A Room With A View
E.M. Forster's beloved novel of forbidden love, culture clash, and the confines of Edwardian society
Visiting Florence with her prim and proper cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, Lucy Honeychurch meets the unconventional, lower-class Mr. Emerson and his son, George. Upon her return to England, Lucy becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse, but she finds herself increasingly torn between the expectations of the world in which she moves and the passionate yearnings of her heart. More than a love story, A Room with a View (1908) is a penetrating social comedy and a brilliant study of contrasts - in values, social class, and cultural perspectives - and the ingenuity of fate. In her illuminating introduction, Forster biographer Wendy Moffat delves into the little-known details of his life before and during the writing of A Room with a View, and explores the way the enigmatic author’s queer eye found comedy in the clash between English manners and the unsettling modern world, encouraging his reader to recognize and overcome their prejudice through humor. This edition also contains new suggestions for further reading by Moffat and explanatory notes by Malcolm Bradbury.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Visiting Florence with her prim and proper cousin Charlotte as a chaperone, Lucy Honeychurch meets the unconventional, lower-class Mr. Emerson and his son, George. Upon her return to England, Lucy becomes engaged to the supercilious Cecil Vyse, but she finds herself increasingly torn between the expectations of the world in which she moves and the passionate yearnings of her heart. More than a love story, A Room with a View (1908) is a penetrating social comedy and a brilliant study of contrasts - in values, social class, and cultural perspectives - and the ingenuity of fate. In her illuminating introduction, Forster biographer Wendy Moffat delves into the little-known details of his life before and during the writing of A Room with a View, and explores the way the enigmatic author’s queer eye found comedy in the clash between English manners and the unsettling modern world, encouraging his reader to recognize and overcome their prejudice through humor. This edition also contains new suggestions for further reading by Moffat and explanatory notes by Malcolm Bradbury.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Community Reviews
3.5 stars This little comedy started off slow. I almost gave up, but halfway through it caught my attention. A sweet love story with charming characters.
A book that shows us that finding ourselves has nothing to do with our physical location
A reminder that running away can bring just as much tedium as staying, and that the only way to know your own heart is to cease being led solely by others
This Edwardian bildungsroman places, at times, an awkward Lucy Honeychurch on the cusp of womanhood who is first on the puppet strings of her elder cousin and then her fiancee. What ensues is a comic satire on the mores of early 1900s England, both at home and abroad in Italy. Lucy could be annoying if seen through our modern-day sensibilities, but I rooted for her all the way. Will have to read more Forster.
“Miss Bartlett, in deed, though not in word, had taught the girl that this our life contains nothing satisfactory. Lucy though she disliked the teacher regarded the teaching as profound, and applied it to her lover.”
This is the thesis that this book seeks to tear down, and it does so in the most delightful way.
This is the thesis that this book seeks to tear down, and it does so in the most delightful way.
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