book review room with a view

Booklover Book Reviews

A Room with a View by E M Forster, Book Review: Irreverent joy

A Room with a View by E M Forster is a satiric comedy of manners with a refreshing current of irreverence that contemporary readers will enjoy. Read on for our review and quotes from this classic novel.

A Room with a View  Book Synopsis

‘You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you …’

Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance.

Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Pertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George.

Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Victorian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?

‘He says, and even more implies, things that no other novelist does, and we can go on reading Forster indefinitely’ –  The Times

‘I loved it. My first intimation of the possibilities of fiction’ – Zadie Smith

( Penguin Books )

Genre: Romance, Drama, Humour, Historical, Classic, Literature

Disclosure: If you click a link in this post we may earn a small commission to help offset our running costs.

BOOK REVIEW

E M Forster’s A Room with a View is a bonafide classic that has been critically reviewed by greater literary minds than I, so here I will just briefly summarise my thoughts.

I always enjoy comedies of manners and this novel certainly fits that bill. E M Forster takes great delight at making fun of his characters and there are instances where the characters even make fun of themselves.

Cecil, who naturally preferred congratulations to apologies, drew down his mouth at the corners. Was this the reception his action would get from the world? Of course, he despised the world as a whole; every thoughtful man should; it is almost a test of refinement. But he was sensitive to the successive particles of it which he encountered.

A refreshing current of irreverence

Many classics are heavy reads but  A Room with a View has a refreshing current of irreverence and some lively characters that will appeal to a modern audience.

At the time of its publication, 1908, I expect some of the observations made about societal norms would have been quite shocking. I also quite liked how Forster addresses the reader directly on occasion, as though bringing us in on the joke.

If it has a weakness, some parts feel slightly laboured through the eyes of a contemporary reader. And, although I thoroughly enjoyed the romantic and uplifting conclusion, I guessed some of the plot twists before they occurred. But perhaps I was supposed to; perhaps the predictability of human behaviour was that the point?

Apparently, in some versions of the novel an appendix penned by Forster is included describing what happens to the characters after the book ends. My copy did not include that appendix but I found a summary on Wikipedia. Honestly, it feels like a bit of a downer after the wonderful conclusion to the novel itself. So, I recommend letting sleeping dogs lie where that is concerned.

BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 4 / 5

Get your copy of A Room with a View from:

Amazon Bookshop Book Depository Kobo Booktopia OR listen to the audiobook FREE with Audible’s Trial (check eligibility)

More fiction classics: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch  /   Lady Windemere’s Fan  by Oscar Wilde  /   Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh  /   A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark  /   The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho / Anthem by Ayn Rand

About the Author, E M Forster

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge. Forster wrote six novels, four of which appeared before the First World War,  Where Angels Fear to Tread  (1905),  The Longest Journey  (1907),  A Room with a View  (1908) and  Howard’s End   (1910). An interval of fourteen years elapsed before he published  A Passage to India . It won both the Prix Femina Vie Heuruse and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. E M Forster died in 1970. His last novel,  Maurice , was published posthumously in 1971. He also published two volumes of short stories and a number of non-fiction books.

More A Room with a View  Book Quotes

“Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.” ― E.M. Forster, A Room With A View

“Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them.” ― E.M. Forster

Share this:

A booklover with diverse reading interests, who has been reviewing books and sharing her views and opinions on this website and others since 2009.

Book Review: Room with a View by E. M. Forster

A Room with a View

More Than Just a 20th Century Love Story

Written over a century ago, it isn’t surprising that E. M. Forster’s Room with a View would feature aspects outdated and archaic. But whether or not you choose to look past these elements is up to you. Anyone who does will be greeted with a novel whose central message remains poignant and highly prevalent in today’s age.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and it seemed only appropriate to review a classic love story. But we at Culture Honey like to put our own spin on things, and so Room with a View was chosen. It is a love story, but at heart it is so much more. It is a story of independence, of revolution vs. tradition. It is a story of societal critique. It is a story of self-reflection.

Meet Lucy… and George

Room with a View follows the story of Lucy Honeychurch. She is a well-to-do woman who travels to Italy with her cousin. The actual room which has the view doesn’t feature too prominently in the story, but it does lead to the single most important interaction: the meeting with George.

So far no spoilers have been revealed that would not be by reading the blurb. However, for those wishing to remain unaware as to the eventual plot – which isn’t particularly set apart from other love stories – it is recommended you skip the next two paragraphs.

A series of events transpire which lead to Lucy and George meeting and chatting several times, getting to know each other more as they do. George is not a well-to-do like Lucy and is far more radical in his thinking, following among others several of the philosophies of Nietzsche . Part I of the novel culminates in George kissing Lucy and Lucy running away to Rome.

Part II begins back in England and it is not long before Lucy is engaged to Cecil, an upper class and pretentious man who is obviously not a good fit for Lucy. Again George appears through random events and another series of events transpire, including another kiss from George. Lucy, in an act of freedom, eventually breaks off the engagement to Cecil – but still refuses to acknowledge that she loves George – and seeks to travel to Greece to get away and gain her independence. She doesn’t for she realises in time – with help from George’s father – that she loves George. The novel ends with the two of them together in Italy, ostracised from her family, but believing things will be mended in the end.

Its Prevalence Today

Despite its publication over a century ago and the advancements made in the time since, numerous societal critiques remain prevalent within the novel. The battle between love and societal standing is one such aspect. Should they marry well, or should they marry for love? The stifling of independence and equality is another. Cecil’s repressive character represented the limitations placed upon women in society, and while the hope is that these limitations have decreased, the social commentary put forth by E. M Forster is this novel is still incredibly prevalent today.

If I were to give my own opinion as to the enjoyment of this book, I would say I stand divided. I thoroughly enjoyed it overall, but there were elements which did not age well and of which other readers diving into E. M Forster should probably know. He was a writer of his time and therefore several references will be lost on the newer reader (though Google is a helpful tool here). And with his writing style of occasionally breaking the fourth wall to chat with the reader and explain the situation, I could not help but think I was at times being spoon-fed the underlying plot of the novel.

Have You Loved Today?

Perhaps this is due to the timing of the novel and the at-the-time revolutionary elements which E. M. Forster was proposing. I cannot tell for sure. But despite these moments of randomness or uncertainty – prevalent in many a novel – overall I found the novel to be one not only enjoyable, but eye-opening. Not only eye-opening to life at the time of its publication, but eye-opening to where we stand in society today. It is a showcasing of just how far we have come, but also just how far we have not come. How many of us today can say we truly feel passion? Or love? How many of us can say we fought for what we believe? Have we burned the flame bright with life or have we simply joined what E. M. Forster called “the vast armies of the benighted, who follow neither the heart nor the brain, and march to their destiny by catchwords”?

“The armies are full of pleasant and pious folk. But they have yielded to the only enemy that matters – the enemy within. They have sinned against passion and truth, and vain will be their strife after virtue. As the years pass they are censured. Their pleasantry and their piety show cracks, their wit becomes cynicism, their unselfishness hypocrisy; they feel and produce discomfort wherever they go.”

Happy Valentine’s Day. *

• Latest Posts

Josh W. Potter is a journalist, essayist, author, and poet. That means anything from following street artists around London, to road tripping the USA, to diving into the intricate and unique world of the AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego). If you want to find out more about this strange individual, his website, www.joshwpotter.com, would be a good place to start.

You may also like

Book Review | “Settled: How to Find Calm in a Stress-Inducing World” by Chantal Donnelly

Exhibit Review | Art Share L.A. : SOMOS

Book Review | ‘The Audacity of Hope’: Is it Time to Rethink Our Role in Democracy?

More stories.

