E. M. Forster double feature

Sandra:  E.M. Forster’s book A Room with a View is a very easy read compared to some of the stuff that has been on our list lately.  It is a very straightforward story-- a little family drama, a little romance, a little travelogue, it is really a very pleasurable read.  Several of his books are on the list of greats and who am I to quibble?  Forster reminds me of quite a few authors I/we ‘ve read previously such as W. Somerset Maughm, Samuel Butler and Edith Wharton. 

It is a very English book about the lives of those of a certain class who travel abroad and have tennis lawn parties and tea.  It centers on Lucy Honeychurch and the first part is her trip to Italy.  The second part finds her at her home, Windy Corners, in England.  Italy is one of those places I haven’t been that I would really like to visit and the descriptions of the places Lucy visits reinforce that feeling.  While there Lucy and her cousin, Charlotte Bartlett who is allegedly chaperoning, meet Mr. Emerson and son George.  When they flee Florence for Rome they meet up with Cecil Vyse.  Lucy, George and Cecil form the sort of triangle that seems essential to any romance story.

Much more is explored in this book besides romance.  Forster has keen insight into the foibles of people and much of the novel is amusing.  There is examination of tourist behavior, how crass it can be, illustrated by the joke about the American girl who asks her father what they saw in Rome and he replies “Rome was the place we saw the yaller dog.”  And this tidbit about the group on an outing “The party sprang about from tuft to tuft of grass, their anxiety to keep together being only equalled by their desire to go in different directions.”  

Lucy must spend much of her time trying to decide what is proper and ladylike behavior.  She wonders “Why were most big things unladylike?” and doesn’t really like the answer that women’s roles in life are to “inspire others [this would be men] to achievement rather than to achieve themselves.”  Forster is also adept at describing the life Lucy has been raised to live.  “Life…was a circle of rich, pleasant people, with identical interests and identical foes.  In this circle, one thought, married and died.  Outside it were poverty and vulgarity forever trying to enter…”  The problem comes when on her trip to Italy this conception of life vanishes.  She starts to believe there are social barriers that she can leap and people that she would be glad to know that are not in her circle.

Luckily she has the sense to listen to Mr. Emerson and things turn out much as you would hope.  As an interesting tidbit, Mr. Emerson is possibly based on Samuel Butler whose book The Way of All Flesh I read recently and enjoyed.  I enjoyed A Room with a View also.  A very pleasant read if not a particularly “great” book as far as I could see.

Ernie:  I actually looked forward to reading A Passage to India and was disappointed to find that I did not enjoy it at all.

The story follows the actions and relationships of Dr. Aziz of India and Mr. Fielding, Miss Quested and Mrs. Moore, all of England.  Aziz and Fielding begin the novel as friends and find that friendship and their loyalties to each other, their countries, their races and themselves tested throughout the book.  A wide variety of other characters populate the novel but they are little more than stereotypes provided to fill in some dialogue.

This is essentially the weakness of the novel:  The characters are stale, static and not very interesting.  The dialogue is a yawn and often seems to have nothing to do with anything related to the story.  I gained no insight into the people or their motivations short of some window-dressing background information.  As far as I can tell, everyone ends the book exactly the way they started…well, one of them is dead but I don’t want to spoil that surprise for you.

Forster shines in describing the land and the people.  The first chapter is simply a warm picture of the city of Chandapore that goes on for a couple of pages.  It may be the best chapter of the book.  Forster’s narrative is fantastic reading.  It just goes downhill when his characters open their mouths.  In discussing a character’s death (see above) Forster gives us some dreadful dialogue but then follows up “ The other smiled, and looked at his watch.  They both regretted the death, but they were middle-aged men, who had invested their emotions elsewhere, and outbursts of grief could not be expected from them over a slight acquaintance.  It’s only one’s dead who matter.”  Terribly British.

A Passage to India was published in 1924 when Forster was an established and respected author. As in this story, many of his books explored the themes of friendship, loyalty, class position and racism.  It is one of his most successful books but I felt it was little more than a soap opera.  Forster wrote a version of A Passage to India in 1913 with a different ending but reconsidered when he published eleven years later.

While I usually enjoy all things British, A Passage to India was not my cup of tea.  In hindsight, I wish I had chosen to read A Room With a View.

Next Week…We both read Henry James’ The Wings of a Dove