There are a million books about the inner lives of English people. Here is one of them.

I started out liking this. I was even thinking this was going to be my first four-star novel of the year. However, as Howards End progressed I found myself caring less and less about what was going on. By the time I was 50% of the way through I was just waiting for it to finish. I felt the exact same way about Where Angels Fear to Tread. Maybe it's Forster's prose? I don't know. I think Forster and I are going to have a turbulent relationship.

This novel describes life in England in the years preceding World War I. The skilled writing of E.M. Forster provides a glimpse into the chitchat, interests, and concerns of English everyday life of the time. The story also reveals the social, economic and philosophical trends of that time by using a plot that intertwines characters from differing social classes.

Three social classes are represented by three families. The Schlegel family represents the idealistic and intellectual segment of the upper classes, the Wilcox family represents the English work ethic and conventional social morality, and the Bast family represent an impoverished lower-middle-class that nevertheless aspires to enjoy some of the literary and music appreciations of the upper classes. A more thorough description of the plot and the relationships between families can be found in this Wikipedia article.

Toward the end of the story there is a climactic clash of wills related to morality versus forgiveness and marital loyalty versus obedience. The plot involves an unmarried pregnancy and a same sex relationship which in the context of the time would have been scandalous—though rather tame for today’s standards.

If the ending of the book is suppose to be symbolic of the future of England it would appear that the Schlegels win, the Wilcoxes lose, and the aspirations of the Basts fail. I won’t try to carry that symbolism further, but I am haunted by the fact that the book describes an idilillic peaceful time a few years prior the horror of World War I. After the war these years will be remembered as the “golden years." However, those alive at the time were unaware of its goldenness.

I credit E.M. Forester for giving us one character in this story, Margaret, who comes across with generally good judgment regarding life’s issues and who has the fortitude to chose loyalty to her sister over obeying her husband's wishes. In the end it was the correct thing to do, but at the time it appeared that it could end her marriage. The other characters in the book were either less likable, too emotional, or plagued with character flaws (in my opinion). It’s good to have at least one character worthy of being a role model.

It took me a while to get into this book but once I did, I really enjoyed the story with it's theme of rich versus poor. It focuses on three different families and how money affects their very different lives. This was my first E M Forster book but will definitely read more of him.

Matt: Why are we listening to Beethoven's Fifth?
Emily: The characters in this book are at a concert listening to it. I wanted to make sure I knew which one it was.
Matt: How do you not know Beethoven's Fifth??!?
Emily: I know the BEGINNING, Matthew, I just don't know THE REST OF IT

(some time passes)

Matt: Are the characters still at the concert?
Emily: Oh, no, that's over. This is just atmospheric now
Matt: Can we have a different atmosphere? Like the atmosphere of silence?


There's a lot going on in Howards End. I've honestly never been so surprised by a plot. Every single beat astounded me. Mrs. Wilcox dies?? Margaret MARRIES Mr. Wilcox?? Helen HAS LEONARD'S BABY???? I think this is partially because it's so hard to figure out what Howards End is about. Is it about class in early 1900s Britain? Is it about sisters? Is it about Germany and England before the first world war? Is it about industrialization? I suppose you could say it is about all of those things (and it is), but the issue is that the characters seem to be subject to those themes rather than displayed against them as a background. The choices they made did not make any sense to me, and I ended up being suspicious of the Margaret/Helen relationship. This is the kind of book that seems best when you can read and discuss it in a classroom setting. I am too lazy to educate myself on its merits, and I can't argue with myself about the public and private nature of self. I am too busy listening to Beethoven remixes.

However, this book does include the line "Their interview was short and absurd. They had nothing in common but the English language," which is a sentiment I feel deeply. I, too, have conversations where this is the only commonality. It was worth reading this book just for that.

What can I say about this book. I loved it!!!
I would never have picked it up normally but having seen it recently on BBC, a great adaptation by the way, I was interested in learning more. You know the type of stuff I mean, real feelings and inner thoughts that you can only guess at from the screen.
I really liked Margaret. She's a very strong character and the family depend on her totally. She's loyal and loving while still being quite a modern woman for her time.
She manages Henry very well. Knowing exactly when to push forward with him and when to withdraw. That is until that fateful day. Then afterwards, I think life gets better for her in that regard and she's not so 'careful' with him and he seems to accept it and respect her for it.
This is a very prosy book. There are chunks of it which baffled me at times and had me wondering was the man wool gathering while writing it. It could have been shortened a bit and it wouldn't have detracted from the story.
So reading this has encouraged me to read more of the classics. I'll definitely try another of his books.

"A morte destrói o homem; a ideia da morte o salva." Por trás dos caixões e esqueletos que nutrem a mente vulgar reside algo tão imenso que tudo há de grandioso em nós responde a isso. Homens vividos podem refugar ante a cova em que um dia irão entrar, mas o amor não se deixa enganar. A morte é sua adversária , mas também sua igual e em sua contenda milenar os músculos do amor se fortalecem, e sua visão se aclarou, até não haver ninguém que possa com ele.