Film Festivals | Black August Film Festival Sophomore Year Opens in Pasadena, CA

The festival brings focus to justice movements that are current as well as from throughout history, movements from around the world and nationally, as well highlights media that has been produced locally that activity champions reform for the local Pasadena Police Department and also offers support to budding film-makers here in Pasadena, with the Pasadena African-American Film Foundation. 

• Commenting Policy
• Advanced Search

Dear Author

Romance, Historical, Contemporary, Paranormal, Young Adult, Book reviews, industry news, and commentary from a reader's point of view

REVIEW: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Dear Readers,

I don't know if it was Jayne's recent review of the Merchant-Ivory film adaptation of this novel, or a discussion of Forster's works that some of us on Twitter got into a while back. There's also the fact that every time I see Jennie do one of her classics reviews, I think to myself that I should reread and review this novel. Whatever the reason, the urge became irresistible after I got the book in e-form, and on a recent plane flight, I began to read the book, and fell in love with it all over again.

Mr. Emerson, an old man seated dining at the same table, suggests that Lucy and Charlotte trade rooms with him and his son, George. But rather than accepting as Lucy wants her to do, Charlotte is offended by the old man's familiar manner (she immediately concludes that he is ill-bred because he ventures to speak to her without observing her for a day or two first).

Also staying at the Bertolini are the Reverend Beebe, a clergyman who is soon to become the vicar of Summer Street, Lucy's parish; Miss Eleanor Lavish, an author of romantic novels; and two elderly sisters, Miss Catharine and Miss Teresa Alan; all of whom play a role in the novel. But Lucy, Charlotte, Mr. Emerson and his son George are the central players, and what begins as a minor contretemps about rooms with views foreshadows a greater conflict.

Following dinner, Reverend Beebe advises Charlotte that accepting the exchange of rooms would not put her under obligation to the Emersons. After Mr. Beebe leaves, one of the elderly Miss Alans approaches the newcomers. Forster's gift for dialogue is on display in the conversation that follows:

"But here you are as safe as in England; Signora Bertolini is so English.' "Yet our rooms smell,' said poor Lucy. "We dread going to bed.' "Ah, then you look into the court.' She sighed. "If only Mr. Emerson was more tactful! We were so sorry for you at dinner.' "I think he was meaning to be kind.' "Undoubtedly he was,' said Miss Bartlett. "Mr. Beebe has just been scolding me for my suspicious nature. Of course, I was holding back on my cousin's account.' "Of course,' said the little old lady, and they murmured that one could not be too careful with a young girl. Lucy tried to look demure, but could not help feeling a great fool. No one was careful with her at home; or, at all events, she had not noticed it. "About old Mr. Emerson – I hardly know. No, he is not tactful; yet, have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time – beautiful?" "Beautiful?" said Miss Bartlett, puzzled at the word. "Are not beauty and delicacy the same?'

In fact, one of the central themes of A Room with a View is the tension between beauty and delicacy, between honesty and propriety.

Eventually Charlotte Bartlett accepts the exchange of rooms, but not until she has embarrassed Lucy, Reverend Beebe, and the Emersons. Charlotte begins the novel as the personification passive aggressive martyrdom, uttering lines like "My own wishes, dearest Lucy, are unimportant in comparison with yours. It would be hard indeed if I stopped you doing as you liked at Florence, when I am here only through your kindness. If you wish me to turn these gentlemen out of their rooms, I will do it."

Lucy's reaction is equally telling:

Charlotte's energy! And her unselfishness! She had been thus all her life, but really, on this Italian tour, she was surpassing herself. So Lucy felt, or strove to feel. And yet – there was a rebellious spirit in her which wondered whether the acceptance might not have been less delicate and more beautiful.

One day Lucy ventures out into Florence in the company of the romantic novelist, Miss Eleanor Lavish. Miss Lavish thoughtlessly loses track of Lucy, and Lucy, abandoned without a guidebook, is grateful to run into the Emersons in the church of Santa Croce. Once again Mr. Emerson speaks bluntly, and Lucy is torn between accepting his kindness and taking offense. When they are separated from George and Mr. Emerson asks her to befriend his melancholy son, Lucy is uncomfortable and hides that discomfort by distancing herself and then taking offense when Mr. Emerson senses the truth of her emotions.

On another afternoon Lucy goes outside by herself (a daring act for a young woman at the turn of the century) and after purchasing some souvenir photographs, happens to witness an altercation between two Italians which ends in murder. She passes out and is caught in George Emerson's arms. While she recovers, George throws her photographs into the river and Lucy confronts him over that action; an embarrassed George admits that the dead man's blood was on the pictures, and he did not know what else to do with them.

Lucy thanks George for his actions and asks him not to tell anyone what happened. She cannot yet put her finger on what it is that has changed, and does not use words like "intimacy" or "connection," but she is aware that having witnessed a death at the same time has altered things between her and George. George, even more than Lucy, is conscious that something profound has happened. "I shall want to live," he tells her.

Several of the Bertolini’s guests later go on an outing to see a view, and there the beauty of the violet-studded Italian countryside, as well as their emotions, overtake George and Lucy for a brief moment. Miss Bartlett separates them and later turns Lucy's mind against George, suggesting that he will gossip about Lucy and ruin her reputation. Charlotte then takes Lucy away from Florence, and the two women flee together to Rome.

The novel's second half picks up some months later in Summer Street, Surrey, in a house named Windy Corner. The house belongs to the Honeychurch family. Lucy's father, a solicitor, built it and established his family in "the best society obtainable" before he passed away.

Now it appears that Lucy has gained entry to an even better society – that of Cecil Vyse, who has just asked for, and been granted, Lucy's hand in marriage. A good sense of Cecil's character can be gleaned from this exchange between Cecil and Reverend Beebe:

"Let me see, Mr Vyse – I forget – what is your profession?' "I have no profession,' said Cecil. "It is another example of my decadence. My attitude – quite an indefensible one – is that so long as I am no trouble to anyone I have a right to do as I like. I know I ought to be getting money out of people, or devoting myself to things I don't care a straw about, but somehow I've not been able to begin.'

Cecil sees Lucy as a work of art, something to be protected, rather than as a full equal. At heart he is a snob, but one who does not realize that is what he is, and who in fact, wants to teach others to be less snobbish. Thus it is that when a villa in Summer Street becomes vacant and Lucy writes to the Miss Alans suggesting they apply to lease it, Cecil, to get the better of the class-conscious landlord, suggests that friends of his would be more suitable. The so-called "friends" are two lower middle class men with whom Cecil has only a passing acquaintance – Mr. Emerson and his son George Emerson.

Lucy is infuriated by Cecil's undermining her kindness to the Miss Alans, but more than that, she is frightened by George's arrival in Summer Street. On the surface she is afraid that George will spread rumors that will destroy her engagement, but beneath the surface fear is a deeper one, for Lucy has lied to herself about her feelings for Cecil and her feelings for George, and she does not want to examine the truth of her emotions.

The situation is further complicated by a visit from Cousin Charlotte and a scene in a romantic novel. Will Lucy be able to see the truth of her feelings for Cecil and her love for George before it is too late? What will honesty with herself and with others cost her and how much will they gain her?

A Room with a View is not perfect – Bradbury points out, and I agree with him, that George isn't that well-defined a character – but there is so much I could say about the book and the reasons I love it.

There are the social critiques of snobbery and the class system and of propriety and repression.

There is Forster's humor, which ranges from witty satire, such as this:

"He is nice,' exclaimed Lucy. "Just what I remember. He seems to see the good in everyone. No one would take him for a clergyman.'

To gentle irony, as in this description of the elderly Miss Alan's troubles:

It was a real catastrophe, not a mere episode, that evening of hers at Venice, when she had found in her bedroom something that is one worse than a flea, though one better than something else.

