While "only connect . . ." is the book's epigraph, this book also makes me think of the Dalai Lama's statement that "kindness without wisdom is cruelty." The Wilcox family may be positioned as the book's villians but both Schlegel women cause their share of harm too and only faintly seem to make their own connections.

I vaguely remember seeing the film adaptation of Howards (no apostrophe-s!) End decades ago. I don’t remember much about the plot, I just vaguely (mis)remembered it as a story of some mad old biddy giving a house to Emma Thompson. I suppose if you must give away a house to someone Emma Thompson is not a bad choice, she is pretty cool. Anyway, after recently reading  A Room with a View and  The Machine Stops I have added E.M. Forster to my much coveted list of favorite classic authors (he missed my sci-fi list by a hair, having written only one novella, albeit an excellent one).

The nice lady who gives away the eponymous Howards End house is not an old biddy at all. She is roughly the same age as myself and is actually one of the least annoying characters in the book so I will retract both “old” and “biddy”. She is in poor health though and after spending some time with the kindly, friendly, clever and generally awesome Margaret Schlegel decided to write a note in pencil expressing her wish to give the house to her friend upon her death. This sounds like a ridiculous premise for a novel but Forster knew very well such a note would not be legally binding and the book is not about some kind of legal battle for the house, besides Margaret has no idea of the brief existence of the note until almost the end of the book.

What Howards End is really about (unless I am very much mistaken) is social classes and their perception and relation to each other. The central characters represent the intellectual, the materialistic, and the poor. Their interactions in this book are on the whole not a happy one even though Margaret marries the stuffy businessman Henry Wilcox (whose wife – who is not an old biddy –snuffs it fairly early in the book). The book is not particularly densely plotted and any further description of the storyline seems like spoiler to me. Certainly it is full of themes and symbolisms about social classes, culture vs practicality etc. but as a reader I am more interested in the readability of it, the themes always come after the story for me. I find Howards End to be immensely readable and never drag at any time even though nothing much seems to happen in it; quite a triumphant achievement by Forster I think.

I enjoy reading Forster’s observations of different kinds of people, their “lights and shades” as he puts it. The awkward romance between the two main characters who have nothing in common is peculiarly charming, especially when Henry, a man devoid of passion, tries to express touchy feely sentiments. The prose is characteristically top notch. I like Margaret’s notion of taming the stiff upper lipped Henry:

“She might yet be able to help him to the building of the rainbow bridge that should connect the prose in us with the passion. Without it we are meaningless fragments, half monks, half beasts, unconnected arches that have never joined into a man.”

It can’t be easy constructing rainbow bridges. I don’t have a lot more to say about Howards End really because it is all about the characters, even the titular house is a character of sorts. Once you get to know these characters, their idiosyncrasies become quite absorbing. Anyway, I have no problem recommending this book, I enjoyed it from beginning to end. If you like characters study novels set in the Edwardian era this one is for you.

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Notes

Audiobook: I listened to the free Librivox edition, beautifully read (as always) by Elizabeth Klett, who is one of the very best readers on there. Thank you very much!

I feel like I ought to rate it at 4 stars because I'm always throwing 5 stars about, but I can't think what to deduct the one star for.

It’s been thirty years since I last read E.M.Forster and I didn’t think I’d read this one before, yet there were aspects of familiarity that make me think otherwise and a feeling that my sympathies for certain characters may have changed after all this time. There are definitely strong emotions involved where the individuals who populate the novel are concerned, whether it’s outright bigotry, misogyny and the Imperialist values of Mr. Wilcox or the naive, selfish, idealism of Helen. Margaret probably comes closest to being appealing, although I have a soft spot for Mrs. Munt and Mrs. Avery, but her continual adherence to the wishes of others are jarring and her blindness to consequences can be irritating.

The blurbs about Howards End often focus on its dissection of class and this and the importance of money do feature heavily, but there is also a great deal in it about women versus men and the importance of suffrage, imagination versus reality or practicality, Imperialism and the microcosm of life in a few acres. All these were issues that were important at the time Forster was writing and clearly ones he had strong views on. There is also a real focus on place and home and the beauty of English countryside in the spring and summer and there are some lovely passages describing this.

By contrasting the Wilcoxes and the Schlegels Forster shows how the dichotomies of the novel play out with Mrs. Wilcox and then Leonard Bast acting as the catalyst for action. Mrs. Wilcox is ethereal and whimsical but nevertheless seems more fully rounded than Leonard who never really appears much more than a cipher, a ‘cause’ in more than one way that comes to affect the lives of the main characters significantly.

