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.

4,5 stars rounded up. I wish I could say something more intelligent about it other than that it's lovely, a praise of humanism and feminism. A lighter fare than Howards End, but still beautiful and not to be dismissed.

Booktube made me read this book after watching Tristan and the Classics, 12 Short Classic Books – 200 pages or less!

This short, little book was first published in 1908, and it focuses on Ms. Lucy Honeychurch. She is visiting Italy with her annoying guardian, Charlotte Bartlett. Ultimately, Lucy has two suitors: George Emerson and Cecil Vyse. One would like her to sit in a white tower, living only to inspire him, and he will mold her into what he envisions. And the other suitor wants Lucy to think for herself.

To be honest, I strongly considered DNFing this book. The first part of this book bored me to tears; however, the really moving part occurs at around the 75% mark—it changed the way I live.

The ideas in this book are profound:
Can we love people who have ideas different from our own?
Are people who chronically complain a burden for others to take care of?
Should we have a guide, or should we think for ourselves?
Can we be comfortable disappointing others?

How much I spent:
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2025 Reading Schedule
JantA Town Like Alice
FebtBirdsong
MartCaptain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
AprtWar and Peace
MaytThe Woman in White
JuntAtonement
JultThe Shadow of the Wind
AugtJude the Obscure
SeptUlysses
OcttVanity Fair
NovtA Fine Balance
DectGerminal

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After I finished Frankenstein, I had an urge to read classics as much as possible. And this urge is from a person who reads maximum one classic a year.

It was a strange book for me and I know why. I haven't read that much classics of this era written by men, but a lot by women, who were ahead of their time. It was strange to go back and see the sexism and woman's role described from man's perspective.

Another thing that was disturbing me is Lucy's poor character. I get it, the author wanted to show her as a woman without an opinion, who grows and finally gets to say what she thinks, or even starts to think for herself. Except, I couldn't see it. Even in the end she continued to depend on other's opinions. With his beautiful prose Foster was trying to show me that Lucy was developing, but now and then he would write some short remark said by Cecil and Lucy's cousin and mother or even George and Lucy, and it would change all the impression. No matter what, Foster was speaking by the voice of male characters, and women were left without any spark.

I loved the captivating prose, the small talk with the reader, but characters were out of my league. I didn't get attached to any of them and I didn't like their development.

Love is in the air--or maybe anxiously repressed--in February and my romantic literature jag begins with A Room with a View, the 1908 novel by E.M. Forster. Like a candy store, this book offers a bounty of treats that I found irresistible. There's a holiday in Italy. There's a boarding house with much ado. There are young lovers Lucy Honeychurch and George Emerson. There are bridges, summer storms and a hillside covered in great blue violets. There's a return to the heroine's home in Surrey, England (dubbed Windy Corner) and intrigue to keep the lovers apart. Experts say that eating too much candy will rot your teeth out, but I left the store with a grin.

The story begins with Miss Charlotte Bartlett chaperoning her younger cousin Miss Lucy Honeychurch as they check in to their hotel, the Pension Bertolini, in Florence. Promised rooms overlooking the Arno River, the ladies are booked into rooms facing a courtyard. Charlotte's "peevish wrangling" gets the attention of an old man who announces that he has a view. He offers to swap rooms with the women and is immediately rebuked by Charlotte, who considers the man ill-bred and his proposal untoward. An Anglican clergyman named Mr. Beebe, who Charlotte recognizes from Lucy's parish of Spring Street in the countryside of Surrey, compels her to accept the trade.

Once Mr. Emerson and his son George exchange rooms with the women, the guests are seated for dinner. Recalling his parishioner's talent on the piano, Mr. Beebe finds himself much more engaged by Lucy, who only seeks to please, and maybe enjoy herself on her holiday, over the fussy Charlotte. At dinner, a little old lady drops into the conversation offering unsolicited tourist advice; her name is Miss Eleanor Lavish. The next morning, while Charlotte rests, Miss Lavish offers to escort Lucy on an adventure. The old lady demands Lucy shut her Baedeker guidebook, which she believes touches only the surface of things.

Accordingly, they drifted through a series of those gray-brown streets, neither commodious nor picturesque, in which the eastern quarter of the city abounds. Lucy soon lost interest in the discontent of Lady Louisa, and became discontented herself. For one ravishing moment Italy appeared. She stood in the Square of the Annunziata and saw in the living terracotta those divine babies whom no cheap reproduction can ever stale. There they stood, with their shining limbs bursting from the garments of charity, and their strong white arms extended against circlets of heaven. Lucy thought she had never seen anything more beautiful; but Miss Lavish, with a shriek of dismay, dragged her forward, declaring that they were out of their path now by at least a mile.

Lucy and Miss Lavish end up in the Basilica of Santa Croce, where the escort becomes distracted by her "local colour box" and abandons Lucy to gab with him. Lucy enters the Franciscan church and encounters Mr. Emerson, whose son George invites Lucy to join them. Mr. Emerson's theological opinions grow so boisterous that his voice drowns out a tour group led by a fellow guest, a curate named Mr. Eager. Lucy finds Mr. Emerson to be foolish, irreligious and the sort that her mother would not want her to associate with, and she is unnerved by the melancholy of George. Conversely, Mr. Emerson feels sorry for Lucy, so concerned with doing what she thinks will please others.