There is the beauty of Forster's descriptions, as in this passage:

Evening approached while they chatted; the air became brighter; the colours on the trees and hills were purified, and the Arno lost its muddy solidity and began to twinkle. There were a few streaks of bluish-green among the clouds, a few patches of watery light upon the earth, and then the dripping facade of San Miniato shone brilliantly in the declining sun.

There are the touches of philosophy, as in this bit from George:

"We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm – yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.'

There are the acutely observed characters which feel so real. Many of them, true to Forster's own definition of round characters in his nonfiction work, Aspects of the Novel , surprise the reader in convincing ways. Of these, Lucy is quite possibly the most fully fleshed, so much so that even when she lies to herself and to those around her, I find myself sympathizing with her instead of condemning her. Among many things, A Room with a View is a coming of age story about Lucy's entry into adulthood.

Above all, perhaps, there is Forster's humane way of seeing the people he breathes life into. Even Cecil proves capable of rising, momentarily at least, above his priggishness. One senses compassion and kind wishes for the characters from the novel's omniscient narrator, even while that same narrator observes their flaws and weaknesses. I am in awe of Forster's ability to clearly observe, gently forgive, and passionately love, all at the same time.

The next to last chapter, "Lying to Mr. Emerson," makes for a soaring, triumphant climax to the novel. The elderly Mr. Emerson's speech to Lucy is one of the most moving and romantic meditations on love I have read, so I won't spoil it for readers.

We all need the room to express our personal truths, the openness and freedom to love that views represent in this novel. The values of self-knowledge over self-denial, of clear communication over muddled thinking, of the love and light that we can only express if we are true to ourselves, are at the center of A Room with a View , part and parcel of what makes the book an enduring classic.

In response to Mr. Emerson's speech, Lucy later thinks that "he had shown her the holiness of direct desire," and I think that is also what the author has done for this reader. A+.

Janine Ballard

Share this:

Janine Ballard loves well-paced, character-driven novels in romance, fantasy, YA, and the occasional outlier genre. Examples include novels by Ilona Andrews, Mary Balogh, Aster Glenn Gray, Helen Hoang, Piper Huguley, Lisa Kleypas, Jeannie Lin, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Naomi Novik, Nalini Singh, and Megan Whalen Turner. Janine also writes fiction. Her critique partners are Sherry Thomas and Meredith Duran. Her erotic short story, “Kiss of Life,” appears in the Berkley anthology AGONY/ECSTASY under the pen name Lily Daniels. You can email Janine at janineballard at gmail dot com or find her on Twitter @janine_ballard.

What a lovely review. I think I’ll do a re-read of Room With A View! Thanks for the nudge Janine.

I read Maurice before I read ARWV. I remember Maurice as such a beautifully written love story and that started me looking for more Forster books.

Maurice is one of those books I’ve never re-read for fear that it won’t hold up to my memories of it.

@ Joanne : I read Maurice too, but it was a long, long time ago. I remember liking it a lot and certain scenes, like the last one, still stand out in my mind.

Of Forster’s books I have read three novels, all early ones — A Room with a View , Maurice and Where Angels Fear to Tread ; two of his F/SF short story collections, The Celestial Omnibus and The Eternal Moment ; and his nonfiction book on writing, comprised of a series of lectures, Aspects of the Novel .

I can honestly say that he is one of my favorite authors ever, and yet, I’m afraid of reading his most respected books, Howard’s End (I have started it but haven’t gotten that far) and A Passage to India , for fear that they won’t live up to my stratospheric expectations. So I can truly relate to your fear of rereading Maurice .

Of all the Forster works I’ve read, my favorite is Where Angels Fear to Tread , but given its tragic ending, I thought it was less suitable for DA’s readership than A Room with a View .

This is one of my favorite movies and I went on to read the book afterwards. I was glad to find that the movie was a faithful adaptation of the novel. However, I cannot even read the review without seeing Helena Bohem Carter, Julian Sands, Daniel Day Lewis and Maggie Smith in my mind.

@ Tae : LOL. I also see the cast of the film in my mind (Denholm Elliott who played Mr. Emerson most of all), probably because it was the movie that first introduced me to the book.

It’s interesting to compare the movie to the book. Very faithful adaptation, as you note, although there are minor differences and the book gives more insight into the characters’ thought processes.

Great review. I love what you say about “Forster's humane way of seeing the people he breathes life into” – the older I get, the more I appreciate that in a novel. I was reading a New Yorker essay on “Middlemarch” and it reminded me that one of the things I loved about that book was Eliot’s acceptance of all of her character’s foibles.

I’ve only read “A Room with a View” by Forster, but I’ve seen film adaptions of “Howard’s End” and “Where Angels Fear to Tread” (the latter quite recently), and like both a lot. His humor is sublime, especially when dealing with culture clashes, but it’s the serious parts that stay with me.

Thanks Jennie.

the older I get, the more I appreciate that in a novel. I was reading a New Yorker essay on “Middlemarch” and it reminded me that one of the things I loved about that book was Eliot's acceptance of all of her character's foibles.

Me too. I think the warmth and tolerance reflected in the novel’s worldview are a huge part of what I appreciate in it. It always seems to me that he understands and sympathizes with his characters even when they make their worst mistakes. He makes it difficult to despise them even when they do things that in another book, I would view as despicable.

Take Charlotte Bartlett. She begins the book as a kind of unbearable duenna figure. It is she who breaks up George and Lucy, standing “brown against the view.”

And I think much later in the book, when Lucy sings at the piano, the song whose lyrics are “Look not thou on beauty’s charming / Sit thou still when kings are arming / Taste not when the wine-cup glistens / Speak not when the people listens / Stop thy ear against the singer / From the red gold keep thy finger / Vacant heart and hand and eye / Easy live and quiet die” is meant to embody an aspect of Charlotte at least as much as an aspect of Lucy.

Yet by this time, Lucy has allowed herself to become a kind of shadow-Charlotte, which allows us to begin to understand more deeply where Charlotte is coming from, and when Lucy finally breaks free, she and George piece together the realization that Charlotte aided their love as much as she thwarted it.

It’s astonishing that he wrote the book when he was only in his twenties.

I've only read “A Room with a View” by Forster, but I've seen film adaptions of “Howard's End” and “Where Angels Fear to Tread” (the latter quite recently), and like both a lot. His humor is sublime, especially when dealing with culture clashes, but it's the serious parts that stay with me.

His other novels are reputed to be more serious than A Room with a View , and from what I’ve read that’s been the case, so you might like them. Where Angels Fear to Tread , in particular, broke my heart. I wasn’t keen on the film adaptation though I saw it before reading the book, but the novel — wow. The last scene was indelibly powerful, romantic and tragic.

Oddly enough, I’m less interested in the HEA between Lucy and George and rather more interested in what their romance represents for the middle-class society of the Edwardian era. The expectations placed on Lucy’s shoulders mimics Lily Bart’s burden, though Lily is “wealthier” and better placed than Lucy. The description of both milieus–the fussy, anxious English middle class and the greedy, grasping “400”–is rather suffocating; however, unlike Lily, Lucy had the freedom to choose her path simply because she isn’t so highly placed on the social scale. Lily’s fall was infinitely more precarious because she had so far to drop, and love was never an option for her. That said, I find Forster an excellent author, but I always feel slightly unnerved when reading his novels because they feel a bit rough around the edges emotion-wise.

Lily Bart chose her milieu. She alienated her aunt/chaperone by gambling and spending beyond her means. Her beauty promised her easy entry into the gilded society, theme of Wharton’s.

However, to stay in that society, because she was not wealthy nor married required a series of lies. Lily could do the small lies, but the big one, marrying a man she didn’t love, was something she couldn’t bring herself to do.

Her tragedy was that she didn’t recognize her own core value of honesty before it was too late.

Thank you very much for reminding me of books I can download and read.

@ Evangeline Holland :

Oddly enough, I'm less interested in the HEA between Lucy and George and rather more interested in what their romance represents for the middle-class society of the Edwardian era.

