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    A Room with a View
    A Room with a View
    A Room with a View
    Audiobook7 hours

    A Room with a View

    Written by E. M. Forster

    Narrated by Steven Crossley

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England. A charming young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, faints into the arms of a fellow Britisher when she witnesses a murder in a Florentine piazza. Attracted to this man, George Emerson-who is entirely unsuitable and whose father just may be a Socialist-Lucy is soon at war with the snobbery of her class and her own conflicting desires. Back in England, Lucy is courted by a more acceptable, if stifling, suitor, and soon realizes she must make a startling decision that will decide the course of her future: she is forced to choose between convention and passion.

    The enduring delight of this tale of romantic intrigue is rooted in E. M. Forster's colorful characters, including outrageous spinsters, pompous clergymen and outspoken patriots. Written in 1908, A Room with a View is one of Forster's earliest and most celebrated works.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 8, 2010
    ISBN9781400186099
    Author

    E. M. Forster

    Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was an English novelist, short story writer and essayist best known for his books A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). Born in London, young Edward lost his father to tuberculosis before he turned two years old. His mother Lily and Edward subsequently moved to a country house in Hertfordshire called Rooks Next, which served as a model for the eponymous house in the book Howards End. Edward inherited a considerable sum of money from his paternal great-aunt that allowed him to embark on a career as a writer. He attended Tonbridge School in Kent but did not enjoy his time there. He then went to King's College in Cambridge where he joined a secret society known as the Apostles, several members of which later helped form the Bloomsbury Group, a literary/philosophical society that boasted such early members as Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes and Vanessa Bell. Upon graduation, Forster went abroad and wrote of his travels extensively. Upon his return, he set up residence in Weybridge, Surrey where he would write all six of his novels. All of his books were written between 1908 and 1924 and his last, A Passage to India, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Forster was a homosexual and while he never married, he did have several affairs with male lovers during his lifetime, including a forty-year romance with married policeman Bob Buckingham, at whose home he collapsed and died at age 91 of a stroke. Forster explored his struggle with his own sexuality in his book Maurice. Forster was extremely critical of American foreign policy during his lifetime and rebuffed efforts to film adaptations of his novels due to the fact that the productions would likely use American financing. After his death, however, several of his books were made into films and three of them - A Room with a View, Howards End and A Passage to India are among the most highly regarded films of the late 20th century.

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    Reviews for A Room with a View

