E. M. Forster Books

I had read this book many years ago and enjoyed it. The book was written 100 years ago, but does hold some truths of the world today. However, it appears to be a reproduction, the book was rather expensive for what I got - a slim paper back full of typo's

The Machine Stops is quite possibly one of the most long and dried out pieces of literature I have ever read. This story doesn't even come close to grabbing your attention. In fact, it took me multiple attempts just to get past the first three pages. I could not help but fall asleep. It is my opinion that Mr. E.M. Foster should know his role and shut his big mouth.

This brief but timeless story illustrates one very plausible answer to the question: where would we be without our natural scientists, our engineers and our knowledgeable technicians to maintain and improve the physical machinery that our lives depend on?

As we contemplate the view from Hubbert's Peak (see the recent and readable books on the likely future of easy-to-use fossil fuels written by petroleum geologist Kenneth Deffeyes), understanding the possible answers to this question may become even more important to us as a civilization than they have so far.

So: the next time you meet a plumber, electrician, power plant operator, waterworks technician, chemical engineer, field geologist or research biologist, please be sure to tip your hat and say thank you. These are the folks whose hard work, understanding and fertile imaginations make life bearable for all of us. They are the people who have (so far) ensured that the machine doesn't stop. Without their dedication to their work, we might all be back to chipping spearheads from flint and fishhooks from antler & bone.

Forster wrote this book some time before 1914, which is utterly astonishing when you consider the society he portrays in this novel of the future. Flying ships, automated machinery run by computers (although he does not use that word), robotic equipment to maintain and repair society's hardware, are all in their infancy even today, almost a century later. This is science fiction that could have been written in the 1960s or 1990s. I read this book in the early sixties, and assumed at the time that it was contemporary, not realising that it was written before World War 1. I was very pleased to find that it was still available in reprinted form. Highly recommended.

It's amazing to think that this story was written nearly a century ago, when most of the machinery that currently runs our lives hadn't even been invented yet. My son's heading off to college to major in electrical engineering. He'll be working on the Machine, and I'll be sending this story along with him to keep him grounded
(sorry about the pun).

The Longest Journey's suspicious form and strange conclusions were quite accurately detected by Lionel Trilling who declared this novel in comparison to Forster's others to be his least perfect, least compact, least precisely formed and, simultaneously, his most brilliant, most dramatic, and most passionate. Such a multi-faceted existence is an exact indication of the risky and unfamiliar lines upon which modernists walked. One can assume that Trilling considered A Passage to India to be the wiser and more perfect of Forster's novels in comparison. Where A Passage to India is socio-political, The Longest Journey is personal. The philosophical issues portrayed can be interpreted as being in dialogue with Forster's fellow scholars, pontificating upon the arguments of his academic circles. Scholars who engaged with these same philosophical arguments will no doubt warm to the affable and ironical gestures Forster uses to argue his case.

The structure in which Forster composes The Longest Journey sometimes borders on an obsessive control of the novel's plot and particularly the characters. As the events of the story unfold, we see the frame leading us to a central statement about the human condition. The overemphasis of these points crowded with immense symbolism leads us to question the effectiveness of Forster's statements. Particular points in the story, such as Rickie's realisation that Stephen is his half brother and the reintroduction of Ansell teamed with Stephen, leave us in a troublesome position asking whether this highly personal story was sacrificed to the musically fluent style Forster was working. The Longest Journey's most difficult problem is that it introduces itself as a modernist novel whose commitment is to style, yet its story is obviously Forster's personal account of a series of emotions and events in his own life.

The narrator's voice and Rickie's are essentially interchangeable. The only difference between the two is that the narrator is consciously aware of what Rickie's subconscious knows, but can't admit. If Rickie were so closely intertwined with the authorial voice, then it would seem that there is no room for intimacy with the reader. Yet, the story redeems itself through Rickie's struggle because it is so personal in its metaphysical complications. It is only later in the story, as it drifts farther away from Rickie's consciousness that the emotional impact lets go and we are left wandering through labyrinths of overt symbolic designs. The design in which Rickie is brought to his end is ultimately unfulfilling because the tragedy of the human condition makes itself so poignantly clear when the story is brought full circle to the ending ominously predicted from the outset. Instead, we are asked to accept that no life is tragic because of the enduring factor a human's spiritual hope. If Stephen were created as a character more complicated than a pastoral hero, then this resolution might be effective. However, in the troublesome structure it exists in, it falls short of an enlightening resolution.

