The ghost around the one it haunts / the want around the thing it wants...

[decemberthirty]

Oh, love. Oh, Forster. Oh, is there anything more perfect than Forster on the beauty, the necessity, the transforming force of love? It's enough to make me fall in love with Forster himself. Last night I finished A Room with a View; I wanted to love it and love it I did.

I think my appreciation of this book is due in part to my previous reading of Forster--call it the Maurice effect. When I read Howards End I found it a bit cold; it was clear that Forster had a point to prove, and the novel seemed more like an intellectual exercise than a truly compelling story. It took Maurice (about which I was over the moon a year ago) to show me that Forster's intellectualism is inextricably linked to emotion, and that if he has a point to prove it's only because the point is so deeply felt. So when I opened A Room with a View and in the first chapter found Lucy Honeychurch saying, "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?" my heart rose, and I knew what sort of book I was in for and that I would love it.

A Room with a View begins in Florence, where Lucy is traveling with her cousin. Lucy is a young woman who has led a conventional life, but, because this is Forster, she must wake up out of conventionality and into an authentic life. This is easier to do in Italy, where Lucy meets and falls in love with a strange young man named George Emerson, and harder once she's back in England--Forster does an excellent job of showing us just how hard it is for Lucy to leave the safety of propriety.

It is possible, I suppose, to read A Room with a View primarily as a comedy of manners. It certainly contains enough humor, and Forster is clever enough at satirizing his cast of oh-so-English tourists in Italy. But since I suffer from a life-long case of terminal sincerity, the comedic aspects mattered less to me than the soul-stirring aspects. I believed completely in Lucy's struggles, and in their importance. I loved the delicate touch with which Forster set his most important scenes, and the life he breathed into his best characters. I liked that fact that even Cecil Vyse, representative of all that is repressive about society, turned noble in defeat--his final scene in the novel is really quite touching. I liked the ending too--I should have been able to predict it, but each time I thought I knew what was going to happen some uncertainty crept into me and I questioned.

Really a lovely book. It won't displace Maurice as my favorite Forster, but I'm so glad I read it. I've been having a run of very good reading luck lately: first To the Lighthouse, then Tinkers, and now this!

Comments

[desert-tamar.livejournal.com]

When I read Howards End I found it a bit cold; it was clear that Forster had a point to prove, and the novel seemed more like an intellectual exercise than a truly compelling story.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one- I love HE. It's one tangled soap opera :)

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Ha ha--you know, I've never been able to figure out why Howards End didn't click for me. It seems like the sort of thing I would like and several people whose taste I respect told me they loved it, but when I read it I felt like I could see what was admirable about it, but it didn't move me. Might have just been a case of reading the book at the wrong moment. Or maybe I just needed Maurice to open Forster up for me. Maybe I should give Howards End another try...

[desert-tamar.livejournal.com]

Oh, def. Give it a try- what's the worst that could happen ? ;)

[onthetide.livejournal.com]

Forster is amazing, and Maurice is one of my very favourite, most cherished books.

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Isn't Maurice so wonderful? It gripped my heart in a way that so few books do anymore.

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing both the films when they first came out, and Howard's End a few years ago. Of the two of them, I would definitely like to read A Room With A View. Now that you have mentioned Maurice which I had never heard of, I am going to add it to my list as well :) Penguin orange classics here we come :)

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Just for you, baby: Love that orange! (http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141441139,00.html?Maurice_E._M._Forster)

Maurice is one of my all-time favorites. I think you'd enjoy it.

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

I love the synopsis! Seems only fair when I'm done with a lady having it off with the game-keeper, I should follow it up :)

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Ha! Yes, it's best to have equal-opportunity game-keepers!

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

I went looking today for it, but they didn't have it, not even in a couple of classics sections where the covers were non penguin or illustrated :/ May have to wait or ask for it in.

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

I took it out of the library when I first read it, but started looking for it in bookshops after I decided that I loved it enough to need my own copy. Kept my eye out for ages and finally had to have it ordered. Of course as soon as I had placed the order I found one in a used bookshop for a dollar. Now I wish I had picked that one up--I'd have sent it to you! Anyhow, I'm so pleased that you're interested in reading it, and I hope you like it. There's always a little moment of "But what if they hate it?" stress when someone takes you up on a recommendation. :)

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

That's kind of why I would like to buy mine, so I can keep it afterwards not buy it new when I have already gone there :) Especially as I have read so little in the past and want to read as many new things as I can. And I like having a row of orange books all the same :) The thing is that I have to conquer my dislike of fiction to get there :) I am sad I couldn't find Maurice though, I would have liked to read it next. I may have to keep an eye out and do a search on their website too. Part of the exercise for me is also going to the shop to get it, so I wouldn't like to online it.

[zenbaker.livejournal.com]

Will have to give "A Room with a View" a go - to the library!

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Let me know what you think of it! :)

[dameboudicca.livejournal.com]

I read Howard's End after A room with a view and while I felt it was good, as you know some books are, no matter how you actually enjoy them, I never could warm up to it and I felt let down...
Perhaps I should try to find Maurice. I've read about it, but I've never actually seen it in a book-shop (neither new nor used). After all considering I live in a non-English speaking country it's very easy to come across books in English so you never really think about that it's just a small trickle compared to how many you would come across in let's say England!

And I LOVE To the lighthouse - the first one of Woolf I read. Read it in English - there is a translation to Swedish available but even though many translations (especially newer ones) can be really good it's hard to convince me that would actually work with a writer like that!

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

That is exactly how I felt about Howards End--I could admire it, but it couldn't actually move me. I'm glad to know I'm not alone, as so many people seem to love it. I would say that Maurice is worth seeking out, particular for a Forster fan. I felt like it revealed a lot to me about Forster, both as an artist and a person.

I wish To the Lighthouse had been the first Woolf I read! That book seemed like it was teaching me how to read her, and now I have the nagging sense that I should go back and read the other works of hers that I didn't quite appreciate before.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

I loved Howard's End, though I agree that it was something of an intellectual exercise. The only other Forster I've read was A Passage to India, which had a similar feel (though for a different point entirely), and which I didn't enjoy as much.

You've made me eager to pick up A Room with a View!

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know what you think about A Room with a View if you do check it out! It's very thematically similar to Maurice (my all-time #1 Forster favorite), and they both seem--to me, anyway--more authentically emotional than Howards End. I've got A Passage to India sitting on my shelf at the moment, but I'm not sure exactly when I'll get around to it.

[medusasbedhead.livejournal.com]

You *have* to read Forster's "Where Angels Fear To Tread." As someone with roots in both England and rural Southern Italy, I thought it was an absolutely *fascinating* sociological study-in-a-story.

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely check it out.

[medusasbedhead.livejournal.com]

:) Anytime!