I was just going to read "The Celestial Omnibus" to go along with The Literary Life podcast, and accidentally started reading the first story "The Story of a Panic." I ended up reading the entire book and was delighted with it. There is so much lying underneath the story that your mind works on long after you have finished that particular story. He has other short stories that I am now going to try to get my hands on!

It is quite an interesting read. Forster has a very important message in it and that is to not be too proud of your knowledge for it may surprise you. The reader is touched by the innocence of the young boy and at certain places wishes to hold the same truthful and pure heart as that of the child.

A fantasy full of literary allusions (most which I probably missed), The Celestial Omnibus is a rant against snobs, I think. Its villain is named Bots—snob spelled backwards

Not at all like A Room with a View or Howard’s End. Mysterious and fantasy like.

A lovely short story about the power of children's imagination, ignorance and innocence. Also so satisfying.

It is very nice when an author achieves a book of short stories in which they have some kind of connection to one another, even if it is a thematical connection. This is the case in Forster's The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories where supernatural elements give the tone to each one of them if not as a criticism of the Edwardian society with all its caste divisions - aristocracy, middle class/bourgeoisie, servants/workers - and its rigid moral, which cause more harm than help or does any good. Somehow, E. M. Forster's body of work is mostly intended to shed light upon it. And he did great.

In these stories, there is a constant confrontation between the English spirit and foreign forces, some supernatural, some against foreigners, some happening in foreign countries where British travelers expect that their way of seeing the world prevail beyond the limits of their own land and because of all of that, fortune is always lurking around to take its toll, sometimes too high a toll.

Realist novel writers from the 20th century ... ask them to write a short story and they'll give you a sci fi. Like genres are linked to forms, and not the writer's social and aesthetic personality? Coulda fooled me

This is a different side of Forster that we see here. This is a collection of allegorical short stories that he considered fantasy. Very much on the lines of C.S. Lewis with a little Tolkien thrown in. The Celestial Omnibus gets top billing, but they were all quite good.

An interesting collection of short stories. Some were rather strange and all quite thought provoking. My favorites were the Celestial Omnibus and The Other Side of the Hedge.

The Celestial Omnibus

Rabbit trails led me to this one; I was going to read C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce" along with the Literary Life Podcast episode 47, when the blurb for that recording sent me to read this eponymous short story first.

It is advantageous that there was an episode to go with "The Celestial Omnibus," else I would not have understood it or gotten much out of it, quite probably. I really appreciated the insights the hosts shared, and was able to thus appreciate the story as well.

Now, as to the other tales in this volume - I could surely benefit from discussions of these in a similar vein to the podcast (alas, there are none that I can find). I sense that there is indeed deeper allegorical meaning to them, but I can't figure them out. They just seem oddly unsettling. I have guesses, but really don't know what the messages are in the other stories.

Keşke öykülerine bakmak yerine romanlarından devam etseymişim.

This reminds me a lot of “The Great Divorce” by CS Lewis