“Has Italy filled you with the fever of travel ? Perhaps George Emerson is right . He says that Italy is only a euphuism for Fate .”

I have the author Sarah Winman to thank for my finally reading this book. One of the characters in her upcoming novel Still Life which I just finished, tells of her knowing E.M. Forster and the book is read by a character in the novel. While this is a social commentary on Victorian England in many ways, it’s an ode to Florence and it’s art, to Italy and how full of life it is and a nod to women, surprising for the time reflected here. It was lighter than I expected, and it felt slow at times, but nonetheless a good story with a great ending.

My literary travels took me to Italy twice this past week. It will hardly make up for my trip that was canceled last year, but still a beautiful view from any room where I was reading.

En realidad 3'5.
La historia en si no me ha gustado, de hecho ha habido partes que me han aburrido,..y sin embargo me ha gustado mucho el trasfondo, las ideas que el autor defiende de igualdad entre hombres y mujeres y la igualdad entre personas independientemente de su clase social.
El hecho de que parte de la novela transcurra en Florencia y las bellas descripciones que hace Forster, no hace más que inclinar la balanza a su favor.
Con ganas de leer Un Pasaje a la India :) .

4.5 stars

"Italians are born knowing the way. It would seem that the whole earth lay before them, not as a map, but as a chess-board, whereon they continually behold the changing pieces as well as the squares. Any one can find places, but the finding of people is a gift from God."

Ah, there is nothing like a vacation to rest the body and soothe one’s soul… well, this would be the ideal holiday in any case. Family trips to Disney World would not fall in this category. Nor would my latest adventures – college visits. Even last year’s escape to a gorgeous beach resort to celebrate my 20 year anniversary could not be termed serene or inspiring or meditative; after all, two teens tagging along on that momentous occasion changes the entire tone of a trip as well. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a lovely celebration, and who better to spend it with if one can’t go alone than with the two greatest accomplishments of your twenty years of marriage?!

Apparently, what I am in desperate need of, however, is a trip to Italy. Or someplace that will infuse me with such a feeling of life as it did Lucy Honeychurch in this unforgettable novel! I first read this book at the tender age of 17 when I was assigned E.M. Forster as ‘my author’ to delve into for an AP English project. I successfully completed the task, but I can tell you that there is no way this book had the same effect then as it did now. This book was brilliantly written and such a joy to read. I commend Forster for his progressive feminist views. While in Florence with Charlotte, her much older cousin and chaperone, Lucy meets the Emersons. The elder Mr. Emerson and his son George are not the ‘typical’ tourists of this new Edwardian society, nor are they your average English gentlemen. This is quite evident from the start when they offer to change rooms with Lucy and Charlotte. While the ladies have simple rooms with a view of a courtyard, the Emerson’s view is a marvelous one that takes in both the Arno and the Apennines. It also becomes quite apparent early on that these men offer not just a different view of Italy, but perhaps of societal norms, love, and life itself. "… she had an odd feeling that whenever these ill-bred tourists spoke the contest widened and deepened till it dealt, not with rooms and views, but with—well, with something quite different, whose existence she had not realized before." Trapped between the old Victorian mores and the developing and less constricting Edwardian values, Lucy’s world is shaken up as she struggles with the conflict between her own true desires and the more rigid expectations of her gender and her place in society. A chance encounter with the young, tender and tragic George Emerson leaves Lucy feeling alternately awakened and yet sincerely confused.

The second half of the novel shifts the setting to Lucy’s home at Windy Corner in England. Here it becomes perhaps easier to accept the social codes without the ‘threat’ of the Emersons or the seductive allure of Italy. Or does it? Soon it becomes quite clear that Lucy’s soul-searching has not come to a halt. "… she 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 hesitate to give away any real details of the plot any further as not to spoil it; you really just need to pick this one up and observe Lucy’s struggles and transformations for yourself. Forster also introduces us to Lucy’s brother, Freddy, who is rather refreshingly unconventional, as well as the puffed up prig, Cecil Vyse. In fact, Forster introduces an array of characters that you will not soon forget, and I love the various names attached – Mr. Beebe, Miss Lavish and Mr. Eager. The character development of each and every one is brilliant.

