i finished this a mere hour ago and ive already forgotten everything about it

I love the 1985 film adaptation of this book, I've watched it many times, but this was my first time reading it.

I was happy to see that the film remained quite true to the original story and the cast of characters couldn't have been better. I kept seeing the scenes in my head while reading this, and I might be biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you for the inspiration, Kirsten!

Una novela deliciosa, inteligente y feminista.

I was always curious about this book. The title is so well-known and I’ve heard the movie mentioned so many times. I wondered what was so special about this “room with a view”. I was pleasantly delighted when this room was introduced to me, literally and figuratively, in Florence Italy, where the protagonist, Lucy, along with her chaperone, her cousin Miss Charlotte Bartlett, holiday together. The reader, however, senses that Lucy would rather holiday by herself instead of with her uptight, judgemental and, at times, clueless cousin. Lucy is a free-spirit who has been told that she cannot be free and fly, by society and its expectations. She was taught how a lady should carry herself back in the day, in 1908, when the story was written. A lady must behave a certain way, and Charlotte makes sure she reminds her quietly rebellious cousin, Lucy, on numerous occasions.

In the beginning of the novel, Lucy clearly has no mind of her own. Her true self: her desires, her opinions, her values are repressed. The reader sees that she wants to be told how to respond or act by her cousin or the reverend, Mr Beebe. However, we also get a glimpse of Lucy’s “real self” — her rebellious nature, when we see that she also detests the company of those that have been instructed to guide her.

Miss Bartlett seems to not only be a constant reminder for Lucy in regards to what she “should” or “shouldn’t” do as a respectable woman amongst refined and proper society, but she seems to be a constant reminder to the reader as well; almost like a warning. It is as though her character warns the reader about what could happen if we don’t listen to our own instincts, and what happened to women at the time, when they instead followed oppressive expectations that were obviously placed to keep women in line.

The author depicts and taps into this attitude towards women so beautifully and masterfully. It appears that he actually really understood the plight of women during those times. We see Lucy evolving into a woman of her own choosing — one who begins to have confidence in following her own instincts, and a woman who no longer listens to advice from her cousin who suddenly appears as she truly is: a somewhat nuisance, someone who pathetically hangs on to society’s expectations to the point that she herself has no direction in her thinking, and becomes a walking mess as every thought or decision seems to have no clear or steady guidance. She becomes a walking disaster because she herself represents what a society of “oughts” can do to someone’s mind; how it can plague one’s mind with self-doubt and indecisiveness. Fortunately, towards the end we see this character also evolving and the truth about Charlotte Bartlett is revealed. We begin to see that perhaps she isn’t as clueless and pathetic — that she may see more than the reader expects her to see and know.

The room with a view is the room that Charlotte and Lucy stay in at the beginning of the novel in Florence. Two rather odd and unrefined but clever men, a father and son, insist that they should swap their rooms as they overhear that the women wanted a view, and that they themselves don’t mind these things. Miss Bartlett’s dedication to adhering to the rules of society is immediately witnessed in this scene — we ourselves get a view of how messed up she has become in her thinking and how she guides her younger cousin, Lucy to do the same. It’s as though the reader gets a “view” of how one's life can become if the view isn’t one we choose for ourselves.

The father and son represent the freedom to follow our own instincts; that inner voice that knows what’s right for the individual. They seem to be rebels because they are not swayed by society’s repressive and unhealthy ways. They are the opposite of what Miss Bartlett stands for. When they insist that the women take the room with the view, it is almost like they are telling them to be themselves; like they are giving them permission to follow their hearts and see things for what they truly are, to liberate them from Edwardian society’s restrictions.

As a reader, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Lucy grow and felt her irritation as she began to realise how foolish everyone was when she begins to really look at them. It was as though she had uncovered a secret — that no-one really knows what the rules are in life, and one set of rules cannot be for everyone. Everyone plays a role in life — and they begin to lose their credibility in playing that role because they were not made for the part — it is too difficult to maintain it because the expectations are too high and repressive to the human spirit.

Overall, this novel was such a delightful read. Even if it didn’t happen from the onset, I began to slowly feel that I wanted to get to know the characters and see where they were heading. The author really tapped into what it was like to be a woman with oppressive restrictions placed upon her. I also relate to the theme of "being true to yourself" and not listening to the “shoulds” and “musts” and following our instincts and values, both as a writer and as one who has studied psychology and counselling. Forster understood the danger of giving your mind to someone else to mould; the danger in creating a world of “Miss Bartletts” running around spreading neuroticism to anyone left in their care. The actual room with the view is like a microcosm of society at large. We begin to understand that there are those who would rather watch the view from inside and those who would rather be outside — those who are young and free at heart, and who want to truly feel life as opposed to pretending to feel it. This is very clear in a scene with Lucy and her fiancé, in the middle of the novel, where there is a comparison of the two characters. Her fiancé is compared to a room, and she to nature and the outside.