Within the complex faults that unfold from an authorial voice inseparable from a central character's consciousness, there is a meaning that resounds through. Apart from stylistic concerns, the modernists were intensely concerned about the human's existential crisis that results from an awareness of the bleak resistance to have faith in either scientific or theological assertions. Rickie is the only vehicle with which we can understand and interpret the complicity of an early twentieth century man's reality. The other characters exist as mere paper figures that serve stilted plot functions. It is through Rickie alone that we understand this particular metaphysical crisis. These sentiments are what make The Longest Journey an important work of modernist fiction in the historical sense. Its theoretical importance lies in the fact of its mismatched structural and sentimental tale's existence.

There is an odd coincidence between symbols he and other modernist writers use. For example, Rickie hangs a towel over a painted harp in the room he is sleeping in at Ansell's house just as Woolf wrote about Mrs. Ramsay hanging her shawl over the skull hanging in the children's bedroom. The symbolic meaning of this can be interpreted in various ways. Yet, in Woolf's writing the meaning makes itself abundantly more clear because the style with which she works supersedes the story in To the Lighthouse. This is why To the Lighthouse is a more successful modernist experiment. A writer that does not work within the laws of the form in which they are working will inevitably fail in their efforts. Forster does not seem to be ignorant of these laws, but he is so enthusiastic about the application of them that his obsessive use of the stylistics becomes rather inappropriate.

Forster often declaimed himself as "not a great novelist". The reason he felt this was probably because he was not able to abide by the standards that he himself set as the qualifications for great novels. This is, at least, the primary objection to be made toward The Longest Journey. In Aspects of the Novel Forster writes, "The novelist who betrays too much interest in his own method can never be more than interesting; he has given up the creation of character and summoned us to help analyse his own mind, and a heavy drop in the emotional thermometer results". The obsessive control of style as an opposition to the driving story he wanted to tell in The Longest Journey proves to be a fatal merging of a novelist who wants to keep with the artistic innovations of his time. Forster is too aware of his use of stylistic method to make the novel a wholly satisfactory piece of literature. Yet, because there is so much of Forster in the novel, it remains a very interesting book to serious and passionate readers.

Philosophers should enjoy this one. The story is about coming to grips about who you are, expectations and perceptions. This book can be insightful for some, but for me, a little dry. Forster did not foster a logical basis for Rickie to fall in love - or a hopeless romantic one for that matter. From there, the story lost steam.

I find Forster an engaging and compelling writer. His novels often become absorbing despite flat passages and parts that, for me at least, are bordering on the unacceptable - the actions and thoughts of characters sometimes seem contrary to behaviour that seems at all natural to me.

I missed the sense of the exotic in this novel that I got from 'A Passage to India' and 'Where Angels Fear to Tread' - and yet the world of the priveleged in the UK and the cloisters of Cambridge University are exotic for me. It's just that they are so gloomy in this novel - gloomy and troubled. Even the countryside is blighted by the freight trains that repeatedly claim lives as they tramp the landscape.

This novel also has melodramatic elements that stretched my sense of credibility, however revelations of surprises are wonderfully managed. While my thoughts were heading in the right direction with the major revelation, when it did come it brought a true 'aha!' feeling - it made so much sense and yet I, like the characters in the story, had not seen it coming.

But, perhaps for me, the most disappointing aspect of this novel is its attitude towards the 'disadvantaged'. As in the movie 'Edward Scissorhand' the 'distorted' person, while capable of receiving small 'gifts of love' (as Morike put it - see Hugo Wolf's song 'Verborgenheit') it seems from these views of life that the realistic approach to the 'distorted' is that they are incapable of true happiness or fulfilment. This is a view I certainly don't subscribe to.

Forster's The Longest Journey is painfully bad: painfully awkward, painfully closeted, painfully dated, painfully class-conscious, painfully defiant of the norms of story-telling, painfully sententious at times and preachy. It's also painfully true.

It's a "college" novel, like many others depicting the lives of its characters fatally determined by the inherently contingent friendships one forms in the nursery of one's college circle. I read it first in 1962, when I was living in painful intimacy with my "peers" in a painfully cloistered House at a painfully famous university. I suppose I had to write a painfully trivial paper about it. Now I've read it again, and I find that, seen backwards through the telescope of years, it's uproariously funny. I don't remember having that impression the first time. I imagine I found it more serious when I was living in it.