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    • 3/5
      I tried to enjoy this book, but was challenged. The characters were not engaging and the storyline was overly dramatic. Perhaps I'm just tired of English Victorian manners literature? The longest 152 pages I have ever read!
    • 3/5
      Didn't finish. Never read this when I was younger. Obviously beautifully written, but just not holding my interest. Whole chapters about manners and whatnot, just not gonna happen. Same issues as when I periodically try and read Jane Austen. Recognize the brilliance, of course, just to much in another era.
    • 3/5
      I tried to enjoy this book, but was challenged. The characters were not engaging and the storyline was overly dramatic. Perhaps I'm just tired of English Victorian manners literature? The longest 152 pages I have ever read!
    • 5/5
      If I could give this more than 5 stars I would. Forster writes with beauty, sympathy and understanding. I’ve been wanting to te-read this for a while, and got to it this month for the GoodReads Dead Writers Society Literary Birthday read for January. Sometime last year I re-watched the movie and as I remember it, the movie follows the book very closely, though I’m sure I would see changes if I watched it now after right having finished the book. The only difference I noticed was the ending--in the book Lucy’s family and friends are angry with her for marrying George, but I don’t think that was in the movie. Both have their last scene back in Italy, in the same room Lucy was in before. The BBC apparently has a more recent production that has George die in WWI at the end, and Lucy visit Italy again as an older woman years later without him (!).
    • 5/5
      Young Lucy Honeychurch, accompanied by her elderly cousin Charlotte Bartlett, is visiting Italy for the first time. All the drama of life is derived from the confined rules of class and manners where the significance of every event is magnified. The writing had a surprisingly modern flavour, considering that it was written at the beginning of the 20th century. From the sweet Lucy, to the snobbish Cecil Vyse, to the compassionate Rev. Beebe, the characters all stand out clearly, with Lucy being at the centre. There are many humorous passages, one of which involved Miss Bartlett who was required to change a sovereign for smaller coins in order to pay a cab fare. The younger characters completely bewildered her by making complex calculations for the transaction. It appeared she would lose the lot while the others would profit. Forster may have been the first to use this now classic comedy act. This is a delightful novel that will not fail to entertain the reader. Highly recommended.A favourite quote: "She was a novelist," said Lucy craftily. The remark was a happy one, for nothing roused Mrs. Honeychurch so much as literature in the hands of females. She would abandon every topic to inveigh against those women who (instead of minding their houses and their children) seek notoriety by print. Her attitude was: "If books must be written, let them be written by men"
    • 3/5
      Well, I think I'm going to be teaching this book this year. I see the themes that make it a good one to teach to adolescents. I have a little trouble reading it, though, unless I'm not tired and have no distractions...I tend to get a little lost in the words!
    • 3/5
      I've a feeling I'm going to be out on a limb with this review, but, despite having loved the other EM Forster novels I've read, I found A Room with a View to be as dull as ditchwater. I've been looking forward to reading this book for ages, so my disappointment is only multiplied.This was definitely a case for me where the film totally surpassed the book. I loved the film - those gorgeous Florentine views, the fanning of the flames of desire between Lucy and George, the humorous dialogue played out so well by Bonham-Carter in particular. But the book fell so flat! The first 150 pages bored me rigid - it was only in the last 50 that it got mildly interesting. I get that Forester wanted us to feel Lucy's growing sense of boredom and desire to feel that wonderment in life, but I felt entrenched in the dullness of her world. The characters she engaged with were largely pretentious and emotionless, and I just couldn't feel anything for any of them. Even the budding romance between Lucy and George left me cold. There was so little interaction between them it was hard to feel from those 4 or 5 short encounters any building of the desire between them.It was obvious by page 20 what was going to happen in the end, and I was just glad to reach that point so I could shut the cover forever and move on.2.5 stars - yaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnnnn
    • 4/5
      Very readable novel featuring the likeable Lucy Honeychurch, whose worldview is expanded whilst she's travelling in Italy with her annoying poor relation, Charlotte Bartlett. In Italy her family's ideas of what constitutes 'good' society is confused by the Emersons, who are not the 'right sort' but whose (relative) unconventionality interests (and confuses) Lucy. Just before the pivotal episode when George kisses Lucy among the violets, Mr Eager exhorts her to have 'Courage and love'. Lucy steps out of the wood onto 'this terrace [that] was the well-head, the primal source whence beauty gushed out to water the earth'. The moment is spoiled by Miss Bartlett calling to Lucy. Charlotte Bartlett represents the repressive elements in Lucy's life. Charlotte stands 'brown against the view'. Later, Mr Eager again tells Lucy that she needs courage, 'and faith', but Lucy is unsure where to place her faith. Back in England she becomes engaged to pompous, snobbish Cecil, denying her feelings for George Emerson. Cecil loves Lucy because he reminds her of 'a woman of Leonardo da Vinci's, whom we love not so much for herself as for the things she will not tell us'. Lucy's feelings are in a 'muddle', torn between the old world of Victorian values and strict social boundaries, and the new world represented by the Emersons, a freer world where she can be her own person and make her own decisions rather than being told what is right, what is good, what is beautiful. [August 2004]
    • 5/5
      My yearly reread. Bravo, Mr Forster. All of the stars.
    • 3/5
      The female protagonist is self-centered and dim-witted. Her conversation (and thoughts) are 90% about herself, and 10% just silly. Unlike any Jane Austen heroine, I would not have the slightest desire to meet her in person. Her general appeal seems to rest upon her youth and good looks, her passionate piano playing, and her appreciation of nature; indeed, she seems almost a force of nature, an embodiment of a pure, childish life force. Does she ever once perform a genuine act of kindness, let alone empathy? She feels shame, that's all, when she can see that her actions negatively impact someone else, but not empathy, not a true human connection. Neither does she have a single original thought.Nevertheless, the entire book is worth it for the scene at the end where Mr. Emerson forces her to face the truth: her overwhelming desire to be trusted has led to nothing but lies. This scene was beautifully read by Joanna Davis. "They trust me," she hisses; "But why should they," he answers, "when you have deceived them?"What is the point of trust built on lies? Mr. Emerson is the one person in the book I would love to meet and know better. Truly kind, thoughtful, analytical, and intelligent, the one jarring note is his refusal to accede to his wife's desire to baptize their son. If he thinks it means nothing, then why not make her happy? It can be explained only by his reverence for the truth:"Am I justified?" Into his own eyes tears came. "Yes, for we fight for more than Love or Pleasure; there is Truth. Truth Counts, Truth does count."She "never exactly understood," she would say in after years, "how he managed to strengthen her. It was as if he had made her see the whole of everything at once."Truth counts.***"Mr. Beebe--I have misled you, I have misled myself--""Oh, rubbish, Miss Honeychurch!""It is not rubbish!" said the old man hotly. "It's the part of people you don't understand."***
    • 4/5
      Mainly read this book because Forster is part of the Bloomsbury Group and one of my goals is to read more for that group. However, don't make the same mistake I did thinking this is like a Woolf book. I like her writing better, but he is different, not in a bad way. This reminded me more of Age of Innocence.