Although I found the ending slightly abrupt, as I felt I would have liked to see more of what unfolded and how it unfolded, I then realised that perhaps that story would not belong in this novel. It was perhaps more emphatic to leave things as they were.

Art and nature played a great part in this novel and the author cleverly uses images from nature and art to depict society, and to make a point, and to even show a turning point in the novel. The red book being caressed by the sunlight is an example of this clever use of imagery. It perhaps symbolises that Lucy is changing and will be more true to her own desires — to become aware and feel and see the light perhaps.

Overall, it was an entertaining and lovely reading experience. The writing was rich in metaphors and symbolisms and I appreciate the author’s ability to see the realness in people and his respect for not only women, but the individual. He was obviously a man who believed in equality for both women and men. He gives characters wings to be themselves and a “view” of who they can evolve into; an awareness that if they allow themselves to truly feel, they can finally be free and live a life that’s true and pure in spirit.

E.M. Forster's novel A Room With A View evokes a particular time and place while at the same time transcending that apparent limitation by addressing the concept of individual growth and focusing on how someone deals with alienation from the past and present, internalizing experience into a gradual transformation.



The book's main character, Lucy Honeychurch begins the process of transformation by making a journey to Italy, her first journey away from an England that has recently departed from the Victorian epoch & entered an Edwardian era. There is change afoot in British society with Lucy serving as a focal point and the travel sojourn from her home at "Windy Corner" is the catalyst that heightens her sense of independence.

As the author puts it in referring to the residents of the newish suburb in Surrey where Lucy & her family reside and to the transition:

Certainly many of the residents were rather dull, and Lucy realized this more vividly since her return from Italy. Hitherto she accepted the ideals without questioning---their kindly affluence, their inexplosive religion, their dislike of paper bags, orange peels & broken bottles.

A Radical out & out, she learned to speak with horror of Suburbia. Life so far as she troubled to conceive it, was a circle of pleasant people, with identical interests & identical foes. In this circle one thought, married, & died.

Outside of it were vulgarity, for everyone trying to enter, just as the London fog tries to enter the pine-woods, pouring through the gaps in the northern hills. But in Italy, where anyone who chooses may warm himself in equality, as in the sun, this conception of life vanished.

Her senses expanded; she felt that there was no one whom she might not get to like, that social barriers were irremovable, doubtless, but not particularly high. You jump over them just as you jump into a peasant's olive garden in the Apennines. She returned with new eyes.

Curiously, Forster himself seemed to embrace foreign travel while many in his country apparently did not. The poet, John Betjeman was once quoted as saying, "Isn't abroad awful." Within Forster's novel, the Miss Alans' characters were said to regard travel "as a species of warfare" in terms of their preparation for leaving England and their constant need to preserve their Englishness while abroad.



But Lucy as a new woman of the Edwardian Age quickly learns to embrace cultural differences and also to proceed without her Baedeker, the guidebook on which most of her fellow travelers seem so dependent. She also witnesses a murder and is confronted by George Emerson & his father who are cast as crude, bumptious & socialists as well. They are described as brash but well-meaning and given the benefit of the doubt, it is felt that George "might work off his crudities in time."

One other English tourist who shares the experience of Italy is Miss Lavash, "short fidgety & playful as a kitten but without the kitten's gracefulness", someone who intones to Lucy that "one does not come to Italy for niceness; one comes for life!" Miss Lavash captures her own experience of Italy in a notebook and later weaves those she shares Italy with into her novel, with Lucy chief among the characters.

The 2nd part of the book involves the aftermath of the trip to Italy, with Lucy engaged to an erudite fellow named Cecil, another cast member of the English group in Italy but very much unlike Lucy.

But eventually Lucy realizes that life with Cecil would be too constraining & in time opts to take a different path and breaks off her relationship with Cecil, of whom it is said that "for all his culture, he was an ascetic at heart and nothing in his love (for Lucy) became him like the leaving of it."

Lucy Honeychurch perseveres and takes a bold step forward into an uncertain future and the Rev. Beebe who has known her for some time comments that "if she ever takes to live as she plays the piano, it will be very exciting both for her and for us."



There are some stilted references to Pallas Athene, Eros & Phaeton by the author but in general I enjoyed Forster's delineation of the characters in Room With A View and the manner in which they confront developing societal changes.

