the UK had treated poorer classes which did dirty jobs - cleaning up after others often - in ways which had some parallels with the situation of Bakha.

"The Celestial Omnibus" by E.M. Forster tells of a boy's belief in a celestial omnibus, a future state or heaven. In the story, his belief and curiosity is ridiculed by his parents. This action shows the idea of secularism, by discouraging the boy against the idea of an after-life. Instead of leading him toward Christian morality, his parents direct him to memorizing poetry, showing their belief in the morality and well being of man in this life. Sneakily, the boy discovers that the omnibus is not a joke, as his parents told him, but that is was real. The boy is made to be a liar when he returns, but soon convinces Mr. Bons to go back to the omnibus with him. The boy is able to enter the "heaven," but, because of Mr. Bons' disbelief, he dies on the earth

Quite possibly the best collection of short stories published in the Twentieth Century, so minimalist that they're metaphysical. Each demonstrates that the meaning of meaning is the creation of meaning, that people exist to create meaning, whether they know it or not, and what it means to create meaning, or fail. Images become symbols, symbols become allegories. High bourgeois culture, at its best, accessible at many levels to anyone.

The other reviewer of this book completely missed the point of the story. THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS is about the liberation of the Soul through Art, and is not meant to be a religious text at all. A young boy in a prosaic middle class suburb catches a glimpse of something otherworldly in an alley--an omnibus that travels 'To Heaven'. This is not the religious Heaven but the infinite world of the imagination. Great literature literally provides an escape for the boy, who has a poet's soul and is ridiculed for it by his family and their friends. In their view, Literature and Poetry exist only on library shelves, bound in red leather. It is the neighbor, who only concentrates on the physical manifestation of the writings, who 'dies on the earth' since he confuses the end with the means. It is more important to feel the spirit of a great writer than to worry about the binding on their books, while never understanding their meaning. The other stories in this collection are also memorable and deal with living the quiet life and leaving the rat race--in one case, literally. This is one of the most inspirational collections of short stories ever written and it is a shame that it is out of print.

To be frank,I never have the chance to read the book,yet I ever read lots of essays and thesis telling me that the book is really helpful to a student intending to have a in-depth search of Passage,so I wish to get the book for a long time.Although I tried all means, I haven't gotten the book.That's why I've come to the Amazon.

Forster spent a couple of years working as a secretary for an indigenous royal within the British Raj, a situation quite different from that of most Britishers working out in the Empire at that time and resulting in an experience, outward and inward, quite different from the ferociously enforced norm. Of course the man was quite different from the ferociously enforced norm to start with. This is Forster's account of that experience, and, aside from his own story, it includes a lot of interesting details of the "India" of that time, some of which still hold true (e.g. an innate tendency toward political intrigue, and generally the overwhelming social structure), and some of which are now receding into history (e.g. enormous morning flights of fruit bats returning to their roosts in the jungle, and generally the overwhelming presence of nature).
Anyone who whose enjoyment of "Passage" went beyond plot and characterization will find quite a bit of edification in the cultural information supplied here. Of course, not being a novel, it lacks the full narrative impulse that people enjoy in "Passage", if they enjoyed it.

This is an excellent book, well ahead of it's time.
It was required reading for us in prep school, and I am now purchasing a copy for my (9 year old) son.

Reading Forster's short story "The Machice Stops" made me understand and think a lot about computer use in our everyday life. His writings are like a prediction of what may come if people remain as arrogant and selfish as they already are. The book also made me think about the existance of God and the reason of our creation. I strongly recommend that you read this book having of course under consideration that it was written in 1909.

Well, most people in America have already read "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, which is definitely a classic. So I'm not going to give a synopsis, just a general appraisal of the work.

The main characters (Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Roger, and many more) are very complex and very riveting. You can clearly observe their distinctive personalities with their actions and their dialogue. And you feel sorry for these characters when something goes horribly wrong.

There are many symbolisms in this book (the conch, the pigs, the flies, etc.), and they work very well here. Interpretations are open (except when it comes to the obvious ones). Tensions are high as we slowly move towards the climax. No Hollywood ending here.

Golding has created an influential work of art, as highlights in this book are many. This isn't an innocent story, and it's no cliché, either. Kudos to the author.

A+

I first read this in high school and even then it was morbidly fascinating. After having gone through some Anthropology in college, rather than dispel is magic, I found it lent this piece a lot more dimension. A serious study into human nature at some point begs the possibility that the grisly and insane are inherent, even necessary. This does not justify the evils of man against man but offers a path to understanding that may lead to prevention, even eradication of such evils.

The person writing the introduction includes some spoilers. Also, his assessment of the book is a tad pretentious. I'd skip it entirely.

Lord of the flies is a great allegory about the nature of humankind, the dichotomy of the individual vs. the collective, and a few other subjects.
The children represent different factors in society/civilization, yet they also literally represent the assortment of personalities of boys you may have known in camp, school, etc. It's a very entertaining book. There's not a boring moment in it. My only problem with it is some of Golding's writing style. He overuses adverbs with "ly" at the end. It's one of those things that annoy me that I see way too much in literature.

This being a classic most of us had to read in school, I dared commenting on some plot points - so,
***** *** ** * WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD * ** *** *****

A number of phospholipids left alone in solution will self-organize into a double-layer membrane. A number of differentiated cells carry the inherent capability of self-organize into a semblance of tissue. Do humans carry a similar inherent tendency to self-organize into organized societies? And at what price?

