Forster is the last Edwardian. When I read him, I feel I can sense him wrestling with the same incommunicable subjectivity that the modernists would soon try to communicate by means of a drastic change in prose form. But Forster doesn't take that final step. He takes fiction up to the precipice of subjective psychology, but ultimately stays in the classical mode, pointing down towards this vast mystery that he cannot put into words.

So the predominant feeling in A Room With A View is a sort of freighted vagueness. When characters fall short, they are ‘tried by some new test’; when Lucy, the heroine, is high-strung she is seized by ‘some emotion—pity, terror, love’; when she goes wrong, she is ‘full of some vague shame’.

Some test, some emotion, some shame. Never any specifics – just this emotive haze of indistinction.

In Forster's world, tellingly, the ultimately enemy is not class or patriarchy or snobbishness (though he writes well against all these things), but rather – and how Edwardian is this! – ‘muddle’.

‘Take an old man's word: there's nothing worse than a muddle in all the world. It is easy to face Death and Fate, and all the things that sound so dreadful. It is on my muddles that I look back with horror—on the things that I might have avoided.’

The end point of all this is the disinterested ‘ou-boum’ of the Malabar Caves in Forster's final novel. Italy, for Forster, is not quite as foreign as India, and so the muddle doesn't have quite the same cosmic awesomeness that we get in A Passage to India, but it's the same general idea. There is things in our experience of life that we can't explain, or even understand, but whose contours we sometimes sense.

I would usually find it trite to equate this kind of unsayability with an author's own sexuality, but in Forster's case it really feels hard to avoid it, when so many of his characters are struggling with attractions and emotions that they won't allow themselves to understand. In some ways it's a more effective way of capturing this subjectivity than the modernists managed.

At times the social conventions at play here are almost as tiresome for the modern reader as they are for some of the characters – but Forster's ability to express the inexpressibility of life remains completely fascinating, and about as close as you can get to living it yourself.

I find comedies of manners and WASP dramas about one's place in society so tiring... last night we finally got a true plot development and I woke up a bit. I'm such a bad "girl" reader this way. Cue some action, PLEASE.

UPDATE: I can't keep reading this. Taking it off the bedside table. I am such a bad girl!

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n  “I want you to have your own thoughts even when I hold you in my arms.”n

A Room with a View evokes a gentle Edwardian idyll: we follow the story's characters through their paced long walks, their wanderings through Italy (in Florence there is the lovely view of the River Arno, Basilica of Santa Croce, Piazza della Signoria, and later on in Fiesole's high fields Lucy, our main character, will undergo a life changing experience), and observe them in their British ‘habitat'.
Forster's lulling prose hums with a quiet sort of energy. His descriptions of Italy and of Lucy's family home—Windy Corner—located in Surrey are incredibly expressive. As an Italian I was amused by the way in which my country, its culture and its people, are viewed as 'other' by English tourists such as Lucy's disapproving older cousin and chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett. Italy seems to them less civil than their beloved Britain...yet they are unable to deny the power of its history.

n  “Are not beauty and delicacy the same?”n

Through Miss Bartlett and the other guests of the Pension Bertolini, Forster epitomises the English tourist: they all seem disdainful of other English tourist yet they are themselves unable to connect with the various landscapes they visit. In spite of their reservations Lucy and George feel a strange pull to one another, and Forster describes their growing feelings with a restraint reminiscent of the society they lived in. A lot remains unsaid, and the reader has to read between the lines in order to glimpse Lucy's affection for George.

The seemingly mild story provides us with plenty of amusing portraits. And yet, Forster's satire never comes across as harsh or exaggerated. He seem to be gently poking fun at certain personalities without turning his characters into mere clichés or reducing them to satirical caricatures.
Forster has an ear for the way people speak, so that the various conversations exchanged between his characters ring brilliantly true to life. He also reproduces the cadence of speech with such clarity that by the end I could recognise a character by the way they spoke. There is also a sense that sometimes words do not suffice but also that if they do one is not allowed to express exactly what they would like to....because of this there are misunderstandings, understatements, and long pauses.
Forster also imbues his characters with an abundance of personality so that regardless of their role in the story—whether they are the protagonists or an 'extra'—they are rendered memorable by their various quirks and manners.