The most interesting aspect of the novel to me isn’t the HEA either, although I was very much rooting for Lucy and George. I think the novel is far more focused on Lucy than on George, and so I would say that for me it’s the theme of being true to oneself that is most resonant.

Of course, class consciousness is one of the major forces that stands in opposition to Truth in this novel and in some of Forster’s other books. But ultimately for me it’s the internal struggle between being what others want or expect us to be and being true to our innermost desires and beliefs that I find so compelling.

I think when Forster, through Lucy’s POV, writes that Mr. Emerson had shown Lucy “the holiness of direct desire” he doesn’t just mean physical desire (though that’s in there too) but also desire as in any longing or need.

Forster strongly prefers direct emotion to repression, though many of his characters are repressed. It seems to me that repressed emotion is a force he tries to counter with his books. But that’s not only done to make it possible to express romantic feelings, but to make it possible to express thoughts and feelings in general, as well.

As Mr. Emerson says to Lucy:

“Am I justified?” Into his own eyes tears came. “Yes, for we fight for more than Love or Pleasure; there is Truth. Truth counts, Truth does count.”

I see that need for the freedom to express true thoughts and feelings as the central theme in the novel, the figurative room with a view.

The expectations placed on Lucy's shoulders mimics Lily Bart's burden

I haven’t read The House of Mirth and so can’t compare the two books.

I find Forster an excellent author, but I always feel slightly unnerved when reading his novels because they feel a bit rough around the edges emotion-wise.

Rough around the edges in what way?

You’re welcome!

I tend to read Forester less for the story and more for how his books make me feel. I loved A Room With A View and Maurice because after I finish reading them the world seems to shine. His books are so gorgeous. And, like some of the other commenters, I am afraid to reread Maurice because reading it was such an intense experience (I started and couldn’t stop until I was finished) and I worry that I’ve thought about it too much to enjoy it the same way again.

@ Willamae :

I loved A Room With A View and Maurice because after I finish reading them the world seems to shine.

That’s such a beautiful way of putting it! His books make me feel like that too.

I can’t believe that so many readers wax lyrical about this novel as an endearing romance. Of course, the text proper is exactly that, with winning characters and a beautiful romantic tension. But has everyone read a version without the afterword? Forster’s afterword, written much later in 1958, tears everything to shreds. It takes us through two world wars, George’s infidelity, the harm to their relationship, George’s trip to Florence, where he cannot find the Guest House or the view, and their disappearance, since the author no longer knows where they live and seems uninterested in finding out. The afterword is bitter, cynical, and totally at odds with the main story. I have no idea why Forster did it, but it spoils the book for everyone who reads it. That he took the trouble to write it after such a long time suggests a determination that makes it seems he came to hate the book and its characters.

@ Dr. Denis MacEoin : I’ve read the epilogue but I took it as tongue in cheek. Doesn’t George, in the epilogue, lose a leg in World War I but then enlist again in World War II? That seems a clear signal of satire to me — we aren’t meant to take the epilogue seriously.

I do think that by 1958 Forster wasn’t entirely comfortable with the novel’s happy ending — it was the cold war, fear of nuclear weapons era, and happy endings were no longer in vogue in serious literature. At the same time, I also read somewhere that Forster didn’t complete some gay themed novels he wanted to write precisely because he wanted to write them with happy endings, but no publisher would accept a happy ending for a gay love story at the time. What a loss to literature.

So in sum, I can’t take the ARWAV epilogue as seriously as you do. It reads as tongue in cheek to me.

Also, while I find A Room with a View deeply romantic, I feel it is even more focused on speaking your truth. Yes, here that truth takes the form of admitting your love to the person you love, regardless of who that loved one is and whether that love is considered socially acceptable, as well as being unashamed of the physical aspects of love. But it is above all about being true to oneself, and not just in romantic relationships — Charlotte’s role in the story is evidence of that.

FTC Disclaimer

We do not purchase all the books we review here. Some we receive from the authors, some we receive from the publisher, and some we receive through a third party service like Net Galley . Some books we purchase ourselves. Login

Discover more from Dear Author

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Why This Novel of Refreshing Innocence and Simple Pleasures Will Always Be Relevant

“We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows.” —George Emerson from A ROOM WITH A VIEW

I first read A ROOM WITH A VIEW when I was 21 years old, while backpacking in Europe with my best friend, Kasey. Indeed, I was on a train to Florence when I began the novel, finishing it in our one-star hotel room, where, if you craned your neck, you could see a view of the Duomo from the window—the same view protagonist Lucy Honeychurch and cousin Charlotte believed they had been cheated out of at the Pension Bertolini, when they were placed in rooms facing the courtyard. For Lucy Honeychurch, there was no romance in Florence without a view of the Duomo. I was as taken with the city’s food as I was with its architecture, and to this day I remember the pistachio gelato I could buy on nearly every street corner and the panini at All’antico Vinaio, especially the one with pesto, mozzarella, chicken, and the sweetest little tomatoes I had ever tasted. What a summer—panini, novels, trains, my best friend, and all of my possessions crammed into a backpack that, even when full, weighed less than 20 pounds, as mandated by Rick Steves, the budget travel guru that Kasey and I had adopted as our patron saint. Lucy and Charlotte had their Baedeker; we had Rick Steves’s “Europe Through The Back Door.”

When you’re young and traveling by train through Europe, staying in hostels and cheap hotels, you make friends easily. It was over an al fresco dinner in Florence that I found a fellow E. M. Forster fan. Our new friend, she of the red hair and heavy eye makeup—let’s call her Sophia—told me that her favorite part of A ROOM WITH A VIEW was when Mr. Emerson tells Lucy she has gotten herself into a muddle. Sophia was struck by the word muddle , which described the confusion and disorder that was self-afflicted, but felt binding nonetheless. Once alerted to the term, I realized that muddle shows up throughout the novel. And it was, indeed, a muddle that Lucy had gotten herself into near the book’s conclusion, lying to George by telling him she did not love him, lying to Cecil by telling him that she was not leaving him because she loved another, lying to her family by telling them that she really did want to accompany the elderly Miss Alans to Greece (and possibly around the world!).

Lucy was stuck in a muddle, and then old Mr. Emerson—with a surprising assist from poor Charlotte—intervened. How lovely if, in life, when you were about to make an unwise decision—one that would haunt you, placing you on the path to eventual bitterness—an elderly gentleman said, “My dear, I am worried about you. It seems to me…that you are in a muddle,” and then helped you find your way out of it.

I’ve reread A ROOM WITH A VIEW several times since my introduction to it in Italy, and I’ve watched the film version by Merchant Ivory Productions. It’s such an accessible story, funny at times, poignant, wistful, romantic: George tossing away Lucy’s postcards so she won’t see the blood spilled on them from the violence she inadvertently witnessed in Santa Croce; Lucy bursting through the field of violets on an Italian hilltop and finding herself in George’s arms; Freddy, Lucy’s little brother, enticing George and the Reverend Beebe to “come and have a bathe,” which leads to Lucy running into a naked George as he, Freddy, and the sanguine Beebe transform a little playful splashing into a raucous game of chase through the woods; dreadful old Cecil and his fussy little opinions, juxtaposed with his startling self-awareness and generosity when Lucy breaks off their engagement. It’s all so wonderful and charming and life-affirming, and so very gentle in its depiction of a middle-class family in the suburbs of London.