As Evelyn Waugh once put it, sometimes..."Literature is the right use of language, irrespective of the subject or reason for the utterance". The novel is not nearly so complex nor as broadly based as Forster's Passage to India but it remains a tale well told.

*Within my review are images of: 1) E.M. Forster, 2) a scene from the film version of Room With a View, & 3) a painting with the author's likeness.

3.5
I am in a classics mood, but after my recent completion of War and Peace I decided to try something a little lighter and less than one tenth of the size. This is how I found my way towards E. M. Forster's 130 page novel about a woman who is forced to make a decision between marrying a wealthy man she will never love and a man of lower class who she knows she can be happy with. Funnily enough, I think it was this story's length that slightly let it down for me, had it been a longer book I'm sure I would have fallen in love with George as everyone else seems to.

This book was published in 1908 - a time somewhat between eras for British society. Women could own property and were becoming increasingly free, authors like Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charlotte Brontë(&Co.) had taken the nineteenth century by storm, and yet women still did not have the vote and they would be expected to get married young, stay at home, and have babies for decades to come. Into this world strolls Lucy Honeychurch, at first a very naive and typical young woman of the time period. But a woman who, as the book progresses, eventually challenges societal conventions and limitations.

E. M. Forster is famous for his stories about British society and class and hypocrisy. He was a gay man who spent his entire life hiding his sexuality from an unforgiving world made up of expectations and a very black and white view of what was right and wrong. Though his personal struggles weren't made clear until after his death with the publication of Maurice, it is obvious (to me) that A Room with a View is just one of his various attempts to poke fun at the rigidity of class, gender and sexual boundaries.

Lucy longs for independence, freedom from the constrictions of being a woman in 1908, being upper middle class, being a label with a set of rules that she is expected to follow. She wants to live as she goes and define herself in that way, not in a predetermined fashion that stems from centuries of inequalities and the desire for "appropriateness". I cannot tell you just how much I loved this idea, I only wanted a longer story to make it perfect. Lucy is such a charming and interesting character that she could have easily held my attention for double the amount of pages in this incredibly short book. Also, I wasn't quite sold on George and I think I was supposed to be, that the point was that the reader would come to love the man who wasn't as wealthy, who wasn't as well-educated. A little more time to get to know George would have made me happy.

“Така става, когато прекалено много свириш Бетовен.”

Англичани в чужбина. Тази комбинация от думи гарантирано предизвиква усмивки. Въпреки че вероятно са най-старите и опитни туристи в света, англичаните търсят Англия където и да отидат. Включително като се събират със сънародници, с които взаимно да си потвърждават предварително приготвените стереотипи за чуждата държава.

Е. М. Фостър използва това, а и много други обстоятелства, за да се посмее над човешките слабости като цяло и на сънародниците си в частност.

Началото на 20 век, пансион във Флоренция. Младата Люси и нейната братовчедка са се оказали в неугледна стая с лош изглед до намесата на странните Емерсън – баща и син, които самоотвержено предлагат да разменят стаята си (с хубав изглед) с тяхната. Завърта се нещо като комедия на нравите с драматична кулминация и облекчаващо приятен финал.

След Италия Фостър ни пренася в мирен и красив свят, един английски Бел епок, провинциално и��иличен, но не лишен от бремето на тромавите социални порядки на едуардианската епоха. Време, което е програмирало една млада жена от средната класа да мисли и говори в синхрон с обществените очаквания. В което капризните правила на общуване налагат отпечатък дори в разговори между близки хора. Разговори, в които присъства всичко, освен искреност. Учтивост, която обижда.

Всъщност, Италия е не само началото, но и сърцевината на тази симпатична история. Фостър добре я използва за целите си – като противопоставя ренесансовата чувственост на Флоренция с английската скованост, той я превръща в нещо повече от красив декор. Човек постига определена самоосъзнатост само след сблъсък с чужд свят и култура, които да подложат на преоценка досегашните му вярвания. За Фостър пътят към Истината е неотделим от пътя към Любовта. Щастието е закономерно състояние на човешкото съществуване, а неискреността най-голям негов враг.

Е. М. Фостър разказва тази семпла история меко и хуманно. Нещо в този лек, танцувален стил ми напомни за Джейн Остин и нейните умели езикови парадокси. И разбира се, факторът “английски характер”.

“Нима намирате разлика межу Пролетта в природата и Пролетта у човека? Но ние възхваляваме едното, а другото заклеймяваме като непристойно, засрамени, че и при двете действа една и съща магия.”