An enjoyable tale that combines a forbidden attraction with an exploration of freedom, art, and travel, as well as a humorous take of English society during the Edwardian period, A Room with a View makes for the perfect escapist read.

When Lucy Honeychurch arrives in Florence she’s feeling peevish and disappointed. After travelling abroad for the first time Lucy finds their little hotel filled with fellow Britons, and even the woman in charge speaks English with a Cockney accent. What’s the point of leaving England if you’re still surrounded by the same people? Plus, Lucy and her chaperoning cousin were promised rooms with a view of the Arno river, and instead their accommodations look over a courtyard. But when a rough around the edges man and his enigmatic son offer to switch rooms, Lucy’s horrified, uptight, passive-aggressive cousin (played by Maggie Smith in the 1985 movie) is sure that would NOT be proper. Lucy (portrayed in the film by Helena Bonham Carter) wavers, confused. Where is the balance between embracing experience and living within the rules of propriety? If I could give A Room with a View more than 5 stars I would. E. M. Forster writes beautifully, and he tells Lucy’s story with both sympathy and insight.

I’ve been wanting to re-read this for a while, and got to it in January 2016 as part of the Dead Writers Society Literary Birthday challenge.

my third forster book - I enjoyed this for it's soapiness and drama. It's also very evocative of place, and funny in places. Liked the commentary on society and social norms (but it's forster, so duh).

maurice > a room with a view > where angels fear to tread.

truly a book that i have read

"When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love, it is one of the moments for which the world was made." E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

A splendid novel centered on the young Lucy Honeychurch, both criticizing the restrained Edwardian era culture of England in which she lived and providing a romance with the passion of Italy infused in juxtaposition.

Forster masterfully and perceptively reviews the structure of society, and the imperfections and merits of each of its spheres. He cleverly contrasts conservative thoughts (Medieval, static, dark, rooms) and progressive reasoning (Renaissance, forward or modern, light, views). To Forster, Italy represents the force of true passion, freedom and sexuality, as opposed to the societal constrictions of England at the time. Her trip to Florence opened Lucy to a new world of sensuality, and in a way this novel is a Bildungsroman.

Forster's novel, I think, should be applauded for the forward thinking views, in 1908, on feminism.

This is the type of fiction I especially admire, literature that through cunning comparisons "reveals truth" about society "that reality obscures." (Jessamyn West).

I was overjoyed to discover that this book I had liked when I was in high school was even more charming and lovely than I remembered.

I'm not sure what impelled me to suddenly reread this novel about a young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, whose life is transformed after she visits Italy, but I'm glad I did. Forster's language is so inviting and engaging that as soon as I started reading, I didn't want to put down the book.

The story opens at a hotel in Florence, and Lucy is being chaperoned by her meddling and fussy cousin, Charlotte Bartlett. The two ladies are upset that their rooms don't have a view of the Arno, but at dinner, a loud Englishman, Mr. Emerson, offers to switch rooms with them. After some awkward exchanges, the ladies finally agree to the deal. (Since this was the early 1900s, delicate things were not discussed and caused much embarrassment among gentlefolk.)

Over the next few days, Lucy often crossed paths with George, Mr. Emerson's son, and during an outing to the country, George surprised her by kissing her passionately. While Lucy didn't realize it at the time, that kiss ended up changing her life.

OK, I hate writing summaries of classic novels because it feels like I'm writing a high school book report, so I'm going to assume that anyone who takes the time to read this review is already familiar with the rest of the plot, thanks to the popularity of the Merchant-Ivory film. (Oh, how I loved that movie when I was young! It was definitely one of the things that set me on the path to becoming an anglophile.) If you are reading this review and don't know the rest of the story, well, golly, I'm not going to ruin it for you here!