      I loved the parts about Italian culture the best. This is from an Englishman point of view, but he did a good job making it convincing he knew what he was talking about. I also like the fact you, or maybe just me, not making it seem like a man wrote this book. If there was no author labeled, at times I would think a woman wrote the book. Ad that's a good thing.

      I will say I liked the movie a little better. Like I said, not a huge fan of Forster's style. Kind of was a turn off. This isn't that last Forster book I'll read though.
    • 3/5
      shortish book full of silly mis understandings and English manners disguised as politeness (especially in their disguise of the English Abroad) that gets Lucy engaged to Cecil, only to be confronted with George. George, the awkward Englishman she met on holiday in Florence, who kissed her in the violets, and who she's in love with really but it takes her ages, and a return to England, to realise she's in love
    • 4/5
      I've seen the movie, read the book and have now experienced it as a audiobook. Which is best? All of them have their strengths, I don't really have a preference. The story itself is by turns romantic and comedic and at times profound.
    • 2/5
      If this is the best of Edwardian literature, then it is a period to avoid. We have cardboard cutout characters with no personality and no development. They have sudden revelations, but most of the time they are trying to sort out who to snub. They argue about coincidences in a plot almost entirely made up of accidental meetings. For a while, I thought the whole thing was a massive, tiresome satire, but I think it isn't that ambitious. It is some sort of tiresome morality play about convention and status, I guess.
    • 5/5
      Reread-Started as a 5-star, and absolutely remains a 5-star. I have only one nit to pick, and for me that is pretty amazing. Said nit: Why does Cecil suddenly become human, and not just human but certifiably humble, after Lucy shares her reasons for ending the engagement? Okay, back to work. I do not doubt that I will be thinking about this issue all day despite back-to-back meetings that actually require my focused participation. Full rtfBack for the review --It is easy to forget E.M. Forster was a radical, but he most definitely was. He hung out with Virginia Woolf, he was (obliquely) public about being a homosexual at a time when that was a dangerous choice, he championed gender equality, and he rejected the strictures of upper crust British life in theory if not always in practice. His chafing under societal pressures is so central not just to this book, but to his next, the beautiful Howard's End, and the frustrating and touching Maurice. When I read this in my 20's I don't think I realized how revolutionary some of this was. That may be in part because discussion about the rights of workers and women gets mashed up with overly romantic somewhat nauseating messaging about how love is the answer to all things. Anyway, reading this many years later I was astonished by how ahead of its time much of this was. George says that the future must be one in which men and women are equal. This is really quite shocking. More shocking though is the subtle way in which Forster conveys Mr. Beebe's homosexuality, and hints at Cecil's in the early part of the last century. Most shocking perhaps is Lucy's rejection of money and family to run off and find passion with a socialist aesthete. Could anything have been a more clear rejection of the tenets of 1920's British mores? And Forster makes the reader feel good about all this, casting the horrid Charlotte and the effete Cecil as the exemplars of things proper and English and casting the sweet, shy, depressive George and his loving and defiantly innocent father as the exemplars of modern thinking. How could anyone root for Charlotte and Cecil in that matchup?I know this is primarily a love story, passion over propriety and all that. I love a love story, but honestly reading this as just a love story it doesn't really do it for me. There is, literally, not a single conversation or interaction between George and Lucy that would indicate why he loves her. It is hormones. At least Cecil loved her for her music. George thought her beautiful most definitely and in need of his protection (to save her from ugliness like the blood covered postcards) but they never exchange any other information. Lucy loves him in part for his awkward decency shown in the ceding of his rooms and their view and the postcard incident, and for his honesty and spontaneity in expressing his feelings, and hormones too. There is something there, but George, no. There is not a lot to root for when boiled down to romance. Luckily the book is so much more than that. It is a wonderful and witty slice of life, it is a call for a new day in England, it is an ode to Forster's beloved Italy, and it is a coming of age story (as regards Lucy.) A joy to (re)read. But yeah, I still don't get how the scales fell from Cecil's eyes. I really want to understand that better.
