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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 B.J. Harrison

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

Lucy Honeychurch and her older cousin Miss Bartlett, tour Italy in the springtime. However, the pension they are staying at may as well be in London. The proprietress speaks a London cockney, the meat is overdone, and their windows give them a view of dirty alleys. However, when the socially clumsy Mr. Emerson offer to exchange rooms, this does anything but remedy the situation. You see, nobody knows what to make of the Emersons. It's so hard to know how to respond to people who speak the truth.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 1, 2010
ISBN9781937091965
Author

E.M. Forster

Edward Morgan Forster (1879–1970) was born in London and attended the Tonbridge School and King’s College, Cambridge. A substantial inheritance from his aunt gave Forster the freedom to pursue a literary career and travel extensively, and he wrote some of the finest novels of the twentieth century, including A Room with a View, A Passage to India, and Howards End. Queen Elizabeth II awarded him the Order of Merit in 1969.

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Reviews for A Room With A View

Rating: 3.931908789568997 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Nothing too remarkable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Published in 1910, but I'd never read it. I was out of books to read and I found it on my youngest daughter's shelf, leftover from her high school days. Parts made me laugh out loud. Forster definitely had a gift with the English language. And it came full circle, which always satisfies me in stories. I also liked that while it was published over 100 years ago and reflected the times (particularly attitudes toward women), there were scenes that could have happened today. For instance:"You shall see the connection if it kills you, Henry! You have had a mistress—I forgave you. My sister has had a lover—you drive her from the house. Do you see the connection? Stupid, hypocritical, cruel . . ." [spoken by Margaret]Later, Margaret thinks about her outburst, reflecting, "No message came from Henry; perhaps he expected her to apologize. Now that she had time to think over her own tragedy, she was unrepentant. She neither forgave him for his behaviour nor wished to forgive him. Her speech to him seemed perfect. She would not have altered a word. It had to be uttered once in a life, to adjust the lopsidedness of the world. It was spoken not only to her husband, but to thousands of men like him . . ." (italics mine) #metooThis is a classic I overlooked. If you've overlooked it also, check it out.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a really deep book, full of insight and theories on the world, society and people as individuals. Its quite a wordy book, but it was surprisingly captivating and wasn't a chore to read or hard to get into. I found once I channelled into the voice of the writing it all flowed very well, and it all made sense. A lot of the concepts and ideas Forster had about property and class are still kind of relevant. I particularly liked the fact, especially given when it was written and the fact that Forster was man, that women aren't patronised to the scale I have come to expect from similar books (though it isn't totally free of don't-worry-your-pretty-little-head-isms). I loved that the book is based around a range of different female characters with different roles in society, with different ideas and approaches to life, women that are not ridiculed or pushed to the side. At the time it was written, women still hadn't been given the vote and weren't really seen as having much of a place in social debate or whatever, but Forster gives some of his female characters agreeable ideals and strong convictions. I was also really pleased with the way he approaches a part of the story which, for the time, was a very scandalous issue, without laying blame or demonising anyone by taking the mainstream point of view of the time. It was a wonderful book and I'll definitely be looking to read more of his work.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    [Howard's End] seems a study of the various classes and mind sets of England, the rich and poor, the artistic and the businessman. It's not clear in the end whether they've come to any better understanding of each other.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent portrait of British society.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Howard's End seemed like it could have been written by Jane Austin. Social classes and mores clash in this story set in turn of the century England. Margaret and Helen Schlegel value culture and the arts; the Wilcox family are more interested in business and commerce; and the Basts are a lower class couple whom the Schlegel sisters want to help out. When Ruth passes away, the only Wilcox to truly appreciate Howard's End, she leaves her family estate to Margaret. Greedy and wanting to rent the estate for profit, the Wilcox family tell Margaret nothing about her inheritance. In time Margaret falls for Ruth's former husband and eventually moves into Howard's End, a fitting end since Margaret is simpatico with the history and beauty of the old family estate.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I can't decide if I like this book. I like the style of writing the language and descriptions I found poetic but the characters themselves I thought horrible for the most part. The Wilcox's are all stuffy, spoilt and snobby. Meg spouts feminist ideals but as a wife is a total doormat. Helen is a hysterical idiot. Tibby is a sort of caricature of a young man without any thought beyond himself.
    All of the prose makes the book readable but at the same time it is sometimes so wordy I find myself switching off and then having to reread and missing plot points.

