E.M. Forster was born in 1879 in London to a middle-class family. He was educated at King's College, Cambridge where he was exposed to European writers and acknowledged his homosexuality. Forster published his first novels in the early 1900s including A Room with a View. The novel follows Lucy Honeychurch in Italy and her love interest with the free-thinking George Emerson, contrasted with her engagement to Cecil Vyse. Forster uses the story to explore tensions between propriety and passion, and women's independence within the constraints of English society in the early 20th century.
2. E.M. FORSTER
Born in London – New Year‟s day, 1879
Middle-class background
Father died when he was just one → his mother compelled to move
to Rooksnest, in the countryside, for economical matters
There he lived in the “haze of elderly ladies”; attachment to this
place, from which he drew inspiration for Howards End
At the age of 14, they had to move to Tonbridge Wells → he
studied classics but at the same time his feeling of being an
outsider hardened → distaste for the English school sistem
3. In 1897 he entered King‟s College, Cambridge:
Knew and appreciated some European writers as Proust, Ibsen,
Tolstoy
Acknowledged his homosexuality →fell in love with Hugh O.
Meredith → Maurice
Became a member of the “Apostles”; he established friendships
with some intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group
In 1901 he set off on a year-long journey to Italy with his mother
Lily to study Italian history, art, literature and language and to
work on a novel
In 1903 he published his first short story, Albergo Empedocle
4. Where Angels Fear to Tread
The Longest Journey
A Room With A View
…were his first three novels,
But he did not achieve a great success
Until he published Howards End
5. Between 1912 and 1913 he travelled to India
Another journey to the subcontinent in 1921
→ inspiration for A Passage To India (1924),
his masterpiece
After this last book, he retired as a novelist
He spent the second half of his life as a reader and reviewer; he was a
spokesman for personal and political tolerance → he spoke in favour of
D. H. Lawrence‟s Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Died in Cambridge in 1970, at the age of 91
6. Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her cousin Charlotte
Bartlett. They are complaining about the fact that they have not
the rooms with views that had been promised to them...
7. ...at dinner, they meet the Emersons, who offer to swap rooms,
but Charlotte refuses because she considers them impolite.
But, finally, the good clergyman Mr. Beebe persuades her to accept
the offer.
8. In those days, Lucy visits Florence, and one afternoon she witnesses
a murder; George Emerson keeps her from fainting and leads her to
the pension.
After these occurrences, Lucy decides to avoid the Emersons.
9. But one day a trip to Fiesole is organized: Lucy, Charlotte and the
Emersons take part in it. Lucy comes up with George, who kisses
her…
…Charlotte sees them and the same evening she and Lucy decide to
leave Florence and join the Vyses in Rome.
10. In England, Lucy becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse.
Mr. Beebe announces a house in the neighbourhood has been rent
to the Emersons.
11. Freddy, Lucy‟s brother, befriends with George and invites him to
play tennis one afternoon. Cecil is reading a novel, and a scene
reminds the kiss in Fiesole...
...George, then, kisses Lucy again.
12. Lucy tells George to go away and not to come back; he says Cecil
doesn‟t love her because he considers her an object...
...Lucy remains firm but the same evening breaks her engagement off.
13. Lucy decides to go to Greece, but she meets Mr. Emerson, who forces
her to admit that she loves George.
14. The novel ends in Florence, where Lucy and George are spending
their honeymoon, but without Mrs. Honeychurch‟s consent.
15. Young, naïve, charming
At the beginning, she‟s quite unformed
Italy challenges her values
Her love towards George is contrasted by social conventions
At the end, she‟s a stronger and independent woman
16. Lucy‟s cousin, older than her
She doesn‟t want to deal with lower-class people
Prejudiced and narrow-minded
Represents the prototype of Victorian woman
17. Very simple man, socialist journalist
Broad-minded, he educated his son to the ideals of freedom and
real love
Easy-going and outspoken
Often not accepted
18. Shy, reserved boy
Educated in an open-minded way
Conventionally, he‟s an unacceptable match for Lucy
He‟s intelligent, sensitive, thoughtful
He wants Lucy to be herself, independent and strong
19. „medieval‟
Well-educated, but supercilious and pretentious
Sophisticated and „superior‟ Londoner
Respectable in terms of rank, but despises country society
20. Several novels in one: social comedy, mythic romance, novel of
ideas
Built upon linked antitheses:
rooms/views, inside/outside, medieval/classical, lies/truth, dark/li
ght
Characters associated to different forms of art
Titled chapters contribute to the comic effect
Contrast between „dynamic‟ and „static‟ characters
Buildungsroman
Third-person omniscient narrator, close to the characters‟ point of
view
21. Propriety and passion
Delicacy and beauty
Women‟s position and independence
Oneness to nature
Acceptance of the body
Struggle against social barriers
Growing up
22. Edwardian age → remains of Victorian sensibilities still alive but
began to be challenged by Socialists and artists
Forster‟s third novel → published in 1908 but begun in 1901,
when he graduated at King‟s College
After graduation, he set off a journey to Italy with his mother
„grand tour‟ → common experience for the British; in those years it
had been extended to middle-class people
Peculiarly feminine world
But everything was organized according to British habits →
superficial experience of Italy
23. Rooms and views
Light and dark
The Medieval and the Classical-the Renaissance
Italy and the British
24. Forster‟s loving experiences influenced him in writing the novel
Lucy is Forster‟s alter ego
Mr. Emerson was modelled on Edward Carpenter
Forster takes much from Jane Austen‟s social comedies