“Животът се обяснява лесно, но се практикува трудно.”

“Тъй трудно е да разбереш хората, които говорят прямо.”

What happens in Florence, stays in Florence.

Unless this is the early 1900's and you're visiting the city with your annoying spinster cousin, then you kiss some boy in a field of violets for like two seconds and nobody ever lets you forget it. Jeez, people.

This is a brief, sweet little novel about Lucy Honeychurch (winner of the prestigious award for Most Adorable Name Ever), who goes to Florence with previously-mentioned spinster cousin. Despite lack of A ROOM WITH A VIEW, Lucy has a very nice time, sees some artwork, does some self-discovery, and smooches a very unsuitable boy (escandalo!) who might be a Socialist (double escandalo!). Then they go back to England and she gets engaged to a schmuck.

For this part of the novel, I was mostly coasting along, having a reasonably good time reading about well-off English people and their Well-Off English People Problems ("Our Italian pension is owned by a Cockney lady! So-and-so isn't the right kind of blandly religious! And for the love of God WHO WILL YOU MARRY?!"). It was mildly entertaining, and I was a huge fan of Mr. Emerson from the get-go. George, sadly, never quite did it for me, and Lucy I found to be kind of boring until, UNTIL, the glorious moment when she breaks up with her lame fiance and gets awesome. Here's part of her breakup speech:

"When we were only acquaintances, you let me be myself, but now you're always protecting me...I won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult. Can't I be trusted to face the truth but I must get it second-hand through you? ...you wrap yourself up in art and books and music, and would try to wrap up me. I won't be stifled, not by the most glorious music, for people are more glorious, and you hide them from me. That's why I break off my engagement."

Bella Swan, are you paying attention? Because this concerns you.

After that moment, I was suddenly 100% invested in Lucy and her attempts to figure herself out. Maybe I imagined it, but it seemed like the writing became so much more beautiful after that, and I was reading the story more carefully and with more interest than I had before. It was a slow start, but Forster's fantastic characters managed to win me over in the end (yes, even the annoying spinster cousin).

“The garden of Windy Corner was deserted except for a red book, which lay sunning itself upon the gravel path… The sun rose higher on its journey, guided, not by Phaethon, but by Apollo, competent, unswerving, divine. Its rays fell on the ladies whenever they advanced towards the bedroom windows; on Mr. Beebe down at Summer Street as he smiled over a letter from Miss Catharine Alan; on George Emerson cleaning his father’s boots; and lastly, to complete the catalogue of memorable things, on the red book mentioned previously. The ladies move, Mr. Beebe moves, George moves, and movement may engender shadow. But this book lies motionless, to be caressed all the morning by the sun and to raise its covers slightly, as though acknowledging the caress.” pg 166

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster is a historical comedy, coming-of-age story, following Lucy Honeychurch, as she visits Florence, Italy, accompanied by her spinster cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, who serves as her chaperone. Lucy is charming and witty, yet naive, set on having the ultimate tourist experience in Italy, including every tourist's dream, a room with a view. Throughout their time in Florence, Lucy interacts with various comical characters, one of whom is George Emerson, whom she ends up fainting in the arms of after witnessing a murder in a piazza during the trip. They are smitten with one another from that moment on, and they even share a kiss before she heads back to her home in Surrey, England. However, upon her return to England, Cecil Vyse, a snobby man from the same social class as Lucy, asks for her hand in marriage, and after having refused him multiple times before, she agrees. She is now faced with the decision to marry Cecil, a suitor who is socially respectable, yet does not see her, or any women, as a person of their own, or to follow her heart back to George, a socially unsuitable, but passionate lover.

“What is surprising, in fact, is how little tourism has changed over the past hundred years, once it made the leap from a privileged activity to a mass pursuit. Dean MacCannell, in his classic study of tourism, suggests a neat sociological evolution of travel: “What begins as the proper activity of the hero (Alexander the Great) develops into the goal of a socially organized group (the Crusaders), into the mark of status of an entire social class (the Grand Tour of the British ‘gentleman’), eventually becoming universal experience (the tourist)” pg 12

The topic of tourism is very common throughout the novel, as Lucy is of a higher social class where tourism was flourishing at the beginning of the 20th Century when this book takes place. This was really fun for me to read since I was traveling through Italy when I started reading this book. I really enjoyed reading and comparing the similarities of tourism then, to how it has continued to evolve today. The setting was beautiful, and enhanced by Forster’s descriptive and intriguing writing, he truly embodied the enchanting atmosphere of Tuscany within each descriptive paragraph of Lucy’s surroundings.