Besides being gorgeously written, this book is endearing for how Forster gave Lucy a chance to be her own person. There are several quotes about women that showed how progressive Forster was, and that was refreshing. Lucy was also so passionate about music that her parson was fond of saying he hoped she would learn to live as vibrantly as she played. When Lucy gets into a muddle over her whether or not to marry the uptight Cecil, she makes a grand speech about not wanting to be locked up, and wanting to have her own thoughts. Brava, Lucia!

I loved this book so much that I will keep it on my shelf for future reads. Highly recommended. Now I need to reread Howard's End and see how that holds up.

Funniest Quote by Cecil
"All modern books are bad ... Every one writes for money in these days."

Funniest Quote by Lucy's Mother
"[N]othing roused Mrs. Honeychurch so much as literature in the hands of females. She would abandon every topic to inveigh against those women who (instead of minding their houses and their children) seek notoriety by print. Her attitude was: 'If books must be written, let them be written by men.'"

Favorite Quotes
"Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them. By understanding George you may learn to understand yourself. It will be good for both of you."

"It so happened that Lucy, who found daily life rather chaotic, entered a more solid world when she opened the piano. She was then no longer either deferential or patronizing; no longer either a rebel or a slave. The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The commonplace person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marveling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but translate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions. Perhaps he cannot; certainly he does not, or does so very seldom. Lucy had done so never."

"Why were most big things unladylike? Charlotte had once explained to her why. It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves. Indirectly, by means of tact and a spotless name, a lady could accomplish much. But if she rushed into the fray herself she would be first censured, then despised, and finally ignored. Poems had been written to illustrate this point."

"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 pinewoods 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 se you. She returned with new eyes."

"A rebel she was, but not of the kind [Cecil] understood — a rebel who desired, not a wider dwelling-room, but equality beside the man she loved. For Italy was offering her the most priceless of all possessions — her own soul."

"[S]he reflected that it is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life. A fault in the scenery, a face in the audience, an irruption of the audience on to the stage, and all our carefully planned gestures mean nothing, or mean too much."

I remember being pleasantly surprised by this one; Forster's prose was lovely to read. After a lecture one day during my BA I remember walking into the city centre of C. to find somewhere to sit down and read as it was such a beautiful winter day. As I was walking down North Street I spied my lecturer, my favourite lecturer, D., heading up East Street. I tailed him in hope of talking with him as I always enjoyed doing so but he disappeared into the bank before I caught up to him. So, I rather pathetically sat down on one of the benches in the street and began reading so when he emerged again he would spot me and I would be able to talk to him. Sometime later I looked up from my book and saw him unfastening his bike from a rack and setting off, without spotting me at all; I let him go, because I knew I wouldn't be able to feign surprise at finding him there in the street, and figured he would, somehow, know that I had been sat waiting for him outside the bank the whole time. Instead, I went and read A Room With a View by C. Cathedral.

3,5/5

Edward Morgan Forster, novelista británico que nació a finales del siglo XIX, famoso entre otras, por la obra de la que os hablaré a continuación y que fue publicada en 1908, abordaba con valentía una narración que denunciaba la hipocresía de la sociedad y las diferencias entre clases tal y cómo se ve reflejado en «Una habitación con vistas».

La historia nos presenta a Lucy, una joven que sigue lo convencional, las normas y la típica moral inglesa de la época. Junto a su prima emprenderán un viaje a Florencia, allí se hospedarán en una pensión donde conocerán a varios ingleses. Entre ellos, los Emerson, padre e hijo criticados por sus ideales avanzados y su manera de mostrarse de cara a la sociedad. Nuestra protagonista, quedará embelesada a la par que fascinada con la diferente perspectiva que se abre ante sus ojos.