    It is a book about a changing nation and changing society. The end of the height of the empire when to be English is to be the best and brightest but before the First World War which changed England's relationship with Europe and society as a whole. Each character seems to be looking for stability when everything is changing around them. Charles wants the security of money Henry wants a return to the comfort of marriage. Meg wants a home to feel secure in. Helen wants to find truth and justice and doesn't comprehend that no one else cares for either. I do wonder if Forster was totally sexist and really thought women were as they are portrayed, or if he was just writing the commonly held views of the time.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The story as a whole is take-it or leave-it. Nothing special, groundbreaking, breathtaking, etc; no characters of particular interest or note. Whatever. What I enjoyed about this book was the philosophical discourse and how amusingly outdated - and yet somehow prescient - it was.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This novel is beautifully written and, for a book written before World War I, surprisingly relevant to today's political and social climate. The central conflict seems to be between Margaret's ideals and how these manifest in real life. She is intellectual, well-educated, and has a strong will, which makes it disappointing to see her make choices that seem counter to these aspects of herself. I felt so irritated with her for some of the mistakes I saw her making, but in the end, she seems to come to a place of compromise that is better for (nearly) everyone involved than what would have been available had she dug in her heels from the beginning. The novel seemed to be gearing up for a grand confrontation and dramatic decisions, and so at first this compromise ending was unsatisfying to me. But upon reflection, I decided that the ending is all the more realistic for the lack of fireworks. Gradually I saw that the decisions Margaret made that were so frustrating to me were frustrating because they're the kinds of decisions I think anyone makes who has ideals and also lives in the world. It's more satisfying to read about people bucking convention, throwing off everything they once valued and making a clean breast of it as a shiny, new person, but it's not realistic. We can make external changes, but we don't really become new people, or if we do, it's a slow metamorphosis, and one we can't govern ourselves, contrary to the promises of self-help books, talk shows, and websites selling fitness programs.Compromise doesn't give the dopamine release that I crave, and it doesn't feed the desire I still feel despite my constant efforts to the contrary to see punished people I think have done wrong, but it provides a much more loving and sustainable model for change than the dramatic ending. Only connect.Some quotes that spoke to me:p.25: "It is the vice of a vulgar mind to be thrilled by bigness, to think that a thousand square miles are a thousand times more wonderful than one square mile, and that a million square miles are almost the same as heaven."p. 52: "I'm tired of these rich people who pretend to be poor, and think it shows a nice mind to ignore the piles of money that keep their feet above the waves."p.91: "Actual life is full of false clues and signposts that lead nowhere. With infinite effort we nerve ourselves for a crisis that never comes. The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have moved mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken...Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty."p. 128: "The feudal ownership of land did bring dignity, whereas the modern ownership of movables is reducing us again to a nomadic horde. We are reverting to the civilization of luggage, and historians in the future will note how the middle classes accreted possessions without taking root in the earth, and may find in this the secret to their imaginative poverty."p.132: "I don't believe in suiting my conversation to my company. One can doubtless hit upon some medium of exchange that seems to do well enough, but it's no more like the real thing than money is like food. There's no nourishment in it."
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In my head, I'd constructed my own version of A Room With a View, which never works out well for a reader. In this case, I'd imagined Lucy's trip to Florence as being a great deal more subversive than it turned out to be. Only the first third of the novel even takes place in Italy as the second and third act are set back in England as (heavens!) a marriage to a bore looms. Still, I liked it just the same. Forster has a nice way of using language and I also enjoyed his narrative style: popping in and out of characters' thoughts--often in the same scene--or, sometimes, editorializing or even addressing the reader directly.