Occasionally Forster gets overly metaphysical or philosophical in his writing and could be said to overwrite on occasion but most of the novel is beautifully written. The main feeling throughout the novel might often be one of frustration with the characters, although there are also several amusing scenes, but it is still highly enjoyable and I won’t be waiting quite so long before picking up Forster again.

Some Favorite Lines
‘Away she hurried, not beautiful, not supremely brilliant, but filled with something that took the place of both qualities-something best described as a profound vivacity, a continual and sincere response to all that she encountered in her path through life.’

‘Margaret realized the chaotic nature of our daily life, and its difference from the orderly sequence that has been fabricated by historians. Actual life is full of false clues and signposts that leave nowhere.’

‘In the streets of the city she noted for the first time the architecture of hurry and heard the language of hurry on the the mouths of its inhabitants-clipped words, formless sentences, potted expressions of approval or disgust.’

‘We are reverting to the civilization of luggage, and historians of the future will note how the middle classes accreted possessions without taking root in the earth, and may find in this the secret of their imaginative poverty.’

‘All was so solid and spruce that the past flew up out of sight like a spring-blind leaving only the last five minutes unrolled.’

I think I must have first read this in my early twenties and, from my 3-star rating then, clearly didn’t appreciate its depths. Rereading for book club, I was so impressed by its complexities – the depiction of class, the character interactions, the coincidences, the deliberate doublings and parallels. It covers so many issues, yet there is a real lightness of touch. So many perfect sentences: descriptions of places, observations of characters, or maxims that are still true of life. Well over a century later and the picture of well-meaning wealthy intellectuals’ interference making others’ lives worse is just as cutting (the ‘rich savior’ rather than the ‘white savior’, perhaps), and it’s remarkable to see nascent environmental anxiety, too.

The gradations of wealth and class are a bit less familiar to us, but it’s clear how the bluestocking Schlegel sisters contrast with the nouveau riche Wilcoxes. Leonard Bast is like a Hardy hero, trying to improve himself against the grain of fate. (Is the omniscient narrator’s cynicism also Forster’s? “We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet. This story deals with gentlefolk, or with those who are obliged to pretend that they are gentlefolk. … Oh, it was no good, this continual aspiration. Some are born cultured; the rest had better go in for whatever comes easy.”)

“Only connect” is the mantra that encourages us, as much as the characters, to see how these disparate lives intertwine. There were many plot twists that I hadn’t remembered and that genuinely shocked me: the sudden announcement of the first Mrs Wilcox’s death with “The Funeral was over” opening to Chapter XI, the liaison between Mr Wilcox and Leonard’s wife, Helen’s pregnancy, Leonard’s death. We had a great book club discussion, probably one of our best.

Memorable lines:

Margaret: “I believe we shall come to care about people less and less, Helen. The more people one knows the easier it becomes to replace them. It’s one of the curses of London. I quite expect to end my life caring most for a place.”

pithy descriptions: Mr Wilcox as a “prosperous vulgarian”; “A short-frocked edition of Charles also regards them placidly; a perambulator edition is squeaking; a third edition is expected shortly.”; “The brown bunch was Helen, but did you catch sight of a seagreen and salmon bunch?”; the Schlegel sisters as “a sort of admonitory whirligig”

“Certainly Oniton would take some digesting. It would be no small business to remain herself, and yet to assimilate such an establishment. … inwardly she hoped for something better than this blend of Sunday church and fox-hunting.”

“Preachers or scientists may generalize, but we know that no generality is possible about those whom we love; not one heaven awaits them, not even one oblivion.”

The Schlegel sisters seemed like characters plucked straight out of a Jane Austen book, or books. Some combination of Emma Woodhouse (Emma) and the Dashwood sisters (Sense and Sensibility). But the story and the style are entirely Forster's. The focus of the story is the social class differences in English society. The setting is Edwardian Era England, sandwiched tightly between the end of the Victorian Era and the beginning of World War I. Most of Forster's novels were published in this 1st decade of the century. I have read them all and what strikes me is their easiness to read, and how different each one is to the other. This one, Howard's End, is considered his masterpiece, and who am I to disagree. 4.5 stars.

What is delivered here is a commentary on British society at the turn of the 20th century, particularly in relation to class stratification. The story focuses upon three families—the wealthy Wilcox family of high standing and privilege, the Schlegels of the intellectual and progressive Bloomsbury set and finally the Basts of the working class who can barely make ends meet despite incessant hard work. One’s class both shapes and constricts a person. Moving from one class to another is fraught with difficulties.