Recently I was asked to lead—remotely—a book club conversation that took place at the fabulous Rakestraw Books in Danville, California. As discussion leader, I got to pick the book. I chose A ROOM WITH A VIEW, and when asked why, I said it is the refreshing innocence of it all—that it’s a study of (mostly) good people, with obvious foibles of course, but who love one another as best they can, who save one another from muddles, who take genuine pleasure in a game of tennis or a dip in the cool water in the woods behind the family home. And then Michael Barnard, Rakestraw’s owner, brought up a truth I had never before considered: A ROOM WITH A VIEWwas first published in 1908. Six years later, World War I would begin. Many of the young men I had grown to love, including George Emerson and Freddy Honeychurch, would go off to fight in the war, and would very likely be maimed or killed. The gentle world found in A ROOM WITH A VIEW would not last.

George tells Lucy that “the shadow always follows.” His words are as true in literature as they are in life. My own experience of unencumbered European travel via train when I was twenty-one is a story of privilege, but it is also one of simple pleasure (all that pistachio gelato!) and of youth. How could I have guessed at the time what calamities lay ahead, both on a personal and a national level? The shadow always follows is a truth I force my own characters to reckon with in my latest novel, WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE . So how do we best live, knowing there is no escaping the shadow? I take heart in George’s advice to Lucy: “Choose a place where you won’t do harm—yes, choose a place where you won’t do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.”

MENTIONED IN:

Readers’ Choice: Our 10 Most Popular Books in September

By Off the Shelf Staff | September 27, 2019

By Susan Rebecca White | September 5, 2019

You must be logged in to add books to your shelf.

Please log in or sign up now.

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

A Room With A View by EM Forster, book of a lifetime: ‘The literary equivalent of hot buttery mashed potato'

Em forster's book has entertained lucinda hawksley at all stages of her life so far, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails, thanks for signing up to the breaking news email.

On my first visit to Italy I was 13. It was on a Schools Abroad trip, on which we spent a night in the port of Brindisi, where I and my fellow schoolmates were sexually harassed by scary sailors, made sick by the stink of diesel and where nothing could have been further from the Italy of Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson. The next time I went to Italy I was about to go to university – I was in love with life, in love with travelling, in love with love and more than ready to fall in love with the Italy I knew from the works of E M Forster. It is a love affair that has never ended.

I read A Room with a View at the age of 14 – and have continued to do so, on a regular basis, ever since. I turn to it whenever I need comfort reading; it's the literary equivalent of hot buttery mashed potato on a miserably cold day. Despite that, I seem to discover something new each time I read it.

• The Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah: Bleakly funny take on crime thriller
• Not in Your Genes, by Oliver James - book review
• Six Four, by Hideo Yokoyama - book review: A giant kidnapping thriller
• Kevin MacNeil , The Brilliant & Forever: 'Alpacas are human, too'
• Caitlin Moran, Moranifesto: Fun and fury as politics becomes personal
• Celine Marchbank, Tulip: My Mother’s Favourite Flower

The first time I visited Florence, I felt I knew it already. Seeing the Arno and knowing this was the same river on which Lucy, Charlotte and the Emersons also gazed, gave me a thrill of connection to a past age. In 2015 I gave a talk on my biography of Princess Louise at the British Institute in Florence. Stepping into the building, on the banks of the Arno, was to enter a world where nothing seemed to have changed since Princess Louise's time (incidentally, a woman whom Forster knew). I felt as though I'd stepped into the Florence the Rev Eager would recognise, and was sure I could discern some of his "flock" in the audience.

There are so many books one should never re-read: books that spoke soulfully to your younger self seldom work when read again (most notably, for me, Paolo Coelho's By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept).

A Room With A View, however, has entertained me at all stages of my life so far. Wherever I've travelled, I've encountered Forster's characters. In Jordan, I could discern Mr Beebe and Mr Emerson visiting the temples of Petra. Last year I was in Norway when I saw a family sit down for a picnic – and they actually possessed "mackintosh squares". I have visited churches, temples and mosques all over the world and have lost count of the times I have been informed "this was built by faith", to which I always intone in my mind Mr Emerson's words: "Built by faith indeed! That simply means the workmen weren't paid properly." So far, I have managed to prevent myself from saying it out loud. I hope E M Forster would smirk a wry smile at that.

Lucinda Hawksley's new book is 'Charles Dickens and His Circle' (National Portrait Gallery, £9.99)

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

Book Review

A room with a view by e.m. forster.

by Carrie S · Sep 8, 2016 at 3:00 am · View all 21 comments

A Room with a View

by E.M. Forster

More Info →

View Book Info Page

Genre: Classic

This summer I treated myself to re-read of A Room With A View, a book that gets better every time I read it. While Lucy Honeychurch is in a “muddle” for sure, she wants to do the right thing, and seeing her struggle to become her authentic self is thrilling. Plus, the book is hilarious in so many subtle ways that I keep finding new things to enjoy.

A Room With a View was first published in 1908. It involves the gloriously named Miss Lucy Honeychurch, a young women from the upper middle classes, who meets an unconventional young man while traveling in Rome Florence, and who is thrown back together with him in England. Lucy is, in most ways, a completely conventional girl. However, the local clergyman, Mr. Beebe, who is staying at the same pension as Lucy in Italy, notices that there is a discrepancy between how Lucy lives her life and how she plays the piano.

Miss Honeychurch, disjoined from her music stool, was only a young lady with a quantity of dark hair and a very pretty, pale, undeveloped face. She loved going to concerts, she loved stopping with her cousin, she loved iced coffee and meringues. He did not doubt that she loved his sermon also. But before he left Tunbridge Wells he made a remark to the vicar, which he now made to Lucy herself when she closed the little piano and moved dreamily towards him: “If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting-both for us and for her.”

The story begins with Lucy’s chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett, complaining that their room in the pension lacks a view. Fellow traveler Mr. Emerson and his son are quick to offer to exchange rooms, as they have a view and don’t especially care about it. This throws Charlotte into a complete tizzy because to her such a direct offer is both rude and dangerous – she wishes to avoid putting Lucy under any “obligation.” The conflict between open kindness and honesty, as represented by the Emersons, and strict adherence to manners, as represented by pretty much everyone else, is a central theme of the book and the cause of much caustic hilarity.

Mr. Emerson’s son, George, is awkward and poetic. If he had gone to college with me, he would be a big fan of The Doors and The Cure and Jack Kerouac and we would have been broody best friends. His flirtations with Lucy are brief and awkward but intense and include an impulsive kiss – you can guess what Charlotte thinks about that! Charlotte manipulates Lucy into keeping the kiss a secret, and thus commences Lucy’s “muddle” (as Mr. Emerson calls it) as she heads home and gets engaged to poor Cecil, the stuffiest guy in the universe.

As events conspire to complicate Lucy’s life, the chapter headings becoming increasingly funny: “Lying to George,” “Lying to Cecil,” “Lying to Mr. Beebe, Mrs. Honeychurch, Freddie, and the Servants.”

The romance here is just barely sketched in – George and Lucy barely know each other, and – let’s be honest here – they are babies. They are undergraduates wearing black and drinking coffee in the dorm basement while discussing Walt Whitman and Sylvia Plath. I’m not judging. I was totally that undergraduate and that time of life served me well and I can still come up with a good barbaric yawp today. I’m just saying that these people are less equipped to work through a real relationship that involves budgeting and children and working through conflict than two adorable lemurs on LSD.

And yet, how can we not root for Lucy and George? Their love story works for two reasons. The first is that they are both adorable. They are a pair of Golden Labrador Retrievers. By the way, the excellent movie adaptation stars both a young Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands, and the puppy eyes are strong with those two. All shall fall before them.

The second reason that the romance works is that the romance is clearly symbolic. In throwing off the conventional Cecil, who is perturbed when Lucy plays music too passionately, behaves too erratically, or any other way displays true personality and autonomy, Lucy is choosing to live as she plays. She also considers being a spinster like Charlotte, but Charlotte is not a role model of happy spinsterhood. Charlotte is dependent on others and passive aggressive to the point where it’s a true work of art to watch that woman work a room. Lucy wants physical and emotional passion and art and romance and adventure with George, she will by golly get it.