While Miss Lavish and Charlotte pair up, Lucy feels left out. She goes alone to the Piazza Signoria, purchasing photographs and other objects of beauty she comes across. Lucy stumbles into an argument between two Italian men which turns violent, with one stabbing and killing the other. As she swoons, George Emerson comes to her rescue. Escorting Lucy back to the pension, George returns to the square upon her request retrieve her photographs, which he awkwardly disposes of in the Arno, explaining that they had blood on them. Discussing the murder they've witnessed and how to move forward, George replies cryptically, "I shall want to live, I say."

Lucy agrees to join Charlotte, the Emersons, Mr. Beebe, Miss Lavish and Mr. Eager on an excursion by carriage to the summit of the Torre del Gallo. She learns that Miss Lavish aspires to write a novel about Florence. Lucy is pelted with questions by the little old lady about the murder she witnessed. Mr. Eager joins Charlotte in his contempt for the widowed Mr. Emerson, who the curate blames for the death of Mrs. Emerson. Since her brush with death, Lucy has begun to see through the pretensions of her fellow travelers. The carriage party splits up and when Lucy stumbles in a field of deep-blue violets, she is kissed by George Emerson. Her cousin witnesses the act.

"Well, I am no prude. There is no need to call him a wicked young man, but obviously he is thoroughly unrefined. Let us put it down to his deplorable antecedents and education, if you wish. But we are no further on with our question. What do you propose to do?"

An idea rushed across Lucy's brain, which, had she thought of it sooner and made it part of her, might have proved victorious.

"I propose to speak to him," said she.

Miss Bartlett uttered a cry of genuine alarm.

"You see, Charlotte, your kindness--I shall never forget it. But--as you said--it is my affair. Mine and his."

Rather than speak to George Emerson, Lucy buckles under her cousin's will and departs for Rome in the morning. Three months later, she has returned home with a fiancé named Cecil Van Vyse. From her family home in the Surrey hills, a country district developed by her late father they call Windy Corner, Mrs. Honeychurch and Lucy's teenage brother Freddy discuss the engagement. Freddy doesn't hate Cecil, but doesn't much like him, while Lucy's mother finds her son-in-law "clever, rich and well-connected." A man of high ideals who sees through Lucy as if she were a work of art rather than a woman, Cecil is contemptuous of the local society affairs his bride drags him to.

Cecil decides to have some sport with a neighbor in Windy Corner who seeks to let a cottage. Though Lucy makes overtures to a pair of dear old English ladies she met in Florence called the Miss Alans to take the house, Cecil brokers the cottage for a father and son he meets in a London art museum, the Emersons. Freddy invites George Emerson for a swim in a hidden pond he knows well, with the vicar Mr. Beebe reluctantly tagging along. When she is reunited with George, Lucy struggles to keep her composure, even though her Florence affair is half-naked and wet. His relationship with Lucy known only to George and to Charlotte, Freddy invites George for tennis at Windy Corner.

The intrigue rises when Lucy learns that her mother has invited Charlotte down from London to repair at Windy Corner while her plumbing is being fixed. Cecil becomes obsessed with an awful novel he's discovered and as he reads the prose aloud, Lucy discovers it to be Miss Lavish's book. The account of Florence contains a thinly veiled version of Lucy's brief encounter with George, which she is forced to relive with George present as her fiancé reads it aloud. Lucy confronts her cousin about betraying her confidence to Miss Lavish and confronted by George alone, is again kissed by him. George urges her not to marry Cecil and Lucy is torn between who she will elect to disappoint.

The contest lay not between love and duty. Perhaps there never is such a contest. It lay between the real and the pretended, and Lucy's first aim was to defeat herself. As her brain clouded over, as the memory of the views grew dim and the words of the book died away, she returned to her old shibboleth of nerves. She "conquered her breakdown". Tampering with the truth, she forgot that the truth had ever been. Remembering that she was engaged to Cecil, she compelled herself to confused remembrances of George: he was nothing to her; he never had been anything, he had behaved abominably; she had never encouraged him. The armour of falsehood is subtly wrought out of darkness, and hides a man not only from others, but from his own soul. In a few moments Lucy was equipped for battle.

A Room with a View is divided into two parts--Florence and Windy Corner--and I was twittering (in the 20th century sense) through part one. Lucy Honeychurch is such a passive character initially, bullied by her cousin, hounded by her mother's values and introduced to outspoken men she has been told to disapprove of. Forster devotes a great deal of attention to Lucy's henpecking and I was struck by how long the poor girl put up with it. The author's sumptuous prose and travelogue kept me engaged, and when he moves the story to England, it takes off. Freddy Honeychurch is quite a pinball, while Lucy's fiancé Cecil Van Vyse is a dickhead for all times.