Those who are looking for an action filled plot, will complain that the tale drags in the middle. I had no problem with the middle section. In fact, I preferred it over the rapid unfolding of events at the book’s end. Character portrayal and excellent prose is what drew me. Both the lines of narrative and the dialogue are alternately amusing, thought provoking and / or lyrical.

What themes does one think about?

Set before the First World War and with the Schlegel family of both German and British heritage, it is amusing to hear what those of one cultural background say of the other. Aunt Juley proclaims more than once that “Germans are too thorough!” This is merely one example. Do cultural differences intrigue you? They do me.

A preference for provincial versus urban lifestyles is another theme. Forster has a knack for capturing the character of different geographical areas, their respective landscape, flora and fauna. Tulips ae spoken of; they are seen as a “tray of jewels”. Forster clearly appreciates country life and the attachment one can feel for a place perceived as home. The Hertfordshire country villa Howard’s End is loved dearly by Ruth Wilcox. When she is ill, she scribbles on a scrap of paper who is to inherit the house and property, the place of her birth. Will it end up in the proper hands? To whom does a place belong--to these who love it, to those who value its essence and beauty, or to those who hold the necessary legal papers?

Emotions, human feelings and innate differences between how men and women think and feel fill the lines of the text. The themes covered in this book are many.

“Love was so unlike the article served up in books.”

“Men--know so much and connect so little.”

“His actions, not his disposition, had disappointed her, and she could live with that.”

“No education can teach a woman logic.” Said of course by a man!

Observing the sometimes fractious and other times strong and deep kinship between the two Schlegel sisters made me yearn for a sister. Comparing their personalities intrigued me. One is impulsive, the other more restrained until that point where her temper explodes. When an issue of importance arises, the restrained, logical, cool and calm sister reaches a breaking point. Travelling in a carriage, she is jolted, physically and emotionally. Informed that a dog has merely been “touched” by their wagon; she knows this is not true. She throws herself out of the wagon to care for the creature. The creature turns out to be a cat, not a dog, and is dead. This scene and her fury spoke to me.

Dialogues are written as folks really do speak. “I shall be back before I am gone!” had me smiling. What a clever turn of phrase. That which is said is not spelled out in black and white; one must think about what the words mean, what is implied, and what lies under the surface.

John Franklyn-Robbins narrates the audiobook. He reads clearly and slowly and with feeling. He pauses in all the right places. This enables one to concentrate on that which is implied, sometimes serious and other times amusing. The narration I have given five stars because I cannot imagine it possible to improve.

The prose is what draws me to this novel. The plot is fine. It is believable and realistic, but it is not that which attracts me. There are plenty of books concerned with class distinctions, the difficulties associated with escaping one’s class, the extent to which class shapes one’s behavior and in general terms the social norms of British society at the turn of the century, but few of these books have such well worded, amusing and thought provoking lines.


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*Where Angels Fear to Tread 4 stars
*Howards End 4 stars
*A Passage to India 4 stars
*A Room with a View 3 stars
*The Longest Journey TBR

"Para ellos, Howards End tan solo era una casa. No podían entender que, para la fallecida, hubiese sido un espíritu para el que anhelaba una heredera espiritual.
Adentrémonos un poco más entre la niebla, ¿no habían reaccionado sus herederos de la mejor forma posible al no ceder la propiedad de Howards End? Y es que, ¿acaso es posible legar las posesiones del espíritu? ¿Acaso el alma tiene descendientes? ¿Puede transmitirse el amor por un olmo, una parra, una gavilla de trigo cubierta de rocío, cuando no existen lazos de sangre?"
— E.M. Forster, 'Howards End' (1910)

Mi reencuentro con E.M. Forster no podía haber sido más placentero. La crítica se muestra casi unánime al hablar de 'Howards End' como su obra maestra; y, pese que 'Una habitación con vistas' sigue siendo mi favorita, puede entender por qué.

La novela pone en escena a tres familias, pertenecientes a esferas muy distintas.
Por un lado tenemos a los pragmáticos Wilcox, acaudalados industriales que viven por y para sus dividendos; por otro, a los Schlegel, una familia acomodada, intelectual y humanista, formada por dos hermanas (y un hermano), muy distintas en carácter, pero unidas por su amor por la independencia y por las causas sociales; y, finalmente, a los Bast, un matrimonio de clase media, que pena por llegar a fin de mes.
Estos tres mundos entran en contacto a través de las hermanas Schlegel, y en un juego de encuentros y desencuentros, terminan influenciándose de forma irreparable.