George and Lucy do grow up considerably in the course of the book. Lucy has to be honest with Cecil, who grows up himself as a result. George has to realize that he has some of the same faults as Cecil, such as in a speech with is both an incredibly self-aware and progressive acknowledgement of internalized sexism and an incredibly romantic and telling moment:

I’m the same kind of brute at bottom. This desire to govern a woman – it lies very deep, and men and women must fight it together before they shall enter the garden. But I do love you – surely in a better way than he does. Yes – really in a better way. I want you to have your own thoughts even when I hold you in my arms.

This book is lovely and lyrical and both ferociously biting (the English tourists are SKEWERED) and surprisingly sweet. The bond between Lucy and her family, and the concern and tenderness that Mr. Emerson and George have for each other, feel authentic and heartwarming, and Mr. Beebe’s continual championing of Lucy is very kind.

And did I mention that the book is hilarious? From the set pieces (Exhibit A: the skinny dipping scene) to the one liners, as when Miss Lavish derides Tennyson by saying, “Tut! The Early Victorians!” and the elderly Miss Alan replies, “My Dear, I am an Early Victorian!” the book is wickedly funny without being cynical.

In discussing the Emersons and their constant social gaffes, Mr. Beebe  Miss Alan says, “Have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time – beautiful?” It’s this sense of beauty, both in the natural world that surrounds the characters and in their inner, though muddled, goodness, which keeps the book from being hopelessly dark. The romance between Lucy and George is like one of the songs Lucy plays that startles her audiences – it startles Lucy out of her complacency and helps her become her more authentic and amazing self.

This book is available from:

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

Add your comment →.

Oh, thank you for writing this review! I’ve loved this book for years for these exact reasons. I care nothing for the romance in it other than finding it cute, but everything else is just lovely.

I’m going to be pedantic, but with good reason: it isn’t Mr. Beebe who says the line you mentioned at the end, it’s one of the Miss Alans. I’m correcting it because this is one of the lines I always remember from the book. Not for the sentiment itself – as a person living in the world today I of course take it for granted. But there was something so lovely, so human and human-loving and wise and clear-eyed, in Forster writing that line. In him writing an elderly, kind and endlessly proper lady who’d be so much part of her time and culture that she’d say that sentence, that she’d find it surprising that something could be indelicate and still beautiful – and still, that she could see enough through all of her assumptions and culture and limitations to glimpse the beauty, to want to comment on it and wonder at it and acknowledge it in Mr. Emerson’s actions.

Sorry, that was a giant paragraph! But that’s my favorite thing about this book, and E.M Forster. That he saw people with such clarity, and still loved them to the degree I saw in every detail of that book. I probably explained it badly, but I hope anyone who’s read it recognizes that feeling.

I haven’t read the book, but the movie is wonderful. It is one of my favorites.

I love both book and movie. So many great actors … Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, and a very young Rupert Graves as Freddie. It’s 30 years old now, which is rather frightening. I’ve read all of Forster’s most well-known novels, but this one is my favourite.

I love this book and studied it for A Level. Just one tiny thing is that the first part of the book is set in Florence not Rome.

I love both the book and the movie (Merchant/Ivory version). It’s one if the rare instances where I love the movie a little more. The cast was so amazing. I had a crush on Julian Sands when I was young. And I love how romantic and hopeful the movie ending is, whereas the book is more bittersweet.

I also love the book and the movie. It’s all about inside (Cecil) v. outside (George) too. I remember watching the movie when I was in high school and was shocked! SHOCKED! I tell you by the totally appropriate full-frontal male nudity. I think there was a fair bit of pausing on the VCR too.

I just watched the movie for the first time on Monday–I’d forgotten the skinny dipping scene in the book somehow, so that was fun ;)– and suddenly references to it are showing up everywhere I turn. Strange how that happens. I tend to think that Forster is one of the funniest writers in the English language, even with all kinds of references probably going over my head.

Thank you Mara and Ruth – you are both correct! I apologize for the errors.

Thank you so much for this, Carrie. You’ve brought the book to life. I’ve got a dusty copy somewhere. I’m going to go look for it.

I have never read the book OR seen the movie, which I now believe to be a pair of grievous oversights. Will amend the situation asap.

Back when I worked for a video rental firm, I was fortunate enough to go to a Merchant Ivory retrospective and ended up sitting one row in front of Simon Callow when they played the skinny-dipping scene from the film. I will regret to the end of my days not turning around and telling him that watching it at school when I was 14 was a landmark moment of my adolescence!

I looooove the book, I loooooove the film, I have issues about the more recent TV adaptation, but I loooooved Rafe and Timothy Spall as George and Mr Emerson. Honestly, just thinking about Room With A View puts a huge smile on my face. It’s one of the best coming of age stories ever.

Love, love, love this book! In high school and college, I kept a copy of this book in my backpack and just read and re-read it to pieces. It’s such a comfort book for me now, for all the reasons you describe!

I have such fond memories of the Merchant Ivory film. I saw it in a theater (on Christmas day, I think) with my parents. I would have been about eight, and it was the first “grown up” movie we saw on Christmas. I’m sure I missed lots, but I was so proud of myself for “getting” the story. And I fell out of my seat laughing at the skinny dipping scene, and giggled about it for weeks afterward. I’ve read/seen it since, but that first viewing was special.

Yea gods I have tried three times to read this book and can’t make it through. It’s a source of shame to me. I waded through The Mill on the Floss. I thought most of Henry James was terrifically clever. And yet I can’t with this one. I read Remains of the Day four times, so restrained romance isn’t the problem…I just can’t. /hangs head/

Thank you for this wonderful review, I’m re-reading Room With a View with so much enjoyment. Both the book and movie are favs…it was the first Forster novel I read so long ago and fell in love with his writing.

I love the film, and was so incredibly disappointed with the novel. The movie is so incredibly romantic, and the book was, in my opinion, not. It was well-written, but not at all what I was expecting, and I found it really very dull.

I have loved this book for decades–read it (and other EM Forster novels) multiple times. I’m somewhat surprised to see it showing up here as a “romance” novel. I never thought of it as such, although I guess it does have more romance than other Forster novels. Those who are disappointed with the book may be expecting more romance, or more action. But Forster’s focus was, I think, usually more on the intricacies and foibles of middle-class Edwardians. (Now I think I want to go reread A Passage to India.)

Huh, I actually do own a copy of this–I picked it up way back when Barnes and Noble originally launched the Nook, and they gave out ebook editions of a lot of their in-house editions of various classics for free. This thing has been waiting in my To Read queue for ages. Perhaps I should fix this problem. 🙂

I love this book! Although it’s written over a century ago, it stands the test of time and still feels fresh and relevant. George Emerson’s line especially – “I want you to have your own thougts even as I held you in my arms” – really resonates with me because I’ve seen far too many friends completely changing their personality and bending over backwards for the sake of their partners. And I know plenty of men who are needlessly overprotective and controlling that they wouldn’t tolerate their partners thinking about anything else beside them.

It’s sad that a book written over a century ago is more feminist than some men I know in real life.

It’s so lovely to be reminded of this story. I was first introduced to it when the movie came out. It played in my home town in a dedicated theatre room for years (literally years – it was that popular) and I went back and saw it countless times both with friends and on my own after I’d exhausted their patience with it.

After my first viewing of the film, I haunted the library and read all of Forster’s books and I’ve been so pleased over the years to see them, in turn, be made in to films which is a pretty rare thing for me because I generally despise the story compromises that are required to translate a book into movie form. Don’t even get me started on the abomination of the film version of Brideshead Revisited! Ahem. Anyway. Somehow Forster’s novels managed to be turned into films with their hearts intact.

