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Title: A Room with a View by E.M. Forster ISBN: 0-553-21323-7 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 July, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (72 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A pleasantly-written, enjoyable English social comedy
Comment: A Room With A View is one of those light-hearted, yet serious books that starts out slowly, begins to warm up, and becomes wonderful toward the end -- leaving one with a warm, happy glow. On the surface, it is a very simple book, one with a very simple plot: forbidden love. Indeed, it is not the plot and the story itself that makes the book so enjoyable: it is the style of writing and the characters. Outside of his fiction, Forster is also well-known for his essays on various aspects of literature; he also taught in the English university system. Throughout the course of the book, this becomes clear: Forster writes like an English literature professor. This accounts for both the book's slow start and its eventual charm. Always a clever writer (though occasionally too self-consciously so), with his tongue never too far from his cheek, Forster can definitely turn a phrase -- the penultimate paragraph to one of the later chapters, on Lucy's "surrender", is bone-chillingly good -- and the book is written in a generally light-hearted, jovial way. As another reviewer pointed out, he almost seems to be making fun of his characters at times. Clearly a social critic at heart, Forster shows how what seem like earth-shattering tragedies to Lucy, the book's prim, upper-crust heroine, are, at best, mere ripples in the pool. Despite the recurring "tragedies", the book's mood never gets too dark and heavy; the light-hearted chapter titles help this along. That, then, is what raises the book above the countless similarly-plotted novels of its kind: the writing -- and also the characterization. Forster, after all, was the one who came up with the concept of "flat" and "round" characters in the first place; and, as anyone familiar with the terms knows, the former one is not a pejorative: Forster stressed that a novel needs both kinds of characters to be balanced and true-to-life. This novel, indeed, has them: Lucy, the well-rounded, life-accurate heroine, who lives, breathes, and grows; Cecil, the walking caricature. Forster's aforementioned social criticism should also be once again remarked upon. In this social comedy, Forster deflates Edwardian England's puffed-up, self-important upper-class societal values and leaves us both charmed and amused at the same time. The book's deeper element lies here, where he enlightens us about the hypocrisy and xenophobia of English society. His point should not be missed. All of these elements come together to bring about a delightful, pleasant, and short read that is likely to please most anyone who happens to pick it up. This is a well-deserved classic.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Room With A View
Comment: Forster's indicment of Victorian England is not as enjoyable as Howard's End or A Passage to India. However his direct style and story telling ability is still preferrrable to some of his British contemporaries.
The story centers around that of the ruling gentry and their contempt for anyone a little different from themslves. Interestingly enough Forster's most booring characters seem to be the Anglican clerics who are more interested in gossip and self importance that serving their constituents.
The novel begins in Florence admidst the many treasures that adorn that City and concludes in the beautiful English countryside. The hero, Lucy, is embarrassed by her own attraction to the Emersons's, Father and Son, who are clearly not of her class. She is encouraged by her stuufy cousin and a couple of old maids who are staying at the same hotel to avoid the Emersons. Mr. Emerson is a true romantic and his style is much to direct for their comfort and his quiet son George is much too gloomy.
Lucy is so taken off balance by young George Emerson that she cuts short her stay in Florence and flees to Rome and then home. At home she becomes engaged to a dull and pretentious man who her Mother and brother dislike.
By coincidence the Emerson's let a house from Lucy's fiance and Lucy is confronted with George. Through a series of events,Lucy finally comes to grips with the feelings she has fought so hard to repress.
Rating: 5
Summary: Elegant, witty, insightful
Comment: Wonderful book, wonderful movie, wonderful book-on-tape.
This classic by E. M. Forster is full of wicked humor that punctures the 19th century English class system. Superb cameo pieces. The character development is subtle and sure, beginning with our heroine traveling to Italy with her maiden aunt as chaperone. There, in a pensione, she meets an iconoclastic father and son, honest, rough-hewn, plain-spoken, who insist upon trading rooms when they overhear the prim aunt complaining that she booked a room with a view. It, of course, becomes a metaphor for room to view life as a whole, without prejudice, in all its wonderful complexity.
Don't miss this excellent book by this excellent author. Then read all his others, if you haven't already done so.
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Title: Howards End by E. M. Forster, David A. A. Lodge ISBN: 014118213X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: A Passage to India by E. M. Forster ISBN: 0156711427 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 1984 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster ISBN: 0679736344 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 18 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Dubliners by James Joyce ISBN: 0486268705 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 May, 1991 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad ISBN: 0486264645 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
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