Como veis por mi cita inicial, es la herencia de Howards End, de ese mundo condenado a desaparecer ante el avance imparable de la modernidad, donde está la clave de esta sobria e impecable novela.
Una novela que, sutil e irónicamente, crítica muchos de los comportamientos de esa Inglaterra de principios del s. XX, que Forster tan bien conocía.
El retrato que Forster hace de aquel Londres eduardiano es impecable; la caracterización de las dos hermanas protagonistas, la prudente Margaret y la apasionada Helen, soberbia; los debates planteados entre los distintos personajes precisos e ilustrativos de aquel mundo en plena transformación.

Sin duda otra gran novela de un magnífico escritor.

Whether this is the strongest of Forster's novels, it is certainly my favorite -- and re-reading it again after several years, I am once more struck by how carefully woven and truly delightful is this brief sojourn into Edwardian England. Like Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga, Howard's End lurks on the cusp of modern England, connecting the highly-structured manorial worlds of Tom Jones and Jane Austen with the shabby, cramped post-war Britain of council houses that is found in Philip Larkin. But whereas Galsworthy can be despondent, even brutal, Forster manages to salvage his historic moment with a dose of poetry and joy.

The plot -- a love triangle among families -- features the capitalist-imperialist Wilcox clan; the aspiring clerk Leonard Bast and his working class wife; and the artistic Schlegels, who can afford to be liberal and cultured on 600 sterling a year. World War I is still a half decade away as the part-German Schlegel sisters jest about their origins, humor that must have seemed to innocent, even naive, a decade later. Among the most well-wrought scenes in the novel are the developing friendship between the first and second Mrs. Wilcoxes, the hilarious car ride featuring Aunt Juley and Charles Wilcox, and Aunt Juley's unexpected recovery from her pneumonia. The quirky character descriptions are priceless, such as when the narrator describes Evie Wilcox Cahill as "one of those who name animals after the less successful characters in Old Testament history." The narrative voice, while modernist and intrusive, is none the less an amiable companion. And I confess that I tear up every time I discover, once again, the untimely death of Ruth Wilcox in her prime -- although the more unsettling, at this reading, to realize that I am likely older now that poor Ruth in her final days.

My one gripe: We never do learn what becomes of Mrs. Bast! I fear she has been left to starve after Leonard's death, which seems a gross injustice....

Oh, Forster is kind to the reader!

I was building up the kind of panic I felt on the last pages of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, when the overwhelming unfairness of the rigid English society came crashing down on the characters I had learned to love. I had invested so much time and feeling in Helen and Margaret, would I have to face their brutal expulsion and tragedy too? I am still mourning Tess, after all!

If Hardy wanted to show just how painful it all IS in reality, Forster offers an alternative path and sends the bully to jail and the patriarch into retirement and lets the young sparkling spirit of modernity connect!

What does Margaret mean when she tells Henry Wilcox that he is unable to "connect", to draw lines between his own behaviour and its lack of consequences and her sister's loss of everything which he not only accepts, but also enforces - at least before Forster's deus ex machina comes down on his self-righteousness and gives the Schlegels more than a spoonful of poetical justice?

The connection she is asking for is the ability to see and feel what other people experience and to understand the different positions from a standpoint of humanity - it is quite simply EMPATHY.

The Wilcoxes stand for the business bullying that operates with a code of rationally justified privilege, and in real life, they win more often than not.

Howards End is an ideal of diversity come true: "It is part of the battle against sameness", as Margaret says to her sister Helen in the end. Helen stands for the spirit of life not giving in or giving up in the face of the cruel sameness of society. She gatecrashes a wedding and seduces a confused young man (more sinned against than sinning applies to both of them!), she carries her child with pride and in the end ... she connects, just like Henry Wilcox.

Charles on the other hand will probably spend his three years in jail without ever learning anything. The ability to feel empathy, unfortunately, is not universal. That would have been too unrealistic a happy end even for Forster.

This reader is grateful for the kind and almost Dickensian tugging in and wrapping up and comforting after the drama!

My third Forster (after Where Angels Fear to Tread and A Passage to India) and the first one I truly loved. Unlike the fairytale-ish, lighter (more philosophy, less sociology) A Room with a View which I chased it down with, it's definitely more realistic, although the unbelievably modern ending (matriarchy, no less) was stunning.

What I loved most was the narrative devoted to class and money; the rich cultured girls of Forster's fiction (at least one of them) know they are cultured only because they are rich, and that their relative ease of living allows them to find the mental energy needed to appreciate the arts, and to think.

... all our thoughts are the thoughts of six-hundred-pounders, and all our speeches; and because we don't want to steal umbrellas ourselves, we forget that below the sea people do want to steal them, and do steal them sometimes...