We recently purchased a new TV for our home and my husband’s gift to me for allowing the extravagance of a new TV was playing the anniversary version of the film for me as our new TV’s first act of service. It was as delightful as ever and it was so fun to marvel at the talent in the cast and the variety in their work as their careers blossomed.

Yet, for all that, I didn’t think to re-read the book! A gregious oversight indeed! This review has inspired me to take it off the shelf and delve in again. I can hardly wait to get home and dig in.

Ser mexicano ccon residencia permanente enn México.

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Your Name: *

Your Email: (will never be shared) *

Your Website:

Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

↑ Back to Top

• WordPress.org
• Documentation
• Learn WordPress

Authors & Events

Recommendations

• New & Noteworthy
• Bestsellers
• Popular Series
• The Must-Read Books of 2023
• Popular Books in Spanish
• Coming Soon
• Literary Fiction
• Mystery & Thriller
• Science Fiction
• Spanish Language Fiction
• Biographies & Memoirs
• Spanish Language Nonfiction
• Dark Star Trilogy
• Ramses the Damned
• Penguin Classics
• Award Winners
• The Parenting Book Guide
• Books to Read Before Bed
• Books for Middle Graders
• Trending Series
• Magic Tree House
• The Last Kids on Earth
• Planet Omar
• Beloved Characters
• The World of Eric Carle
• Llama Llama
• Junie B. Jones
• Peter Rabbit
• Board Books
• Picture Books
• Guided Reading Levels
• Middle Grade
• Activity Books
• Trending This Week
• Top Must-Read Romances
• Page-Turning Series To Start Now
• Books to Cope With Anxiety
• Short Reads
• Anti-Racist Resources
• Staff Picks
• Memoir & Fiction
• Features & Interviews
• Emma Brodie Interview
• James Ellroy Interview
• Nicola Yoon Interview
• Qian Julie Wang Interview
• Deepak Chopra Essay
• How Can I Get Published?
• For Book Clubs
• Reese's Book Club
• Oprah’s Book Club
• happy place " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: Happy Place
• the last white man " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: The Last White Man
• Authors & Events >
• Our Authors
• Michelle Obama
• Zadie Smith
• Emily Henry
• Amor Towles
• Colson Whitehead
• In Their Own Words
• Qian Julie Wang
• Patrick Radden Keefe
• Phoebe Robinson
• Emma Brodie
• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Laura Hankin
• Recommendations >
• 21 Books To Help You Learn Something New
• The Books That Inspired "Saltburn"
• Insightful Therapy Books To Read This Year
• Historical Fiction With Female Protagonists
• Best Thrillers of All Time
• Manga and Graphic Novels
• happy place " data-category="recommendations" data-location="header">Start Reading Happy Place
• How to Make Reading a Habit with James Clear
• Why Reading Is Good for Your Health
• 10 Facts About Taylor Swift
• New Releases
• Memoirs Read by the Author
• Our Most Soothing Narrators
• Press Play for Inspiration
• Audiobooks You Just Can't Pause
• Listen With the Whole Family

A Room with a View Reader’s Guide

By e. m. forster.

Category: Classic Fiction | Literary Fiction | Romance

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Tumblr

READERS GUIDE

Questions and topics for discussion.

In a journal entry from July, 1910, E. M. Forster wrote, “However gross my desires, I find that I shall never satisfy them for the fear of annoying others. I am glad to come across this much good in me. It serves instead of purity.” Although Forster wrote this passage some two years after he published A Room with a View , it could have been written at almost anytime during his long life. However much he understood the “holiness of direct desire,” the emotional purity one achieves by following the heart rather than social orthodoxy, he spent his youth and young adulthood, as Lucy Honeychurch nearly did, repressing his sexual desires to adhere to the expectations of society.

Forster was only twenty-nine years old when he published A Room with a View in 1908. He had already published two books, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and The Longest Journey (1907). He was a respected writer, but not yet a famous one, and the themes touched on in his earlier novels — passion and convention, truth and pretense — were now given complexity and eloquence, with the maturity of a more experienced voice, in his third novel.

The first seeds for an Italian novel were planted during an extended trip to Florence that Forster and his mother took in 1901. This journey not only unleashed Forster’s creativity, but also provided a source of spiritual release from the rigid moral codes of English society. His depression over his own self-deception and his increasing mistrust of English middle-class society are mirrored in the conflicted relationship between the cautious, thoroughly English Honeychurches and the impulsive, free-spirited, socialist Emersons. Forster was tormented, like Lucy, with the possibility of becoming one of “the vast armies of the benighted, who follow neither the heart nor the brain, and march to their destiny by catch-words.”

While Lucy embodied Forster’s internal strife, Mr. Emerson was created in the image of a man Forster admired, Edward Carpenter, a social pioneer who believed in equality for women and open expression of homosexual love. First through his published works, and later as a friend, Carpenter was to Forster a beacon of spiritual and sexual liberation who guided him toward a deeper understanding of himself. For Lucy, Mr. Emerson is the “kind old man who enabled her to see the lights dancing in the Arno,” who encourages her to follow her heart’s and her body’s desire, explaining that “love is of the body; not the body, but of the body.” This advice she must heed, as Forster makes sure, in breaking from the fettered world of Windy Corner and choosing truth over deceit.

The happy resolution of A Room with a View did not come easily to Forster. He started work in earnest on the first draft of his novel in 1902, setting the story entirely in Italy. Forster began the final version in 1904, but put it aside to complete Where Angels Fear to Tread and The Longest Journey . Forster would not pick up A Room with a View again until 1907, when he commented to a friend, “It’s bright and merry and I like the story. Yet I wouldn’t and couldn’t finish it in the same style.” Completing the work would require another full year.

The “bright and merry” surface of the novel owes much to the social comedies of Jane Austen and Henry James. Like the heroines of Mansfield Park and Daisy Miller , Lucy begins the novel as a naif on the threshold of adulthood in a strange new world. Forster captures the pretense and manners of her social world with uncanny acuity. As Virginia Woolf wrote, “The social historian will find his books full of illuminating information. . . . Old maids blow into their gloves when they take them off. Mr. Forster is a novelist . . . who sees his people in close contact with their surroundings.” Like his forebears, he described the world around him with remarkable precision and insight.

Forster readily acknowledged his debt to the 19th-century domestic comedy, but said that he “tried to hitch it on to other things” — to the deeper themes of his work, such as the struggle for individuality and the barriers of social class. Forster’s plots and landscapes carry greater metaphorical weight than those of his predecessors: Lucy’s anguish in choosing between George and Cecil becomes a contest of modernity against the middle ages, honesty against hypocrisy, clarity against muddle. This subtext provides a richly textured counterpoint to superficial events. The novel’s ending is not unambiguously joyful. It almost seems that Forster allowed George and Lucy happiness against his own instincts. “Oh Mercy to myself I cried if Lucy didn’t wed,” Forster wrote in a letter as he was writing the final version of the novel.

Ultimately Lucy was more successful in fulfilling her desires than Forster ever was. As he composed A Room with a View in 1907, Forster was still more than six years away from writing his great celebration of homosexual love, Maurice, and his first fully realized romance lay even further in the future. How did this repressed desire color the development of the novel? The critical literature has shown great interest in the erotic undertones of the men’s bath at Sacred Lake and possible veiled references to Mr. Beebe’s homosexuality (“somewhat chilly in his attitude toward the other sex”). Some even believe that the entire work is a homosexual romance with Lucy as “a boy en travesti.” In the end the object of desire is probably less important than the passionate sentiment. What is remarkable, as critic Claude Summers notes, is that Forster’s wrestling with homosexual desire should give rise to one of the richest depictions of heterosexual love in the English language.

