E. M. Forster

This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England. A charming young English woman, Lucy Honeychurch, faints into the arms of a fellow Britisher when she witnesses a murder in a Florentine piazza. Attracted to this man, George Emerson -- who is entirely unsuitable and whose father just may be a Socialist -- Lucy is soon at war with...

In this hard-hitting novel, first published in 1924, the murky personal relationship between an Englishwoman and an Indian doctor mirrors the troubled politics of colonialism. Adela Quested and her fellow British travelers, eager to experience the "real" India, develop a friendship with the urbane Dr. Aziz. While on a group outing, Adela and Dr. Aziz visit the Marabar caves together. As they emerge, Adela accuses the doctor of assaulting her. While...

The renowned British novelist’s “casual and wittily acute guidance” on reading—and writing—great fiction (Harper’s Magazine).
 
Renowned for such classics as A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India, E. M. Forster was one of Britain’s—and the world’s—most distinguished fiction writers, a frequent nominee for the Nobel...

A prophetic story about social isolation and dependence on technology written over a century ago by the Nobel Prize—nominated author. In a future version of planet Earth, most of the human population doesn't venture above ground. Rarely do they even leave their own rooms, in which all of their needs are met by the Machine. The Machine allows the humans to communicate "ideas" with one another, which is essentially their only activity. It doesn't...

"Something that cuts across them like a bar of light . . . patiently illumines all their problems, and at another place shoots over or through them as if they did not exist. We shall give that bar of light two names, fantasy and prophecy." -E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel Six compelling tales intertwined with fantasy spotlight the profound humanism that E. M. Forster developed in his later novels. These early writings provide readers with...

The author of A Passage to India offers personal and historical reflections on the Egyptian city of Alexandria in these essays, articles, and poems. As a noncombatant during the First World War, E. M. Forster was stationed with the British Red Cross in Alexandria, Egypt. He fell in love with the place, which had once been a cultural crossroads of the world, and with a young Egyptian man named Mohammed el Adl. Pharos and Pharillon collects Forster's...

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist, and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. Forster's humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel, Howards End: "Only connect..." His 1908 novel, A Room with a View, is his most optimistic work, while...

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster is a novel that weaves together themes of love, social conventions, and self-discovery. Set in the early 20th century, the story follows the journey of the protagonist, Lucy Honeychurch, as she grapples with the expectations of society and her own desires. The narrative begins with Lucy's journey to Italy accompanied by her older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. They stay at the Pension Bertolini in Florence,...

One of E.M. Forster's most cherished and critically-acclaimed works, "Howards End" is an examination of social mores, class strife and personal relationships in turn-of-the-century England. The story revolves around three disparate families: the idealistic Schlegels (consisting of Margaret, Helen and brother Tibby), the wealthy Wilcox family (parents Henry and Ruth and their children) and the impoverished Basts (Leonard and his wife Jacky). When...