What makes this masterpiece a pure delight for contemporary readers is its vibrant portrait of life in Edwardian England, and the wonderful characters who inhabit the charming old country house in Hertfordshire called Howards End. This cozy house becomes the object of an inheritance dispute between the upright conservative Wilcox family and the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, sensitive and intuitive women loved by men willing to leap wide social barriers to fulfill their ardor. Through romantic entanglements, disappearing wills, and sudden tragedy, the conflict over the house emerges as a symbolic struggle for England’s future. Rich with the tradition, spirit, and wit distinctively English, Howards End is a remarkable novel of rare insight and understanding. As in his celebrated A Passage to India, E. M. Forster brings to vivid life a country and an era through the destinies of his unforgettable characters.
At least this one holds up to my initial perception; it’s still my least favorite of the Forster novels.* The energy and wit are a feast for the senses, especially in the dialogue, but it’s so much about England and Empire, it gets, dare I say… tiresome? Perhaps only because we know how Empire turns out.
But to write it when he wrote it? Dude. So basically, everything Kat says— yes.
*Opinion subject to and even likely to change at any point in the future.
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1 February, 2005:
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1 February, 2005:
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