Certainly A Room with a View can be appreciated from this perspective as a story of sexual awakening that provides insight into Forster’s deeply felt struggle with his own sexuality. But it can be read on other levels as well. As a domestic comedy in the tradition of Jane Austen, it brilliantly skewers the world of Edwardian manners and social codes, providing some of Forster’s most riotous and revealing portraits in the characters of Cecil Vyse and Charlotte Bartlett. It also can be enjoyed as a book about the contradictions and conflicts of being human: how we reconcile our inner lives with outside expectations, and how it is possible, by opening one’s mind, to find faith and love in unexpected places.

Edward Morgan Forster was born on New Year’s Day, 1879, in Dorset Square, London, the second child (the first died soon after birth) of middle-class parents, Edward Llewellyn Forster, a Cambridge graduate and architect, and Alice Clara “Lily” Whichelo. When his son was just one, Forster’s father died after a long battle with consumption, leaving the family little money and making Lily a widow at twenty-five. Unwilling to live with relatives and unable to afford a London apartment, Lily moved to a house in the English countryside, Rooksnest, where she devoted herself to her son. At Rooksnest, Forster’s life was spent in the nurturing, overprotective “haze of elderly ladies” that included paternal aunts and Lily’s friends, and he formed a deep emotional attachment to the place, drawing later on the memories for Howards End .

When Forster was fourteen, he and Lily faced the disheartening news that their lease at Rooksnest was up, and they moved to the suburb of Tonbridge Wells. Here, Forster attended the boarding school as a day boy, with classics as his major study. At Tonbridge he wrote for the school newspaper and won several awards for his essays, but nonetheless it was here, a place that contrasted so sharply with his happy home life, where his feelings of being an outsider hardened into an abiding distaste for the English school system.

Forster’s intellectual and social life blossomed when, in 1897, he entered King’s College, Cambridge. With the guidance and encouragement of his classics professor, Forster grew to admire the modern European writers Tolstoy, Proust, and Ibsen, and began to test his own powers as a writer. It was during these years, too, that he first began to acknowledge his homosexuality, falling in love with another undergraduate, H. O. Meredith, who would be the center of his posthumously published novel Maurice . Meredith helped Forster become a member of the “Apostles,” the university’s foremost discussion group, where he formed friendships with many of the intellectuals later associated with the Bloomsbury Group in London.

In 1901, with his formal education over and uncertain about a career, Forster, accompanied by Lily, set off on a year-long trip to Italy to study Italian history, language, art, and literature, and to work on a novel-in-progress. In 1903 he published his first short story, “Albergo Empedocle,” and soon thereafter started to write for the Independent Review , a social and political journal founded by his Cambridge friends, to which he would contribute regularly for many years. His first three published novels, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), and A Room with a View (1908) received generally favorable reviews and made him a minor literary celebrity, but not until the publication of Howards End (1910) did Forster achieve major acclaim as a writer.

During 1912 and 1913 Forster journeyed to India, beginning a lifelong fascination with the subcontinent. A return journey to India in 1921 provided the inspiration for A Passage to India (1924), which was hailed as a masterpiece on publication. After writing five novels in succession, then ending a fourteen-year hiatus with A Passage to India , Forster retired as a novelist at age forty-five.

He spent the second half of his life as a voracious reader, reviewer, and supporter of young writers such as J. R. Ackerly and Eudora Welty. A prominent public intellectual, Forster became the first president of England’s National Council on Civil Liberties and was a lifelong spokesman for personal and political tolerance, testifying in the trial that successfully overturned the ban on D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover .

King’s College awarded Forster an honorary fellowship in 1946, and he spent the rest of his years in Cambridge. Leading an active literary and social life to the end, Forster died in 1970 at age 91.

• How are Lucy’s character and mood captured in the descriptions of her piano playing throughout the novel? Why does she refuse to play Beethoven in Mrs. Vyse’s well-appointed flat? What compels her to sing, after breaking her engagement with Cecil, the song that ends with the line “Easy live and quiet die”?  
• Forster’s use of light and darkness, vision and blindness, day and night has transparent meaning in many passages: Lucy throws open the window of her room with a view while Charlotte closes the shades. Cecil is best suited to a room, while George is in his element in the naked sunlight of the Sacred Lake. Discuss the variations on the theme of clarity and shadow in the book, for example the twilight on the Piazza Signoria before Lucy witnesses the murder, or her attempts to flee “the king of terrors — Light” in the novel’s second half.  
• Lucy and George both stand outside Britain’s traditional class structure. George is a clerk, the son of a journalist and grandson of a laborer. Lucy is the daughter of a lawyer and her social status is “more splendid than her antecedents entitled her to.” What role does social class play in the novel? Why did Forster choose Cecil to deliver the statement: “The classes ought to mix…There ought to be intermarriage — all sorts of things. I believe in democracy.”?  
• Mr. Beebe is portrayed early in the novel as an observant, thoughtful counselor with a good sense of humor and an unusually open mind for a clergyman. Soon after meeting Lucy he predicts that “one day music and life shall mingle” for her. Why does he fail, in the end, to support her decision to leave Cecil for George?  
• In comparison, Charlotte Bartlett is absurdly prudish, forbidding her cousin even to sleep in the bed where George Emerson had slept. If George’s surmise at the novel’s end is correct, what motivates her to help bring the lovers together by facilitating Lucy’s fateful meeting with Mr. Emerson? What does this turnabout suggest about the repressive forces in society? Is she, as George jokes, made of the “same stuff as parsons are made of”?  
• “Muddle” is one of Forster’s favorite words and seems to carry more weight in his work than in current colloquial usage. Lucy declares at the end of Part 1, “I want not to be muddled. I want to grow older quickly.” What does Mr. Emerson mean when he uses the word to describe Lucy’s state of mind near the novel’s end, saying, “It is easy to face Death and Fate…It is on my muddles that I look back with horror”?  
• Lucy and George’s final happiness is clouded by their severed relations with those she left behind. The Honeychurches “were disgusted at her past hypocrisy,” and Mr. Beebe will never forgive them. Do you think Forster believes, as Lucy asserts, that “if we act the truth, the people who really love us are sure to come back to us in the long run”?  
• What is “medieval” about Cecil’s attitude toward women in general and toward Lucy in particular? What role is she allotted in his notion of chivalry? Why does Lucy feel, after George throws her blood-stained photographs into the Arno, that it is “hopeless to look for chivalry in such a man”? What kind of companionship and protection does George offer in exchange?  
• Forster, who was greatly influenced by the art of Italy during his first visit there, not only explores the proper relationship of life and art in A Room with a View but also uses art to illuminate his characters. What do we learn about the inner lives of George and Mr. Emerson from their views of Giotto’s fresco in Santa Croce (Chapter 2)? Why is Lucy’s outburst over Mr. Eager like “Leonardo on the ceiling of the Sistine”?  
• A frequent criticism of Forster’s plots is his reliance on coincidence and chance. What improbable circumstances are required to unite Lucy and George? Is George right when he says of their reunion in England, “It is Fate. Everything is Fate”? Does the novel suggest an external force that brings the lovers together?  
• There are many kinds of deceit in the book: betrayal by friends, secrets between lovers, and most importantly Lucy’s self-deceit. Four of the last five chapters show Lucy lying to nearly everyone else in the book. Which kinds of lies are most harmful to the “personal relations” that Forster cherished?  
• Though sparing in his descriptions of physical love, Forster often expresses the physical component of spiritual passion indirectly, as in his description of Lucy’s piano playing: “Like every true performer she was intoxicated by the mere feel of the notes: they were fingers caressing her own; and by touch, not by sound alone, did she come to her desire.” What balance between the physical and emotional expressions of love does Mr. Emerson suggest in his statement, “I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal. . . . I only wish poets would say this too: love is of the body; not the body, but of the body”?

Related Books and Guides

Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

Raise kids who love to read

Today's Top Books

Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

An online magazine for today’s home cook

Just for joining you’ll get personalized recommendations on your dashboard daily and features only for members.