He saw that the local society was narrow, but instead of saying, "Does this very much matter?" he rebelled, and tried to substitute for it the society he called broad. He did not realize that Lucy had consecrated her environment by the thousand little civilities that create a tenderness in time, and that through her eyes saw its defects her heart refused to despite it entirely. Nor did he realize a more important point--that if she was too great for this society she was too great for all society, and had reached the stage where personal intercourse would alone satisfy her. A rebel she was, but not of the kind he 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.

While Lucy's thoughts and passions are masked in Florence, once the story moves to Windy Corner, Freddy and Cecil show no decorum and through those characters, Forster's wit is unbound. There's a wonderful comedy of manners in which the boys harangue Charlotte Bartlett to accept reimbursement for her cab ride over, with neither side willing to lose face by taking money when that is exactly what each side wants. Lucy does slowly assert herself and finds her own voice amid all the henpecking, but the young lovers are eclipsed by Freddy and Cecil and the novel, despite Forster's delightful writing and seasonable insights, comes up just short of complete satisfaction.

The furor stirred up by a woman simply kissing a man on holiday was difficult for me to relate to, but by the end of the book, I came to appreciate the awakening Lucy experienced. E.M. Forster wrote six novels, five of which have been adapted to film, including A Room with a View in 1986, which was nominated for eight Academy Awards. Produced by Ismail Merchant and directed by James Ivory, it features Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, Maggie Smith as Charlotte Bartlett, Julian Sands as George Emerson, Daniel Day-Lewis as Cecil Van Vyse, Denholm Elliott as Mr. Emerson and Judi Dench as Miss Lavish. Forster's character names sing and so does this novel.

While I was reading this I kept thinking about how similar it seemed to Pride and Prejudice. It is almost Pride and Prejudice in negative. Now, some brief advice to young women who unexpectedly find themselves trapped in a romantic novel. If you ever faint due to seeing a man stabbed and bleeding to death in front of you, you are probably going to lose your virginity to the guy who catches you in your faint. It is an odd thing, but I would doubt there would be a reader in a hundred that would not know that Lucy and George were destined to be together after that scene. You see, the imagery of all that blood and loss of innocence can only lead to one thing and ‘marriage’ is the Edwardian and polite term for it.

This is a book on snobs, snobbishness and not doing what you want to do because it might not be seen by others to be ‘the done thing’. Look, it isn’t just strange Edwardian types who are thus afflicted – we are all prone to not doing what would be obviously to our benefit on the basis that it might somehow ‘look bad’. All the same, this book is in the main a discussion of how worrying too much about what others might think can really make your life a misery.

Most of the characters in this book are quite unlikeable. Cecil is particularly so. All the same, he is, in some senses, the most pathetic character in the book. Hard not to feel a bit sorry for him despite the fact that if he had successfully married Lucy it would have spoilt the entire book. It is impossible to not feel sorry for him after she tells him why she can’t marry him.

But what I found most interesting about this book was Miss Lavish, the nearly, if not quite Bohemian writer of romances who everyone considers a remarkably intelligent lady for most of the first part of the book. What I liked most about her is that she declares she is going to write a novel about Italy, not about the boring English in Italy, but about the ‘real’ Italy, with local flavour and colour and whatever else. If you want to see what Mr Forster thought of all this you need only look at the novel he himself wrote about Italy, you know, this one. There are Italians in it, I guess it would be somewhat hard to write a novel set in Italy with absolutely no locals in it, but not a single one of the major characters (and virtually none of the minor characters) is Italian. The Italians who are there speak such easy sentences in Italian that even I can translate them without book. “Fa niente, sono vecchia” – It is nothing, I’m an old woman or ‘Lascia, prego, lascia, siamo sposati’ – Leave, I pray, leave, we are married. They are literally there for a little colour, very little else.

No, Forster mostly ignores the Italians and casts his caustic gaze over his fellow countrymen. The exact opposite of what the very intelligent woman in his book recommends.

I quite enjoyed this one, it wasn’t nearly as much fun as Pride and Prejudice, but it was nice enough to keep me amused and the good guys win in the end – and that is always nice.

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

Youth, love and time on your hands...whatever does one do with it all? What an upper class English lady of the early 20th century does with it is the basis for E.M. Forster's A Room with a View.

I expected more of a Death in Venice kind of languishing prose, but instead it felt, for the most part, more akin to Austen...except when it slipped into a borderline Bronte-esque melodrama. There was the snobbish principles and philosophy du jour as well as serious melancholy to be had in plenty, but to my surprise Forster wedged in enough levity to lighten it all up, not allowing it to sink into a mire of self-righteous platitudes and those all too earnest yet often misguided youthful yearnings. The writing was smart, though not too clever for its own good, aside from one gripe. Knocking down of the 4th wall and addressing the audience once every fifty or so pages was a distraction. Either utilize the technique through out consistently and force the reader to accept it or don't use it at all.

Okay, I lied. I have two gripes. The grounds upon which the love affair between Lucy and George is based on could've used more developing. I didn't fully buy into it. By the end I was okay with their relationship, but the start of it needed something more.

Goodreads' dang 5 star doesn't allow it, but if I could, I would actually rate this 3.5 stars.

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!

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!

"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).

A reread, but still as charmed by this sweet novel as I was the first time 'round.