    • 3/5
      This was moderately interesting to read for the historical setting. I also appreciated that Forster was strong in his belief that women could lead independent lives. I did not care for the writing and felt some of it was unclear. I liked many of his literary references.
    • 4/5
      Lucy, a young English woman, travels to Florence Italy, accompanied by an older cousin. The people she meets there at the Pension Bertolini begin to open her eyes to the ways of the world, including romantic inclinations. A study in the repressed morals of Edwardian England. I ended up liking this novel but not nearly as much as I did Howard's End.
    • 4/5
      An excellent book in many ways. This seems to have been one of his earlier books, and I have seen the views of some critics who mention that the book is not as sophisticated as his later books, like "Howard's End" and "A Passage to India."For my part, I enjoyed the book. We all know that E.M. Forster had an almost lyrical style of writing. He could make images dance before your eyes. This is a love story and a gentle satire on English life at the turn of the 19th century. We lie to ourselves, and then also, to others. We deny our feelings, and often choose, or reject, mates due to social prejudices. In this case, unlike "A Passage to India", there is redemption and a happy ending to the tale. Love rules, prejudiced banished.
    • 4/5
      A Room with a View by E.M. Forster is a 2017 Amazon Classics publication. ( Originally published in 1908)In the continuing saga of 'taming the TBR' this year, I have found it easier to locate classics that I have been meaning to read for years. The brevity of this one convinced me to make time for it immediately instead of letting it continue to gather 'virtual' dust on my Kindle. I had a little trouble with this one- in fact- I almost gave up on it. I was well over halfway into it before I felt engaged in it. By the time I was finished, though, I was glad I stuck with it. This is a light story, with some dramatics, terrific locales, fantastic characterizations, and a moral that is timeless, but overall, I enjoyed it enough, but it didn't make a lasting impression on me. 3 stars4 stars
    • 3/5
      Once more we have the English abroad and looking to marry, but without the interesting complications of A Passage to India. Like so many English novels of this era, the plot is entirely centered on the question of marry the person you want or the person that others think you should. This question having been turned over by thousands of similar novels offers little new insight. The shock created of a sudden kiss feels ridiculous. I'm not sure how much we can learn today from a people who bottled up their feelings and desires as much as these. The most interesting passage may have been the group bath with its hints of latent sexual desire and sensuality that went far beyond any romance Lucy Honeychurch may ever know...I will say that unlike many of this novel's contemporaries, it is relatively short. I'd only recommend it to someone who is a serious student of the genre or of Forster.
    • 3/5
      Every time I try to write a review about this small book something holds me back and I end up writing nothing about it. It has been 5 months since I read this so I will most likely depend the review on my memory of emotions.I shall start by telling a personal story about that one time when an old lady from church visited my mother's house for some house-to-house prayer related to the Virgin Mary. She greeted me with a "Why are the windows closed?" which I mindlessly answered with "Why should they be opened?". Apparently, she perceived my response as rude while I wondered what was there to see outside these closed windows other than my grandfather's kitchen and cats stretching their bodies along the pavement. As absurd as this story was I can't help but make a connection of these windows to E.M. Forster's A Room with a View. Short and semi-sweet. A story of a lady torn between a dull, pretentious man of high class who she did not feel the least bit in love with and another man of lower class without the expected societal upbringing. Like finding a room with a view, it was, for her, a breath of fresh air, this another man, and made her realize that another perspective of things existed. Unfortunately, although it had made some of its point on happiness and the uncertainty of the future amidst the promise of love, the story unfolded much too quick for my taste and left no room for the right kind of development and romance. I honestly would have liked this better if it was longer, polished, more room for love to breathe, blossom, and grow.
    • 4/5