La obra tiene partes muy interesantes, su comienzo resulta encantador, una serie de diálogos amenos, una presentación excepcional de la ambientación y de los personajes y posee una crítica afilada y ridiculizante a los ideales de la época, realmente maravillosa. Pero en su segunda parte, situada ya en Inglaterra, la trama cobra un matiz distinto, más lento y que contiene situaciones inverosímiles y que nos brinda un final romántico que puede resultar absurdo, en desacuerdo con lo presentado con anterioridad.

Lo mejor de la novela sin duda son las reflexiones del personaje de Emerson en contrapunto con Cecil, en las que señala sin pudor la fe irracional y sobre todo muestra su rechazo hacia las ideas conservadoras hacia la mujer. Su modo de ver la vida, es una muestra de la incomodidad que sentía el autor, un claro mensaje de empoderamiento y liberación femenina.

En conclusión, y tras mucha reflexión, debo decir que la novela me ha gustado, ha sido un acierto leerla en este período lector en el que necesito historias cortas y que no supongan mucha dificultad lectora; pero, porque siempre hay un pero, siento que me ha decepcionado en algunos puntos que resultan cruciales para hacer de esta, una historia redonda.

A Room with a View, E.M. Forster

A Room with a View is a 1908 novel, by British writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman, in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society, at the beginning of the 20th century.

Part one: The first part of the novel is set in Florence, Italy, and describes a young English woman's first visit to Florence, at a time when upper middle class English women were starting to lead more independent, adventurous lives. ...

Part two: In Rome, Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England. Cecil proposes to Lucy twice in Italy; she rejects him both times. As Part Two begins, Lucy has returned to Surrey, England, to her family home, Windy Corner. Cecil proposes yet again at Windy Corner, and this time she accepts. ...

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «اتاقی با یک منظره»؛ ‏‫«اتاقی با یک چ��م‌‮‬انداز»؛ نویسنده: ادوارد‌ مورگان فورستر‏‫؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوم ماه نوامبر سال2017میلادی

عنوان: اتاقی با یک منظره؛ نویسنده: ادوارد‌ مورگان فورستر؛ مترجم: محمد تهرانی، تهران: نشر گستر‏‫، سال1389؛ در263ص؛ شابک9786005883251؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20م

عنوان: ‏‫اتاقی با یک چشم‌‮‬انداز؛ نويسنده: ادوارد مورگان فورستر‮‬‏‫؛ برگردان: محمدهادی جهاندیده؛ ‏‫مشهد‮‬‏‫: ارسطو‮‬‏‫، سال1395؛ در356ص؛ شابک9786004320702؛

