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Read this book a while back. Incredible biography. Right up there with the biography of James Tiptree, Jr. (a/k/a Alice B. Sheldon).
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E.M. Forster: A Life
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Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.
P. N. Furbank's 1978 two-volume portrait, combined here into one edition, is generally considered the definitive biography of novelist E. M. Forster. "One of the best biographies of a writer I've ever read."--Walter Clemons, Newsweek
P. N. Furbank's 1978 two-volume portrait, combined here into one edition, is generally considered the definitive biography of novelist E. M. Forster. "One of the best biographies of a writer I've ever read."--Walter Clemons, Newsweek
648 pages, Paperback
First published July 25,1977
This edition
- Format
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648 pages, Paperback
- Published
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May 2, 1994 by Mariner Books
- ISBN
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9780156286510
- ASIN
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0156286513
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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E.m. Forster
E.M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His huma...
About the author
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Philip Nicholas Furbank was an English biographer, critic and academic. His most significant biography was the well-received life of his friend E.M. Forster.
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Mentioned in A Shadow in the Garden: A Biographers’ Tale by James Atlas
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The definitive life of one of the quintessential 20th century British authors.
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I’ve owned this two-in-one volume for years and finally opened it after Jasmine's wonderful essay-review of Maurice had me thinking of Forster’s probable loneliness. Reading this made me feel better about that aspect of his life: yes, there was much (mostly physical) loneliness in his life, but he was not as sexually unadventurous or as alone as one might think. (Of course loneliness can feel even deeper upon returning home, alone, after encounters that need to be conducted in secret.) More importantly, Forster highly valued and cultivated friendship; and the affection and love (including for a member of a triangle) that flowed from him was appreciated and valued by those on the receiving end.
I was also pleased to find that Forster used the endearing word “muddle” in real life as often as Lucy Honeychurch does in his fictional world.
But I don’t believe a review of a biography should review the personality of its subject, so I will also say this work is an achievement: meticulous, frank, sympathetic, and honest. It likely will be too detailed for many, but I appreciated all of it. Forster opened up his papers and, to a certain extent and for a relatively short period of time before his death, himself to the biographer; and the latter made wise and full use of all these resources and more. I believe Forster too would be pleased.
I was also pleased to find that Forster used the endearing word “muddle” in real life as often as Lucy Honeychurch does in his fictional world.
But I don’t believe a review of a biography should review the personality of its subject, so I will also say this work is an achievement: meticulous, frank, sympathetic, and honest. It likely will be too detailed for many, but I appreciated all of it. Forster opened up his papers and, to a certain extent and for a relatively short period of time before his death, himself to the biographer; and the latter made wise and full use of all these resources and more. I believe Forster too would be pleased.
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I admit to reading 240 pages of the 325 presented here; somewhere in 1912, the adventure stopped, the interest flagged, and I never picked up the volume to follow it to its inevitable conclusion.
I thought at the time the book was evasive and rather dry; 30 years later, a biography would be written whose prologue was titled, "Start with the fact that he was homosexual", and suddenly the narrative springs to life, and the characters come alive in a way that Furbank failed to achieve.
Having read the 21st century narrative, I can now go back to this book and compare and contrast the parts I never initially read.
I thought at the time the book was evasive and rather dry; 30 years later, a biography would be written whose prologue was titled, "Start with the fact that he was homosexual", and suddenly the narrative springs to life, and the characters come alive in a way that Furbank failed to achieve.
Having read the 21st century narrative, I can now go back to this book and compare and contrast the parts I never initially read.
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A very vivid portrayal of the writer, from birth to death, and chronicles everything with extensive research: Forster's early awareness of his homosexuality, his school years, and his wide-ranging travels (which heavily influenced his writings).
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Ran out of time with this library book. I had to return it.
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A remarkable biography and a remarkable life. Forster lived 90 years and only wrote novels for about half of it, but his legacy is huge, and his personal impact may have been greater even than his literary one. He was much beloved. The biography deals frankly with his homosexuality, and the gay sub-culture he inhabited, and one of the great strengths of the book is that you can see how radically the world changed on this topic and in general in the span of this one life history.
On A Passage to India: "Talking today he said it was absurd to say as the Times review had done that he was writing about the incompatibility of the East and the West. He was really concerned with the difficulty of living in the universe."
From an essay from a long-time friend, Joe Ackerley:
I would say that in so far as it is possible for any human being to be both wise and worldly wise, to be selfless in any material sense, to have no envy, jealousy, vanity, conceit, to contain no malice, no hatred (though he had anger), to be always reliable, considerate, generous, never cheap, Morgan came as close to that as can be got."
On A Passage to India: "Talking today he said it was absurd to say as the Times review had done that he was writing about the incompatibility of the East and the West. He was really concerned with the difficulty of living in the universe."
From an essay from a long-time friend, Joe Ackerley:
I would say that in so far as it is possible for any human being to be both wise and worldly wise, to be selfless in any material sense, to have no envy, jealousy, vanity, conceit, to contain no malice, no hatred (though he had anger), to be always reliable, considerate, generous, never cheap, Morgan came as close to that as can be got."
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