I wonder why novels of the early 20th C seem so much more dated and mawkish at times than, for instance, Trollope or Fielding or Smollett? Perhaps it's the embarrassment that teenagers feel about their parents when those parents claim to have been young once and reveal the turmoils that only the current generation can take seriously. Anyway, I suspect that many readers will underrate this novel because of that uneasiness. All I can say is, if you're not reading it for homework, nobody will make you enjoy it. But if you give it a chance, you may find that it's painfully moving and beautiful.

Like all Forster's novels, the plot of 'The Longest Journey' is secondary to the underlying themes - the new 'mechanical' society that Forster hated, being true to yourself and class structure. It's not the kind of book you pick up in an airport - it's thought provoking and wonderfully written.

Actually I have more than one edition of both of these stories. Room With A View is totally wonderful but I have to say that I read the book, watched the movie and then read the book again. After I had watched the new version of the movie I had to go back and watch the old one (Merchant and Ivory) to clear the newer out of my head-though some may prefer that one. Howards End is probably a better,more substantial story but RWAV is so perfectly balanced and beautiful. I like both. Also just finished reading Where Angels Fear to Tread and it is kind of wacky! The author was just learning how he wanted to write on that one. The movie would be pretty funny.

A Room With A View is a warm treasure of a novel that embraces life and the love of it.

I found Howard's End to be quite the opposite: cold and distant, and all the worse for it.

Two sides of Forster, I prefer the former.

Forget Dickens, forget Austen, for the most English of authors Edward Morgan Forster was , to me, the most gifted English author of all time. He wrote in wonderful sentences with Beautiful words. 'Room with a View' starts at an English Guest house in Florenece. Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin Charlotte are among the guests, and are given a room with a view by the Impulsive Emmersons, George and his father. Lucy is the central character, and shortly witnesses a murder, but is immediately comforted by George Emmerson who later kisses her on on outing to the hills. The story then returns to England and the Emmersoms have taken residence near Lucy Honeychurch's house. This is not only a wonderful love story, but a first rate tale of Social comedy. 'Howard's End' is in the same vein. It starts with the words ' Only Connect' which everyone should adhear to.The Wilcoxes are pragmatic, stoic, and Enlgish to the Backbone. The Schelegl's are Half-German, Cultural and artistic. So what happens when such opposites meet? Helen Schlegel falls for Paul Wilcox, but it is her sister Margaret's relationship with both Mr and Mrs Wilcox which is the heart of this book in which you will find that opposites do attract. Forster also wrote only three other novels - ' Whre Angels fear to tread', 'The Longest Journay' and 'A Passage to India'. A lesser known work is 'Maurice' , a tale of homosexuality which could be his own. 'Where Angels..' , 'A Room..' and 'Howard's End' were made into top rate films by Mercahnt Ivory. ' A Passage..' was the last film David Lean ever made. But it is the book where the ture beauty of Forster shines.

Warning: the copy of the Signet edition of Room with a View and Howards End that I recieved was missing pages 51-82 of Howards End.

These have to be the best books which Forster wrote- witty, satirical and enjoyable. The message of 'only connect' and the portrayal of 'the undeveloped heart' of the English middle classes are brought to the fore. With symbolism, excellent characterisation and enthralling plots, these 'bildungsroman' show Forster to be an erudite and consummate writer.

With the standards set so high by Furbank (isn't it telling that the cover added to this web page is the cover of Furbank's biography and not that of Beauman?) there is quite little one can do. One can always go wrong, however, and to some degree this is what the book does. I found its concentration on Forster's homosexuality (can he be outed any more after the publication of Maurice in 1971?) quite tiresome and insistence on stressing his biography and its influence on his works not always substantiated. You can find all the important details here but if you want a good read as well, take the hint from this web page and get yourself a copy of Furbank's biography instead.

If one purpose of a literary biography is to inspire the reader to return to the works of the subject of the biography with renewed enthusiasm then Ms Beauman has succeeded admirably. But her work is also a timely reminder of the significance of an artist to the health of a civilized society. In this age of "outcomes", "product" and "prioritization" Mr Forster's speech as a resident honorary fellow of King's College Cambridge when proposing a toast to the health of the college must stand as a delicious ironical instance of the artist as just being - and that being enough. He said " I do not belong here at all. I do nothing here whatsoever. I hold no college office, I attend no committee, I sit on no body, however solid, not even on the Annual Congregation. I co-opt not, nor am I co-opted. I teach not, neither do I think, and even the glory in which I am now arranged was borrowed from another college for the occasion." Forster's relationship with his mother together with his homosexuality loom large in Ms Beauman's analysis which is not to say that her consideration of the works is less than thorough. Indeed, her research into the genesis and development of PASSAGE TO INDIA is especially detailed and illuminating. The Forster story by Ms Beauman is one that is told with understanding, warmth and a deep humanity that was a characteristic of the subject himself. Of particular interest was when the writer, Beauman, addresses the reader,you, expressing some doubt about including rather revelatory and intimate details of Forster's sexual adventures. This is an instance of ".... on the other hand it could be said..." that was a trademark of Forster's method. A most enjoyable read. Dare I say I came away from reading it a better person?

