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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love E.M.Forster's writing of jumps and skips. While A Room with a View is a nice romance, this book is an incredible look at class and property through a small group of characters. (The movie is awesome too.)
reflective
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
not a book I would normally read but I am glad uni forced me to do so
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow I did not expect this book to be such a slog. When I first started it, it felt like an old friend. Some of my favorite reading experiences date roughly from this era (Dickens, Wharton, Dreiser, Proust, Lawrence). I love how literature from this time combines ideas with plot, often involving passions unexpressed, bodice-ripping, and tragic melodrama. I hadn’t seen the movie, but I loved the Emma Thompson-Anthony Hopkins pairing.
But this book meandered for me. I liked the Schlegel sisters, but I couldn’t get caught up with the others. I felt carried along from plot point to plot point without feeling any stakes, not even in the Margaret-Henry relationship. The ideas in the book about class, wealth, and “liberal guilt” (as it’s described in the forward) were interesting - but the plot was sacrificed for the sake of the theme. I don’t understand why the book is called Howard’s End when it figures so little in the story. This shouldn’t bother me but it does.
After I finished the book I skimmed the forward to find that the author of the forward recognized the same failings that I did. He thought the strengths made up for these weaknesses but I did not.
Maybe I will get the book more after I watch the movie when this jumble can be interpreted and given dramatic weight.
Lastly, a personal anecdote about EM Forster: I remember buying my mom an EM Forster book in high school. I was pretentious and into reading Literature with a capital L. She reads true crime voraciously. I didn’t think that was good enough so, drawn in by the display table at Barnes and Noble, I bought her a fancy hardback edition of one of his books. For me, she slogged through it, and now that I’ve actually read one of his books, I realize what a slog it was! Only in adulthood have I come to realize how her love of reading, even if it wasn’t good enough for me then, made me the book lover I am now.
This was a small incident but it’s lived on in my memory. I feel true shame for not appreciating who she is and trying to fit her into the mold of who I thought she should be. I was like the Schlegel sisters! I was trying to better someone I looked down on while showing my foolishness in the process.
But this book meandered for me. I liked the Schlegel sisters, but I couldn’t get caught up with the others. I felt carried along from plot point to plot point without feeling any stakes, not even in the Margaret-Henry relationship. The ideas in the book about class, wealth, and “liberal guilt” (as it’s described in the forward) were interesting - but the plot was sacrificed for the sake of the theme. I don’t understand why the book is called Howard’s End when it figures so little in the story. This shouldn’t bother me but it does.
After I finished the book I skimmed the forward to find that the author of the forward recognized the same failings that I did. He thought the strengths made up for these weaknesses but I did not.
Maybe I will get the book more after I watch the movie when this jumble can be interpreted and given dramatic weight.
Lastly, a personal anecdote about EM Forster: I remember buying my mom an EM Forster book in high school. I was pretentious and into reading Literature with a capital L. She reads true crime voraciously. I didn’t think that was good enough so, drawn in by the display table at Barnes and Noble, I bought her a fancy hardback edition of one of his books. For me, she slogged through it, and now that I’ve actually read one of his books, I realize what a slog it was! Only in adulthood have I come to realize how her love of reading, even if it wasn’t good enough for me then, made me the book lover I am now.
This was a small incident but it’s lived on in my memory. I feel true shame for not appreciating who she is and trying to fit her into the mold of who I thought she should be. I was like the Schlegel sisters! I was trying to better someone I looked down on while showing my foolishness in the process.
I'm not sure what I love more - Forster's novels or the Merchant/Ivory Productions of his novels. The two sisters here reminded me so much of the sisters in Austen's Sense and Sensibility.
Wonderfully written story with so many layers. I want to live at Howard's End.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Generally speaking, Forster can do no wrong in my eyes and this is no exception. It's not his best novel in my view but I can understand why one might think it is (in my opinion, both 'A Passage to India' and 'Maurice' are superior.)
The commentary on classism and sexism is surprisingly relevant today for a novel published in 1910. It's true what others have said, that none of the characters are really lovable (though I think I did grow fond of the Schlegels a bit) and that some of the events are too coincidental to be realistic (this is sort of a necessary convention when the characters are, more than actual people, representations of certain classes.)
If anything feels unrealistic, it's the optimistic conclusion the book has. I don't mind lack of realism but, after the bleakness of the whole book (and, I suppose, the world it represents) it did feel surprising. I don't mean that in a bad way, however.
The commentary on classism and sexism is surprisingly relevant today for a novel published in 1910. It's true what others have said, that none of the characters are really lovable (though I think I did grow fond of the Schlegels a bit) and that some of the events are too coincidental to be realistic (this is sort of a necessary convention when the characters are, more than actual people, representations of certain classes.)
If anything feels unrealistic, it's the optimistic conclusion the book has. I don't mind lack of realism but, after the bleakness of the whole book (and, I suppose, the world it represents) it did feel surprising. I don't mean that in a bad way, however.