Showing results by author "E M Forster" in All Categories

In this searching tragicomedy of manners, personalities, and world views, E.M. Forster explores the "idea of England" he would later develop in Howards End. Bookish, sensitive, and given to wild enthusiasms, Rickie Elliot is virtually made for a life at Cambridge, where he can subsist on a regimen of biscuits and philosophical debate.

Adela Quested travels to India with her chaperone Mrs Moore, on the premise of deciding whether to marry Mrs Moore's son Ronny Heaslop, the city magistrate. Finding her India very disappointingly English, Adela jumps at the chance the two women are given to travel to the distant Marabar caves with Aziz, a charismatic young Indian Doctor. When Adela is subjected to an attempted assault in one of the caves, Dr. Aziz is arrested and tried in court.

When the young English widow Lilia Herriton takes off on the grand tour and along the way marries a penniless Italian, her in-laws are far from amused. That the marriage should fail and poor Lilia die tragically are only to be expected. But that Lilia should have had a baby - and that the baby should be raised as an Italian - are matters of grave concern to Philip Herriton, his dour sister Harriet, and their well-meaning friend Miss Abbott.

Experience the chilling dystopian world of E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops, narrated by the captivating voice of Mike Vendetti. This thought-provoking tale, first published in 1909, remains eerily relevant today. Don't miss this gripping audiobook that explores themes of technology, isolation, and the human spirit.

First published in 1927, Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster remains one of the most influential works of literary criticism in the English language. Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cambridge University, Forster explores the essential elements that define the novel—story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm.

The Machine Stops is a captivating science fiction short story penned by E. M. Forster. Initially published in The Oxford and Cambridge Review in November 1909, this thought-provoking tale was later included in Forsters collection, The Eternal Moment and Other Stories, in 1928. Celebrated as one of the finest novellas up to 1965, it found its place in the popular anthology Modern Short Stories that same year. The narrative unfolds in a dystopian world where humanity has abandoned life on the Earths surface, with individuals confined to isolated underground cells. Here, they rely entirely on a ...

Lucy Honeychurch is a zesty young English woman living in the confines of Edwardian Britain. Whilst travelling in Italy, she meets the quirky George Emerson, who opens her eyes and arouses conflicting feelings. E.M. Forster’s 1908 “A Room with a View” explores themes of class, societal expectations, and the transformative power of true love, culminating in Lucy’s choice to embrace her heart over tradition.

An introspective novel of manners at once comic and tragic, The Longest Journey tells of a sensitive and intelligent young man with an intense imagination and a certain amount of literary talent. He sets out full of hope to become a writer, but gives up his aspirations for those of the conventional world, gradually sinking into a life of petty conformity and bitter disappointments.

The Machine Stops is a short science fiction story. It describes a world in which almost all humans have lost the ability to live on the surface of the Earth. Each individual lives in isolation in a 'cell', with all bodily and spiritual needs met by the omnipotent, global Machine. Most humans welcome this development, as they are skeptical and fearful of first-hand experience. People forget that humans created the Machine, and treat it as a mystical entity whose needs supersede their own. Those who do not accept the deity of the Machine are viewed as 'unmechanical' and are threatened with "...

A Room with a View is a romance that makes use of the convention of the marriage plot, but it is also a comedy parodying British tourism in Italy. Forster had spent one year travelling in Italy between 1901 and 1902, and the people and situations he observed during his visit greatly influenced the novel. Lucy’s visit to Northern Italy references the 18th-century Grand Tour, the trip across southern Europe, which was seen as a necessary way for young gentlemen to complete their education. In Forster’s novel, Lucy and her cousin travel to Florence to see the ‘real Italy’ but stay in a ...

A sparkling BBC Radio dramatisation of E M Forster's classic comedy of manners, set in Edwardian England and Italy Young, naive Lucy Honeychurch is visiting Italy for the first time, accompanied by her older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. On arrival at the Pension Bertolini, a mix-up...

Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin are on a vacation in Florence. The girls are given a room looking into the courtyard, but they would rather have one with a view over the river. George Emerson and his father offer the two girls to change rooms and this is how George and Lucy meet for the first time. George grows fond of Lucy but she is not sure of her feelings towards him. She returns home to England where she accepts to marry Cecil Vyse, a man who had already proposed to her three times.

The major part of the human population lives under the surface of Earth. Humankind has created a Machine which meets all possible needs. Travelling is permitted but people do not feel the need for it. Everybody lives in a separate room and communication is made via messages and videos only. However, not everyone is content with this life. There are rebels like Kuno who want to explore and get out of the limitations set by the Machine. Kuno will try to escape but without success.

Howard's End is about three families in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. The three families represent different gradations of the Edwardian middle class: the Wilcoxes, who are rich capitalists with a fortune made in the Colonies; the half-German Schlegel siblings (Margaret, Tibby, and Helen), who represent the intellectual bourgeoisie and have a lot in common with the real-life Bloomsbury Group; and the Basts, a couple who are struggling members of the lower-middle class. The Schlegel sisters try to help the poor Basts and try to make the Wilcoxes less prejudiced.

The story from which this collection takes its title describes the adventures of an imaginative boy who discovers an omnibus that enables him to travel to the past in the company of famous historical personages. When at his invitation, an incredulous adult accompanies him on a journey, the astonishing new vistas unfolding alarm the security-conscious older man, who wishes himself back in his comfortable suburban home.

Lucy Honeychurch is a young English girl abroad in Italy for the first time and is ready to experience all the beauty, art, and romance it has to offer. She is hampered by the oppressive attentions of her chaperone, her prim cousin Charlotte, as well as the presence of a substantial British expatriate and tourist community in Florence.

In a London suburb is a dead-end alley where twice a day a horse-drawn omnibus leaves for the Promised Land. Just make sure you get a return ticket before you leave, or you won't be coming back.

This brilliant novel depicts cultural clashes between a middle-class English family and a penniless Italian. His marriage to a young widow from Sawston leads to a tumultuous situation within the family.

"Let her go to Italy!" he cried. "Let her meddle with what she doesn't understand! Look at this letter! The man who wrote it will marry her, or murder her, or do for her somehow. He's a bounder, but he's not an English bounder. He's mysterious and terrible. He's got a country behind him that's...

E.M. Forster's Howards End is a vivid portrait of London's golden age, before World War I forever changed its values and culture. Forster brings the great city's upper classes to life, detailing their grandiose spending habits, popular fads, Monet and Debussy, the rise of feminism, and the beginnings of urbanization. More than a mere idealization of pre-war London, Howards End provides insightful commentary on the rapid societal changes that occurred at the onset of the 20th century. Masterfully blending the stories of three vastly different groups of people - the independently wealthy, educated Schlegels; the nouveau riche Wilcoxes; and the ambitious but struggling Leonard Bast - Forster weaves a wonderfully rich, unforgettably poignant novel.