...independent thoughts are in nine cases out of ten the result of independent means...

...Tell me; oh yes; did you say money is the warp of the world?" "Yes." "Then what's the woof?" "Very much what one chooses," said Margaret.

The other great value of the book - save for the stunnigly sensitive observation and writing - is its feminism. Forster discusses marriage and the changing dynamics of relations between women and men:

The room suggested men, and Margaret, keen to derive the modern capitalist from the warriors and hunters of the past, saw it as an ancient guesthall, where the lord sat at meat among his thanes. ...

...the words were underlined, as is necessary when dealing with women...

Needless to say - see my earlier remark on the ending - Forster represents this attitude to women as a thing of the past.

After I was totally bowled over by A Room with a View - I felt compelled to follow up with another from E.M. Forster, so why not Howard’s End? Why not indeed – I am so glad I did as I met – Margaret (Meg) Schlegel, but more about her later.

This book was right up my Strasse.

On reflection, as this wasn’t necessarily apparent to this reader at first pass – this is a study of how different classes interact in pre-WWI England and how they contribute to the ever-changing landscape of English society moving forward.

We have three main groups, all very different and all become more intertwined as the story evolves.

Firstly, we have the Schlegel’s (my favourite) a well to do threesome of two sisters Margaret and Helen and their slothful, younger brother Tiddy. The Schlegel’s live in a nice part of London and spend their time enjoying conversation with friends, connecting with anyone really – even strangers, appreciating art, going to the theatre, and just enjoying life. Secondly, we have the Wilcox’s – Ruth and Henry are the parents of several unikable children. They are a money driven family, their considerable wealth is derived from industrious activity and not a moment is wasted on such things as social mores, the arts and connecting with others. In my view, this is driven by the patriarch Henry a difficult character to say the least, his wife is a little softer in this regard, in fact, her relationship with the adorable Margaret is something to watch for as it has a massive bearing on how this story develops. Thirdly, we get involved with the Basts a poor couple - Leonard Bast and his wife Jacky. They live in relative poverty – I felt really sorry for Leonard as he tried so hard to elevate himself by obsessively reading and attending such things as the theatre, alas, he couldn’t quite make it.

So, these three cohorts become inextricably related and a beautiful property in a hamlet called Howards End in Hertfordshire. Although this place is fictional, it is based on Forster’s childhood home (see below).



I was later to learn (from my buddy reader Lisa and some further reading) that there are a whole bunch of metaphors flying around here depicting life in England and how it is about to change. By the way, I am still a little clueless about spotting metaphors and quite frankly wouldn’t know one if it fell on me – but I am practicing. I will be sure let you all know when I spot my first one! In hindsight I now see the metaphors in this story, so that’s a great start methinks.

This is a terrific character piece about class and society. I loved it. I also love Margaret (I have already sent an SMS to Lucy Barton BTW), the fact Margaret is long dead is a porential problem, but nothing I can’t figure out. Margaret was compassionate, patient, clever, funny, and beautiful.

I would like to thank my buddy reader Lisa who gave me a strenuous workout. The thing I liked about buddy-reading with our Lisa was, she asked (interrogate is a bit strong) me lots of questions during our read and there was also some great general chit chat about things in the book. It certainly added to my experience on this one making this a 5-star read. Thanks Lisa!

5 Stars

I've read three of Forster's most well known novels, and yet, I don't feel I know them at all. Even this one, as I read it, was fading from memory. I don't mean to say that his work is forgettable, but with every Forster book I've read - amazing human portraits and elegant, occasionally profound turns of phrase - somehow they all flitter on out of my head. It's as if they were witty clouds: intelligent and incorporeal. Heck, I've even seen movie versions for a couple of them and I still don't recall what the stories are about.

Why is that? If I could pinpoint it, well, then I wouldn't have started this review with that first paragraph. Perhaps it is because of Forster's penchant for pleasant diversions. He expounds upon ideas as the action unfolds, and that's wonderful! He gives the reader some very nice theories on human behavior to ponder upon. My problem is that I ponder too frickin' much! A writer like Forster is a danger to me. My imagination likes to fly and it's not very well tethered, so when I read books like Howards End with lines like "And of all means to regeneration remorse is surely the most wasteful. It cuts away healthy tissues with the poisoned. It is a knife that probes far deeper than the evil."...oh boy, off goes my mind in another direction and the next thing I know I've spent 20 minutes on a single page. Ah, but they are wondrous pages to linger upon. Perhaps it is worth the time.