      Funny, romantic, and pointed, with a bit of turn-of-the-century girl power sprinkled on top, A Room with a View is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Lucy leaves her close-knit family in the English countryside for "must do" trip to Italy, chaperoned by her needy and trying older cousin, Charlotte. Once installed in a pension in Florence run by a trustworthy Englishwoman, the two are disappointed to find that they have been given rooms that look out over the courtyard instead of over the river. An eccentric gentleman and his son, the Emersons, offer to trade their rooms with lovely views and after a lot of hemming and hawing over the propriety of such a thing, the ladies agree. Lucy is caught between her romantic and independent nature, and the desire to please her family and do what is correct in the eyes of Edwardian society. She is a bit undone by the unconventional George Emerson, a feeling which comes to a head in a spectacular field of violets and a last minute flight of the ladies to Rome. Part II brings us back to Lucy's home, along with an ill-matched fiancé that no one really likes that much. When the Emersons come back into Lucy's life, she finds herself deeper and deeper in a muddle that is partly her fault, and partly the fault of English society. Forster's characters are nicely written and, while he does hit you over the head with the moral of the story a bit, the warmth and humor that comes through, particularly in the relationship between Lucy, her mother, and her brother, keep the book from being dogmatic or cliched. A fun classic!
    • 4/5
      Miss Honeychurch learns about love on a trip to Florence with her cousin Charlote. Now home will she submit to propriety and marry the stuffy Cecil Wyse, or follow her heart and grab happiness with George Emerson. A positively luminous novel.
    • 4/5
      I have no idea when I started this audiobook, but I'm pretty sure it was last autumn. (So I picked a random date). I turn to it for a few hours a night, when I don't have any library audiobooks to listen to. It's a slow, calm novel of an earlier time when things may seem much easier to us all, now. It's also one of my all-time favorite movies, especially because Helena B. Carter, Daniel Day Lewis, and Julian Sands (who was quite the hottie way back when).
      Now I've finished this audiobook for the first time, and it's almost exactly like my favorite movie, but with a lot more conversing in it. And Julian Sands' character had black hair, which is weird to me. Probably because the whole time I listened to this audiobook, I pictured the movie in my head. Almost every scene. And now I have to go watch the movie again.....
      If you love period novels, please give this novel or audiobook a try. It's well worth it. 4 stars.
    • 5/5
      Revisiting old favourites is a wonderful thing. :) I find I discover fresh perspectives or new delights that I don't remember from a first reading. But in the case of this book, that was a very long time ago! So it was as if I was discovering the story all over again. I love this book!
    • 5/5
      While being toured around Italy with her fussy older cousin and chaperone, Miss Lucy Honeychurch meets father and son Emerson, both of which make a huge impression on her, one that follows her back to England and changes everything. This is such a beautiful novel - one of my all-time favorites - so I can't say anything other than I love the characters, the setting, the story, the language, and everything else. I saw the Merchant Ivory movie version before reading this for the first time, so those faces are in my mind when I read and they fit so very well. Beautiful, beautiful.
    • 4/5
      Young Lucy Honeychurch and her overbearing, stuffy cousin Charlotte Bartlett go on a trip to Florence where they meet the socially lackadaisical Emersons as well as other interesting characters who manage to make a huge impact on their lives.This book is a bit of a 'drawing room' comedy, in which the gentle humor comes from witty remarks on the part of the narrator regarding the foibles of the characters. The plot itself is pretty slim (although, to be fair, so is the book), but the charm lies in the characters more than the situations. It that respect it reminded me a bit of Jane Austen's novels, although I don't think Forster is quite at Austen's genius.While I did enjoy this book on the whole, it didn't have that feeling that some classics invoke of something so very compelling or amazingly different. I wouldn't be rushing to recommending it to others unless it really seemed like their cup of tea. For a character drama, I wish some of the characters were more well-rounded. However, I could see this being a book that would make for a good discussion.
    • 3/5
      Listened to the Classic Tales podcast version. Not bad.
    • 2/5
      It's fun and builds up stronger, but I never really connected with it. Maybe the weak start threw me.
    • 4/5
      The inhabitants of Windy Corner (as well as Pensione Betolini) are left pale and perforated after Forster's serial needling. Forster can only stop heckling his characters long enough to appreciate the song of the season's and the subtle currents of music.