فهرست: پیشگفتار؛ تشکر و قدردانی؛ شخصیتهای اصلی رمان؛ فصل اول: برتولینی؛ فصل دوم: بدون کتابچه ی راهنمای بایدکر در سانتاکروچه؛ فصل سوم: موسیقی گلهای بنفشه و حرف اس؛ فصل چهارم: بخش چهارم؛ فصل پنجم: احتمال گردشی خوشایند؛ فصل ششم: عالیجنابان آرتور بیپ، کاتبرد ایگر، آقایان امرسون،دوشیزگان الینور لاویش، و شارلوت بارتلت و لوسی هانی و ...؛ فصل هفتم: آنان باز میگردند؛ فصل هشتم: قرون وسطایی؛ فصل نهم: هنرمندی لوسی؛ فصل دهم: بذله گویی سیسیل؛ فصل یازدهم: در آپارتمان خوش نشین خانم وایس؛ فصل دوازدهم: باب دوازده؛ فصل سیزدهم: آبگرمکن دوشیزه بارتلت ...؛ فصل چهاردهم: رویارویی شجاعانه لوسی با محیط بیرونی؛ فصل پانزدهم تا فصل بیستم؛ تصاویر؛ منابع
‮‬
لوسی، با دختر خاله ی خویش «شارلوت بارتلت» به «فلورانسِ ایتالیا» سفر میکنند، تا از زیباییهایِ آنجا دیدار کنند؛ در هتل، چشم اندازِ پنجره ی اتاقشان زیبا نیست، آقایِ «امرسن»، و پسرِ جوانش «جورج»، اتاقشان را که چشم اندازی زیبا دارد، با آنها جابجا میکنند، و اینگونه «لوسی» و «جورج» با یکدیگر آشنا میشوند؛ و ...؛ کتاب، حول محور تضادهای موجود، میان قراردادهای اجتماعی، عرف رایج، دستورات الهی، خواسته‌ های نفسانی، و کسب هویت فردی می‌چرخد؛ که برای هر خوانشگر، با هر چارچوب فکری، چالش برانگیز است؛ سردرگمی شخصیت اصلی، یادآور بلا تکلیفی‌های انسان سرگشته ی امروزین است، که در دوراهی پیروی از اصول اخلاقی و عرفی عامه پسند، چاره‌ ای جز مماشات، تساهل و تسامح ندارد، نگارنده، در این رمان به اماکن تاریخی، مناطق جغرافیایی، مشاهیر ادبی، چهره‌ های ماندگار هنری، و اساطیر باستانی کشورهای: «انگلستان»، «ایتالیا»، «آلمان»، «یونان» و «ترکیه» اشاره کرده است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 08/04/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ 02/12/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

A couple of days before I started to read this book I have just read and reviewed E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops an excellent science fiction short story first published in 1909 which is very well written, clever and prescient. Forster is of course not known for his sci-fi as he wrote only the one story (as far as I know). However, he is known for several classic novels including A Passage to India, Howards End and Where Angels Fear to Tread. All of which have been adapted into films. A Room with a View is his most widely read and popular work. I decided to read it after reading The Machine Stops.

Room is superficially a romance and a comedy of manners, but it is also a social satire a character study and an exploration of the human mind. The protagonist Lucy who has been living a sheltered life meets a seemingly plebeian English father and son while on holiday in Florence with her snooty cousin Charlotte. Initially she shares her cousin’s disdain for those of the lower classes until repeated encounters show her that there is more to these people than meets the eye.

A Room with a View is a pleasant, amusing and thought provoking book. I particularly like the theme of self-denial, people (myself included) often do not admit even to themselves when they like something they imagine will lower their peers’ opinions of them, basically nobody likes to look uncool! Sometime this is justifiable but as this novel shows it can leads to life changing error of judgment. A couple of quotes from this book that deal with this particular theme:

n  “Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them”

“Passion should believe itself irresistible. It should forget civility and consideration and all the other curses of a refined nature. Above all, it should never ask for leave where there is a right of way.”n

(I always pad up my reviews with quotes when I can’t think what to write!).

The romcom theme of “The course of true love never did run smooth” is prevalent for people who like that sort of thing. For me it is a less interesting aspect of the book due to its commonplaceness. I do tend to get a little frustrated with the heroines of romcoms when they acting out their self-denial. There is also a satire of people who like to act the martyr for the purpose of emotional blackmail which had me chuckling.

The characters are all believable and the central characters are quite complex, probably too complex for their own good. The prose and dialogue, as I expect from [author E.M. Forster], is beautifully written. This is one of his lighter novels and there are amusing scenes and dialogues scattered throughput the book. As I read this in audiobook format it is more difficult to make notes and highlight favorite lines.

Speaking of which, the audiobook is superbly read by Elizabeth Klett who is an American lady but reads all the dialog in a convincing English accent; the narrative parts are read in her natural accent, which makes for an interesting contrast and serves to highlight her skills. (Audiobook download link)

I prefer novels where the stakes are higher than a couple’s relationship so a 4.5 stars rating seem appropriate as a gauge of my appreciation (rounded up to 5 because GR doesn’t allow halves!). Any way, lovely book, time well spent!