E.M. Forster nunca decepciona, esse tem um ritmo bem lento, mas não deixa de ser tão bom quanto os outros dele que eu já li.

My review is not a review of Howard's End as much as it is a review of the negative reviews.

Most of the criticism seems to be that the readers felt that this book had nothing to do with them. They weren't familiar with the places in England referenced in the book. It was too English. It wasn't universal. True on some counts. This book isn't about you. It isn't about now. It isn't directly relevant to today. It won't feed the soul of the egomaniac.

It is, however, a beautifully written book with a interesting storyline about a time in history that is important in that way that history is important. The novel is not just SETin a pre-World Wars Europe, it is actually *written* before the wars that changed the western world and its literature forever. Moreover, it is written in the period immediately preceding the wars and the presented tension between England and Germany, not written with the advantage of hindight, adds to the books worthiness. Beyond the tension is a modern view of Germany that predates and so is untainted by the horror of the Holocaust. The Germany of Howard's End is a Germany of philosophers and musicians. Not deranged dictators.


Is it important to be able to perfectly picture the setting of every scene in a book? If it is, I'm in trouble. I think I just have pre-painted backdrops for certain things. Bucolic English countryside? Check. 17th century French parlor? Check. Mars circa 3011? Check. My depictions might not be terribly accurate but I'm not going to let that get in the way of a good story.

What is more universal than the tension between wealth and poverty? Between lust and restraint? What is more universal than feeling both the pull of family and the desire to push them away? What is more universal than hypocrisy? What is more universal than the struggle of the sexes to find their proper place in relation to one another. This. Book. Has. Everything. Except you. You're not in this book.

You already know what its like to live here now. What was it like to live there then? Go ahead and read it for the sex and intrigue but stay for the history and the political discussion. If you don't need to see yourself reflected in everything you read you won't be disappointed.

I loved the beginning!
If only the whole book could go on in this vein :) But what begins as a light-hearted English comedy of manners soon becomes a tragedy with almost surreal scenes. The ending is supposedly optimistic, but that will heavily depend on what you'll believe about the characters :)

I loved the author's kindness:
"It is so easy to talk of 'passing emotion', and to forget how vivid the emotion was ere it passed."

He was criticised, as I understand, for using too much traditional storytelling (although he does include some modern elements), but I actually enjoyed his eclectic style. One can see he loved Jane Austen's writing, and so do I, so... :)

This quote is just brilliant (the story of my life, as it is):
'Actual life is full of false clues and signposts that lead nowhere. With infinite effort we nerve ourselves for a crisis that never comes.'

Howards End has more depth than A Room with a View, though the latter is a more enjoyable, lighthearted read. While here the characters ponder capitalism, imperialism, feminism, the natural world, the spiritual inheritance of a place, and some beautiful philosophies that border on mysticism.

As for me, I was ready to murder the Wilcoxes until the very end. But Margaret -- with her forgiveness, her hope in humanity's movement towards a greater harmony that she herself cannot foresee, and her sensitivity to the cause and effect that divest individuals of culpability -- changed my mind at the very last moment. If not for Margaret, we'd surely have some dead fictional characters, and not by the author's own hand.

I'd like to reread this one in the future, if I live to see it.

CASA CON VISTA


Gli Schlegel nel buon film omonimo diretto da Ivory nel 1992: la sorella maggiore Margaret è Emma Thompson, Helen è interpretata da Helena Bonham Carter, il fratello minore Tibby è Adrian Ross Magenty.

Per qualcuno è questo il capolavoro di E.M.Forster, per altri invece è l’ultimo romanzo pubblicato in vita, Passaggio in India. Per me, che ho letto tutti i suoi soli sei romanzi, è scelta difficile, bella gara.
Uomo dalla lunga vita (novantuno anni), Forster, come dicevo, ha pubblicato solo sei romanzi, di cui uno, Maurice, addirittura uscito postumo: a un certo punto, nonostante il buon esito della sua narrativa, si ferma, smette di scrivere romanzi, si dedica per un po’ ai racconti, ma prosegue soprattutto concentrato sullo studio, la saggistica, gli articoli per riviste e giornali, le conferenze, il libretto per un’opera lirica. Quarant’anni di vita senza tornare alla narrativa. Perché? Mistero.


Vanessa Redgrave è Ruth Wilcox, la vera proprietaria di Casa Howard.

La trama intreccia le sorti di tre famiglie: in mezzo quella delle sorelle Schlegel, modellate sulle vere sorelle Virginia Woolf e Vanessa Bell, la famiglia di cultura, cosmopolita, progressista e idealista, media borghesia illuminata; economicamente sopra, culturalmente sotto, ci sono i Wilcox, ricchi, conservatori, e anche un po’ ignoranti, quintessenza dell’anima affaristicamente dinamica dell’Inghilterra fieramente colonialista (imperialista); sotto, la famiglia piccolo-borghese dell’impiegato di banca Bast, che finisce col rappresentare anche il proletariato.