From Stephen King's THE STAND to one of the best TV series ever, LOST, the idea of an isolated group of survivors forming a pristine human society and falling to avoid our dark proclivities has been explored again and again. This 1954 novel was the original telling of it. WILLIAM GOLDING being a Literature Nobelist, it comes to no surprise that his prose is mesmerizing, economic and direct at the same time.

Most societal archetypes and their interactive trajectories are elegantly represented: the benevolent yet eventually dethroned natural leader (Ralph) that is vindicated only after a deus ex machina intervention (the Naval officer); the militaristic idiot that manages to pass as a charismatic necessity (Jack); the technology-dependent intellectual weakling (Piggy) that eventually gets murdered by the brutal dictator (Roger) - who would come up running the show in the end if not stopped by their return to civilization. Reading LORD OF THE FLIES will bring up a great number of familiar societal types. Nevertheless, GOLDING presents a rather deterministic viewpoint.

One does not have to agree with GOLDING's pessimistic myth: we humans are not inherently bound to our societal shackles - and are perfectly capable of both doing the unexpected and surviving without a structured civilization. We existed a long time without it and we can learn again to do so if dictated by necessity. And, keep in mind, according to the Freudian approach, socialization is the root of most...psychosis.

It will keep you thinking long after the last page is turned.

RECOMMENDED!

I read Lord of the Flies in my english class, many years ago. I would have to say that this wasn't my favorite book, but it had some interesting outlooks on life. I read it again recently and I noticed it hadn't lost any of its attraction. His bleak view of human nature helps to make sure it's more then just a casual reading book. It is a work of literature that demands analysis and connections.

What I remembered from this novel was the opera scene (still glorious) and the tragic climax (still brutal so that I slowed down coming up to it in hopes of preventing its appearance). What I forgot was how witty it was, how warm, how accomplished for such an early novel in a writer's career. In short, it was actually better than I remembered, a rare accomplishment for an author I love so much. Not as magnificent as Proust nor as fine a writer as James, but equally as wise as both and much more welcoming than either.

The first novel written by E. M. Forster is a perfect introduction to his fiction. He is not yet a master so he will not frighten you off with his form and style but he will gently let you see the world the way he saw it. This relatively small and slight book can make a charming read if you are sensitive enough to detect delicate mood changes, notice off-hand remarks which reveal the true meaning of the story. The style and language alone make it worth your time.
And yet there is more to it. It is a book about "us" and "the other". Philosophers have pondered on the issue for years and brought hefty volumes of studies but Forster can make it without unnecessary ado. This history of an English widow who did not fit in affluent suburb and, when sent abroad, married an Italian youth only to become the victim of his macho ways will certainly make you think. The second part - the unfortunate family rescue operation sent to save a baby from being brought up in wrong faith and wrong part of the world will also be food for thought. Have we changed really? Are we ready to accept that other people's ways may be as good as ours? Forster leaves these questions unanswered and the ending open - you have to fill in the blanks of the novel and the way you see the world.

In E. M. Forster's first novel, an effete English family and their acquaintances encounter an authentic and vital society in the hills of Italy. Vacuous Lilia visits Monteriano in Tuscany and impulsively marries. She realizes her mistake too late to save herself but her English in-laws attempt to rescue the issue of her marriage. Upon arriving in Monteriano, they find that their wealth and education count for less than they thought. Rigid Harriett breaks herself against the local culture and provokes a tragedy, but the more sensitive members of the rescue party, Philip and Miss Abbott, profit in ways that they did not expect.

Forster uses a quiet, simple style that lets the reader be moved by his rather sudden plot revelations. While this is a short novel, Forster finds room for a sincere appreciation of the charms of fictional Monteriano and some gentle humor. I imagine that this very approachable novel would appeal to many different types of readers.

This book suffers from dated style and tone. Also, its one of those book where nothing much happens until EVERYTHING happens. Still, the characters are drawn with universal qualities and weaknesses and so it was a book to which I could relate. Forester is a subtle master in developing the theme that everyone is different than what they initially appear to be. A cad really can be a gentleman in disguise. "Angels" is a worthwhile read.

If one wishes to learn how Britain's rich entertained, lived and acted during the turn of the century, E.M. Forster and Evelyn Waugh deliver depictions as well as anyone of their generation.

This book delves little with interpersonal thoughts. Instead, it deals with dialogue. Rich, gooey, luscious dialogue where the characters reveal their characters, their thoughts, their inner beings by what words they choose to deliver to others.

In the staid world of turn-of-the-century Britain, the dialogue must be masterfully written as the people did not directly say what they felt. They were polite, but in a cold British manner. And, Forster's ability to write that type of British dialogue is unrivaled.

Additionally, this book - which is amid the wonderfully warm Italy - delivers a great ethical question: what to do with a baby born of a British mother (who dies in child birth) related to very impudent and snobby persons residing in the outskirts of London. Who does he belong to? His wealthy British relatives where he will be brought up well but little loved? Or with his loving Italian stallion 23-year-old father who has little money, knows nothing of rearing children and probably would fail (at least in a British perspective) in raising the child?

Forster delivered a similar ethical issue in "Howards End" where the last wish of a dying wife to her husband of many years (through oral bequest and written - but unwitnessed note - which contradicts her written will) is not followed by her husband and family who wish to keep their inheritance in exchange for dishonoring the matriarch's last wishes.

But, each issue is not finished with the sudden first response. In each book, more events occur which gloss the issue.

Read this book soon in time to "A Room With A View." Italy obviously touched Forster - this book and "Room With A View" are its derivatives. Thank you Italy for being you to Forster, who wrote that Italy ". . . sent me going as novelist."