I've only read this one essay from Abinger Harvest. The essay is "My Wood." I highly encourage everyone to read this essay. Forster reflects on materialism vs ownership in and intriguing and amusing way. The essay is also chock-full of wonderful literary allusions. I took an advanced writing course at university and one of the assignments was to track down the sources of these allusions. It was both fun and educational. Cool stuff.

E.M. FORSTER by Lionel Trilling

When an eminent American scholar and critic takes as subject for a literary analysis a notable English author a reader can expect a tasty feast for the mind. Trilling does not disappoint.

This brief but erudite book is now over half a century old. It still remains an admirable introduction to E.M. Forster whose five novels have become an esteemed part of the western cannon.

"In America Forster has never established a great reputation." Trilling's comment implies the reason for his study of Forster. And indeed, it is this work that is credited with correcting that oversight.

Lionel Trilling's evaluation meets the criteria for excellent criticism. It is impartial in that although overall it praises, it notes faults. "The quaint, the facetious and the chatty sink his literary criticism below its proper level . . . they even touch, though they never actually harm, the five novels . . . " The second criteria, the enlightenment of potential readers as to an author's intentions and techniques, is likewise amply met. All of Forster's novels are discussed. Many illuminating insights are provided. Forster's short stories are summarily treated. Trilling evidently did not consider short fiction Forster's forte. Lastly, a critic should provide in praise as well as admonition comments that might assist authors to create better works. In this Trilling is at a disadvantage since Forster after the publication of PASSAGE TO INDIA in 1924 completely forsook novel writing. Too bad. Trilling is good medicine for an author.

A caution: the book is aimed at an academic audience. Allusions are made to various other significant authors as in "Forster is not taken in by his Gino as Santayana is by his analogous Mario . . . " Georges Santayana a prominent American philosopher wrote only one novel THE LAST PURITAN in which Mario is a key character. A college degree is not necessarily needed to follow Trilling's discussion. One ought to have, however, a nodding acquaintance with the peaks that comprise western literature's breadth and length.

If you loves reading a love story, this book is an interesting one. It gives us a clear picture of middle-class life in England on hundred year ago. We can see the inportance that was given to social position and appropriated behaviour. Besides, it is a good gramma that can learn and applied it for daily life. This book is about the girl who struggle to make sense of her feelings towards the two very different men in her life. Let us find out what does she do for this problem?

Malcolm Page's slender volume is a very accessible work. It moves around the various criticism that 'Howards End' has received over the years. Page's survey of the criticism is handled sensibly and is a very good starting point for wider reading about the author and his novel. His own critical voice is a very balanced one and Page adopts a reasonable stance on a writer who seems to attract fairly extreme reactions. Of particular note is the short section dealing with E.M.Forster and feminism. This section illustrates Page's ability to survey the criticism and then offer an informed opinion. Overall, this volume serves as a very useful starting point for a study of the novel.

Il libro è ben fatto (forse un po troppo stringato nelle descrizioni) e le foto a colori precise e di esemplari molto esplicativi. Forse l'aggiunta di chiavi per la determinazione delle specie sarebbe stata un aggiunta gradita da molti... e la maggior grandezza delle foto sarebbe stata un plus valore.

Il libro comunque rimane un must !

There is a real dichotomy between Forster's novel "Maurice" and the homosexual stories collected in "The Life to Come." The novel, while it does focus on the trials and tribulations of a gay man coming to terms with his sexuality, ends on an optimistic note. By contrast the stories collected in "The Life to Come," especially "The Other Boat," "Arthur Snatchfold" and the title piece, reflect the author's own obsession with the negative consequences of exposure and perfectly illustrate his reticence to coming out either personally or professionally. This is a man who witnessed the grossly indecent prosecution of both Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing, is it any wonder he was reticent? Don't miss these early gifts from the master.