Henry Wilcox è Anthony Hopkins.

Tre livelli economici e culturali diversi che rappresentano un po’ l’intera società inglese dell’epoca, l’inizio del Novecento fino all’anno di pubblicazione, 1910, ancora lontana dalla Grande Guerra.
Casa Howard è la magione dei Wilcox che tutti amano e vorrebbero possedere, luogo simbolo: il posto che dovrebbe far convergere le opposizioni sociali e culturali di partenza, la culla della migliore tradizione, della solidità di valori da non smarrire, le radici più profonde.


Ed ecco il terzo nucleo familiare, i Bast: Samuel West è Leonard, Nicola Duffett è Jacky.

La trama non è particolarmente complicata e a prima vista potrebbe rimandare a quelle di Jane Austen. Ma più che l’intreccio, più che la descrizione, a Forster preme l’esplorazione di quelle realtà. A tal scopo, usa pause e lunghi dialoghi, rallenta la narrazione, sembra smarrirsi in digressioni, per me facendo crescere il piacere e l’intensità della lettura.
Assente questa volta ogni possibile elemento esotico, né l’Italia di Where Angels Fear to Tread – Monteriano e di Camera con vista, né l’India dell’ultimo romanzo: l’ambientazione è totalmente e tipicamente inglese. E questo consente a Forster una capacità di analisi e scavo probabilmente maggiore. Diretta a quello che la quarta di copertina ci ricorda Virginia Woolf, sua amica, definì:
il conflitto tra le cose che importano e le cose che non importano, tra la realtà e la falsità.


Casa Howard

Niente scene madri, grandi eventi, colpi di teatro: come un placido lago di campagna con la superficie appena increspata, e lo sguardo di Forster che sa penetrare nel fondo dell’acqua, in profondità, fino a raggiungere, e svelare, il fondo.
L’incontro, che genera fiducia e amicizia, tra la signora Wilcox, Ruth, e la maggiore delle Schlegel, Margaret è il clou della storia, il passaggio di testimone affidato a mani femminili.
Casa Howard appare come “il ponte d’arcobaleno” tra il romanzo classico ottocentesco, qui rappresentato dall’impianto e dalla trama, e quello moderno novecentesco, espresso nelle idee, nelle istanze, nelle aspirazioni. Il tutto perfettamente e profondamente british.


Questa invece è Casa Howard nella miniserie in quattro episodi della BBC del 2017.

Per quanto maturo egli fosse, lei era ancora in grado di aiutarlo a costruire il ponte d’arcobaleno che unisce la prosa che è in noi con la passione. Senza, siamo frammenti privi di significato, metà monaci, metà bestie, archi sconnessi che non si sono mai uniti in un uomo… Null’altro che connettere la prosa con la passione, allora entrambe ne saranno esaltate e l’amore umano apparirà al suo culmine. Non vivere più in frammenti. Null’altro che connettere.


La versione televisiva del romanzo di Forster.

It's difficult for me to judge this book on its own merit and not have it suffer in comparison to A Room with a View and Maurice, two books by Forster I recommend. But this book, while interesting at times and full of insights into human nature, as well as it being a meditation on a changing England at the beginning of the twentieth century, fell short for me. Most of the characters were unlikable or unsympathetic people who were either self-centered snobs or well meaning, but clueless about others, especially those not of their own class. I felt the author created them that way to show a certain realism and to show strife on a low simmer between the various classes during that time in English society, setting up a story to have them collide in often improbable ways.

There were The Wilcoxes who owned a home in the countryside called Howards End and were well to do business owners and non intellectuals. There were The Schlegels, cultured intellectuals of German and English descent who were comfortable financially due to inherited money. They met The Wilcoxes on holiday one year and met their fate. And finally, there were The Basts, relatively poor and yearning for a better life financially, and in the case of Mr. Bast, hoping for a richer life culturally. They intersected with the other two families and unknowingly acted as catalysts for what was to come. Through a series of chance encounters and later, chosen ones, they all affected each other for better or worse as they mingled.

Running throughout this story was a heavy handed message about the disintegration of an English way of life formerly based on the land and the disintegration of the souls of people along with it, for those who failed to connect, not only with the land, but with one another and with themselves. The intent of this story, as I saw it, to enlighten and to warn, was a worthy one and kept my interest, but the messages the author wished to convey became repetitive, the story manipulated by him, with one disaster after another befalling the characters or disastrous decisions by them used to illustrate the themes. In a word, this story felt calculated and became muddled, leaving me dissatisfied, even though I admired the keen observations of the author and his intent to enlighten people by showing them at their worst. I wish I could say I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in honor of an author I respect, but by the end, it had become a depressing soap opera and something to endure.