“It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of red tiles which look clean though they are not; with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins and bassoons. It was pleasant, too, to fling wide the windows, pinching the fingers in unfamiliar fastenings, to lean out into sunshine with beautiful hills and trees and marble churches opposite, and close below, the Arno, gurgling against the embankment of the road.” pg 38

Lucy Honeychuch was a great main character, her curiosity paired with her quick wit made her really enjoyable to read, especially in interacting with the dynamic cast of side characters. I have read some criticism of her being unable to think for herself, which is echoed in this quote, “This solitude oppressed her; she was accustomed to have her thoughts confirmed by others or, at all events, contradicted; it was too dreadful not to know whether she was thinking right or wrong.” (pg 69), however, she is a young woman finding her way in the world. I personally think it would be unrealistic to assume she should be 100% sure of who she is and each one of her actions at such a young age because even nowadays that is not the case. It is a coming-of-age novel, and finding her voice, even with the help of others, throughout the story truly embodies that. Furthermore, she was incredibly relatable to me, especially in this quote after she witnessed the murder in a piazza in Florence, “The dreadful catastrophe of the previous day had given her an idea which she thought would work up into a book.” (pg 70). Her character development was evident throughout the novel as well, with traveling opening her eyes to the differences in social class, and culture throughout the world, prompting her to make changes to her own life and way of thinking once she returned to England, which to this day is often the case for people if they are in the fortunate position to travel. However, I would argue that this is also accessible in a different way nowadays, through social media, where we are able to see, interact, and learn from people all over the world, and of different backgrounds and experiences. Visiting Italy also left Lucy with a little bit of a travel bug, which was oh-so relatable.

“Life, so far as she troubled to conceive it, was a circle of rich, pleasant people, with identical interests and identical foes. In this circle, one thought, married and died. Outside it were poverty and vulgarity for ever trying to enter, just as the London fog tries to enter the pine-woods pouring through the gaps in the northern hills. But, in Italy, where any one who chooses may warm himself in equality, as in the sun, this conception of life vanished. Her senses expanded; she felt that there was no one whom she might not get to like, that social barriers were irremovable, doubtless, but not particularly high. You jump over them just as you jump into a peasant’s olive-yard in the Apennines, and he is glad to see you. She returned with new eyes.” pg 130

Overall, I really enjoyed A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. I don’t read classics often and sometimes find them hard to get into and through, so I was pleasantly surprised by how accessible this was while still feeling like a true classic with beautiful writing. I will be watching the movie for sure, it is a bit old, but I am excited because Lucy Honeychurch is played by Helena Bonham Carter, and Charlotte Bartlett is played by Maggie Smith! I am also very intrigued to read more of Forster’s work, especially Maurice, which follows two men of differing social classes who fall in love. If you’re a fan of classics, social comedies, or British Literature, definitely add A Room with a View to your to-read list!

One of those classics which I always felt I must have read at some time in the past but apparently had not, so meeting Lucy Honeychurch for the first time was a great pleasure.

A Room with a View is a very enjoyable humorous critique of society, much in the style of Jane Austen. Lucy's travelling partner, Charlotte, could have come straight from an Austen novel. It is also a romance with, of all things, an unexpectedly happy ending. (Spoiler alert there in case you have not read it yet)

I think I have likened it to Austen because it is light hearted and fun, not deep, dark and melodramatic. It is a short book, easy to read and definitely a good choice for anyone who wants lay claim to reading the classics without having to try too hard. I am pleased I have read it at last:)

25th book of 2022

A Room with a View has to be one of my favorite E. M. Forster novels. His writing is elegant and polished, nothing feels out of place or rushed. I find his characters to have such fantastic weight to them, they are well developed and full, and they read like real people. 5 stars.

A Room with a View is E.M. Forster's social comedy that follows Lucy Honeychurch as she visits the beautiful Florence in Italy where, as the title suggests, she must have a room with a view. She is accompanied by her spinster cousin, Charlotte Bartlett. When she witnesses a murder in a piazza, she faints in the arms of George Emerson, a fellow Brit, whom she falls for but cannot be with. He is just as equally as charming as her and they make a right pair but Emerson's father is a socialist, making George off-bounds. It is never that simple though. Once back in England, Lucy is courted by an acceptable suitor but soon realises that convention is not all it is wracked up to be. Her future is then down to her: is she brave enough to obey class and go after who she truly desires?

It was such a charming little read. Forster transported me from the cold dreary days currently spent in England to sunshine and life being lived to the fullest in the past. Everything was just so colourful and vibrant and fun. Such a mood uplifter!

- 3.5 stars!