Reading 1001 discussion

3 stars

There is no denying that E M Forster writes beautifully. His sentences are so carefully scripted and each word feels intentional. However, I didn't really enjoy this book. It is tragic and sad which I generally love because it makes me feel connected to the characters. But in this book I never really connected with any of the characters who were all unsympathetic. I don't like perfect characters that are too perfect or too imperfect. I want them to be flawed and real, but still likable or relatable. I want to have compassion and empathy for them and in this book I didn't feel anything for them.

So, 3 stars for the quality writing, but it is not a book I will ever read again.

rating 3.8

This is E.M. Forster's first novel and I think this makes the last of his list books for me. In this story, Forster looks again at the clash of cultures with England and Italy. A young widow goes on a trip to Italy and while there she meets a man younger than herself and impulsively marries with no considerations of the consequences of her decision. She had married into a controlling family and in a rebellious manner of a young, immature person, she marries this boy. She soon is lonely, bored, and living a very restricted life. She has a baby but dies in childbirth. The point of the story takes off from here with the family of England interactions with the father of this baby (who really isn't related to the English family) but who they feel needs to be removed from this man and raised "right". There are questions of is it better to be raised "right" or be raised with "love".

I agree that his characters were maybe not as well developed as he will do in his other books.

4 Stars

I actually found myself enjoying this far more than I expected to. I had previously read A Passage to India (required reading for school) and not really enjoyed it at all so I went into this with low expectations.

For me there were no likeable characters but I was still fascinated to see how things would turn out, how far they would go, how awful they could possibly be (really awful) and how they would live with what they did.

To say this doesn’t show the English in a good light would be an understatement. That said the Italians don’t come out well either. Basically it is a novel about horrible people doing horrible things because they can and because they think it is there right to do so.

This was my fourth Forster and the first for some years. It was his first novel and the themes of snobbery versus zest for life are prominent already. Forster shows his disdain for the social mores of end-of-the nineteenth-century England in his characters, who are much more concerned with what society may think than in having any passions of their own. The protagonist, Philip, has no interests of his own, except, perhaps, for Italy, and he does little except his mother's bidding. By encouraging his widowed sister-in-law to travel to Italy to avoid the possibility of a second marriage (because the family agreed that she should remain a widow) he sets in train a developing tragedy as the English, secure in the knowledge of their superiority, run into Italian ways and aesthetics. This is a short book, but Forster tells much about human nature, cultural clashes, the fickleness of love and the uneveness of individuals in his generally unlikeable but fascinating characters. Except, of course, for the indomitable Mrs Herriton who is unmoved by events and unshaken in her belief of her own preeminence.

*** 1/2

Henry James wrote The Ambassadors in 1903; Forster wrote this novel in 1905. Both deal with seemingly irreconcilable cultural differences in affairs of the heart, pitting the Anglo-Saxon virtues and rigid decencies against the Latin conceptions of love. While James wallows in endless mind games and ploys, Forster limits his story to actions and reactions, with a smidgin of psychological treatment. And, while both Mrs Newsome and Mrs Herriton appear to have achieved their objectives, Forster has the better of James in my view because he stuck to an admirable principle: keep it simple, stupid (KISS).

My second Forster on the list. It was his first novel and already it shows the dexterity and wit of his later works. Already his themes revolve around English struggles regarding their national obsession with class, propriety, reputation and appearances rather than living a full life that may run aground of those occupations. The one English character that steps out of line is punished with death. His characters are all rather unlikable but that doesn't mean that he treats them uniformly. Where Harriet and Mrs Herriton are roundly mocked for their very class and reputation conscience obsessions, Forster allows us some empathy with Miss Abbott and Philip. Further, Forster does not allow the tale to conclude with any uplifting alignment for Miss Abbott and Philip but rather just a simple recognition that they will always be only friends. I appreciated the book rather than loved it but I am looking forward to other Forster's on the list.

This started off with a humorous tone (the scene where Philip discovering that Gino is the son of a dentist immediately comes to mind). By the end, it is ... well, not a complete tragedy, but certainly heartbreaking. I didn't expect the book to deal so much with Philip, and I was honestly more interested in Caroline. Still, I liked it even if I didn't love it.

The introduction to the Penguin edition is quite helpful in explaining how the novel fits into Forster's oeuvre, especially his critique of stifling middle-class morals and the theme of culture clash.

⭐⭐⭐

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"Petty unselfishness... I had got an idea that everyone here spent their lives in making little sacrifices for objects they didn't care for, to please people they didn't love; that they never learned to be sincere -- and, what's as bad, never learned how to enjoy themselves."