I highly recommend this as a very accessible classic novel. Not too heavy yet very forward-thinking. The romance is endearing without being sappy. There is some wonderful satire about social conventions that I very much appreciated. I seem to need a bit of humor in these classic works to lighten the mood just a bit, so well done Mr. Forster. The book is simply enchanting and I can’t wait to watch yet another highly regarded screen adaptation. 4.5 stars rounded up since I just can’t stop thinking about this one.

"I must get away, ever so far. I must know my own mind and where I want to go."
"The world is certainly full of beautiful things, if only I could come across them."

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.

Una delicia de principio a fin

Teria dado as quatro estrelas se não fosse por uma primeira parte muito ao estilo da opera bufa. Muito exagero, muita teatralidade que não me pareceram reais nem deixaram as personagens fluírem.

A nossa heroína foi bem contruída, mas a sua mensagem não passou inteiramente devido a estes pretensiosismos. Na sociedade eduardiana em que as mulheres eram para serem vistas e não ouvidas, Lucy atreveu-se a querer ser vista e ouvida e mais: casar por amor com quem lhe apetece e imagine-se! ser correspondida.

Depois, temos todos os elementos dessa sociedade: o clérigo coscuvilheiro, a prima solteirona, uma mãe condescendente e um irmão muito agarotado. Uma coisa de que gostei: uma familia amorosa, que se apoiam e compreendem mutuamente.
Não desisto do Sr. Forster, mas não me agradou inteiramente.

3,5/5*

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.

This is a very pleasant (I almost wrote "relaxing") read, for all of Lucy's muddle. Once again, I'm almost ashamed that I didn't read it years ago.

3,5. En la primera parte, nos encontramos con Lucy Honeychurch y su prima, la señorita Barlett de vacaciones en Florencia. Allí harán amistad con un grupo de personas que también pasan unos días en Italia. Principalmente, se verán inmersas en varias situaciones que las obligarán a entablar relación con los Emerson, un padre y un hijo bastante peculiares. Cierto suceso, servirá de excusa para desencadenar toda la trama. En la segunda, nos encontraremos con que Lucy se ha prometido repentinamente. Y no digo más.

Esta novela tiene varios puntos muy interesantes. En primer lugar, el señor Emerson. Este personaje huye del puritanismo de la época, de esa conciencia de lo "discreto" y se comporta de manera natural y cercana con todo el mundo. Tiene varios momentos brillantes donde cuestiona la fe religiosa de manera fánatica, o cuando alaba la actitud de la "nueva mujer" que busca su libertad a través de una mayor independencia. Me ha parecido un personaje espectacular. He tomado muchas notas de citas de la novela y casi todas eran de este personaje.

Por otra parte, tenemos la increíble evolución de Lucy. En las primeras páginas, Lucy aparece como una niña de buena familia que acata lo que su desagradable prima considera "buenos modales" en una señorita. Parece estar muy acostumbrada a hacer lo que le dicen y a vivir con ese absurdo decoro que limita cualquier deseo propio. Pero en la segunda parte de esta novela, veremos como Lucy empezará a cambiar y poco a poco irá ganando confianza en sí misma. Hasta que llegue la ruptura final con la antigua Lucy, a través de una gran discurso que me cautivó por completo.

La pega es que, aunque la primera parte de la historia me enganchó rápidamente, el inicio de la segunda parte me resultó algo cansino y se me hizo un poco cuesta arriba. Sin embargo, lo ha compensado todo este tramo final. Me ha gustado ver en el autor un adelantado a su época. Otro claro ejemplo de que la época no justifica que un autor sea conservador e intolerante en su contexto. Los hay como Forster que critican esos ideales anticuados y los ridiculiza. Y cuando te encuentras autores así, es una gozada. Estoy deseando leer Maurice.

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

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster is a 2017 Amazon Classics publication. ( Originally published in 1908)

In the continuing saga of 'taming the TBR', I have found it easier to locate classics on my list that I have been meaning to read for years.

The brevity of this one convinced me to make time for it immediately instead of letting it continue to gather 'virtual' dust on my Kindle.

I had a little trouble with this one- in fact- I almost gave up on it. I was well over halfway in before I felt engaged in it at all. By the time I was finished, though, I was glad I stuck with it.

This is a light story, with some dramatics, terrific locales, fantastic characterizations, and a moral that is timeless, but overall, while I enjoyed it enough, it didn't make a lasting impression on me.