    It's of course important to understand the book in its historical context and the pressures and taboos inherent in that society. A modern reader can be tempted to say, "If you don't like him, don't marry him," but of course it wasn't such an easy thing to do. But some things are constant. Music--in this case, Schumann--serves as both outlet and input for thoughts that can't quite be put into words. So it shall ever be.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The introduction in the edition I read describes this as a "sunny novel." It is indeed--the first draft was Forester's first try at a novel, written when he was young, and very much in league with youth, and a youthful spirit. The light tone, the focus on romance, the good-humored social criticism and gentle social satire reminds me very much of Jane Austen, even if Forster was as far removed from her Regency era as his Edwardian is from ours. I had a smile on my face from the very first pages at how sharply drawn were Miss Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman visiting Florence and her companion Miss Bartlett, spinster martyr and chaperone. Even just reading the chapter headings was illuminating and amusing. One of the most revealing, I think, was In Santa Croce with No Baedeker. Baedeker was the popular travel guide of the day, which told you just what proper reactions you should have to the art around you. Lucy through much of the novel will be peering at the social Baedker of the reactions of her fellow British around her trying to decide just how to act rather than looking into her own heart. As much as anything else, this is her coming of age novel. Oh, and yes, romance. Her love interest to my mind isn't drawn all that strongly or appealingly. I didn't fall in love with George Emerson in the way I have the romantic heroes of Austen or Bronte or Gaskell. He's shown as rather impulsive and immature and not all that articulate. His father comes across more strongly as a character than he does. For all that, it's still is a strong appeal to let love be--and the ending gives more grace to certain character than I would have expected. It's a novel lovely and lyrical and warm.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Forester's timely classic centers around a young girl, Lucy Honeychurch, who takes a trip to Italy with her spinster cousin, Charlotte, and there meets some other English travelers including Mr. George Emerson. Lucy is young, impressionable and used to being told what to think and what to do. However, while in Italy, she and George witnesses a murder (a dispute over 5 francs!) and she begins to slowly understand that life is more than just doing and feeling the things society says you should. George, I think, sees this potential for true emotion in Lucy. He himself is on the brink of some sort of change and sees Lucy a woman who can understand the complicated emotions he is experiencing. But Lucy is scared, she doesn't quite want to leave her safe world behind and so leaves Florence and her unsettling encounter with George. Upon returning to England, her trip seemingly behind her, Lucy accepts the proposal of one Cecil Vyse, a young man who she also spent time with in Rome. No one really likes Cecil and for all his professed modernism and intellectualism, he really just wants to keep Lucy on a pedestal. Thankfully, she finally wises up after another unsettling encounter with George Emerson in which she finally makes choices for herself and no one else.All this happens with such subtle humor and wit. Forester is a master at understatement and descriptiveness at the same time. He paints the scenes of historic Florence with as much precision and beauty as he does Lucy's country home in England. I want to ramble through the woods at her house and see the church and pond. He makes it all come alive and it's beautiful. And the names in this book, they are undeniably English! Lucy Honeychurch, Windy Corner, Cecil Vyse - I mean, doesn't he just sound like a wimp? What's more is Lucy's transformation into a woman who can take charge of her own life and decides what she wants - even when those around her my be hurt by her choice. A beautiful book with so much insight and wit. I loved it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I don’t often feel like a novel is too short, but in this case, there were a few places where I wanted additional narrative instead of the authorial equivalent of an ellipsis. Some lovely scenes and characters.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Listened to the Classic Tales podcast version. Not bad.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 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!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    # 15 Of 100 Classics Challenge
    A Room With A View
    By E. M. Forster

    Some might say Lucy's conservative values have repressed her life and religion. Her outlook is put to the test when Lucy goes to Italy with her cousin Charlotte. They meet outrageous flamboyant characters like Miss Lavish, Cockney Signora, Me Emerson, Mr Beebe and George, a son.....
    Lucy is torn between returning home to her past values or continuing with her new friends unconventional beliefs and energy?
    Really good, really quick read. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin Charlotte are visiting Florence when they meet Mr Emerson and his son. Later in England, when they encounter the Emersons again, they both have private reasons for wanting to avoid them.I was delighted by much of this; it is astutely observant and gently humorous. Much ado is made over a kiss, which is baffling from a modern perspective, but I suspect this not only reflects attitudes common at the time but that Forster is intentionally showing that his characters are being a bit ridiculous.I would be even more enthusiastic if the final chapters had unfolded as they did. There’s an irritating scene where a man lectures Lucy, telling her what she should do. His motives aren’t unsympathetic, and his advice isn’t unreasonable -- but it is uninvited and he persists even when she becomes obviously upset. Moreover, the story then jumps in time, skipping over Lucy deciding what to do next and how she goes about it. I’m pleased with the final result, but why must you diminish her agency like that?It is obvious enough for the reader to conclude, “She loves young Emerson.” A reader in Lucy’s place would not find it obvious. Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice, and we welcome “nerves” or any other shibboleth that will cloak our personal desire. She loved Cecil; George made her nervous; will the reader explain to her that the phrases should have been reversed?
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It's fun and builds up stronger, but I never really connected with it. Maybe the weak start threw me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    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!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Our Book Club Classic Read - Listened to this on audio. An absolute delightful coming of the age love story. A touching story with a splash of comedy. Lucy Honeychurch finds herself in a precarious situation. How do you tell the person you are to marry that you are not as innocent as he thinks? How little lies and omissions come back to haunt her and an unlikely encounter upsets her plans.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Liked it. Lucy is a peach, her way to view the world sometimes dreadfully simplistic, sometimes full of wonder and naivety and sometimes, especially in moments of sudden flashes of insights, simply hilarious. Foster likes his characters, even the shady ones, each of them has wit and character in their own unique way, and the whole story is has an optimistic, sometimes even funny air about it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    With old Mr. Emerson and Mr. Beebe, Forster moves the plot along despite silly lying goose Lucy and her tedious traveling companion and cousin, Charlotte. Cecil definitely had his moments, notably because George kept himself an odd mystery.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    ...about finding our way through life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    If you liked Pride and Prejudice you'll probably like this story of a young woman who almost marries the wrong guy. She's a little immature but it's a fun read and it all turns out in the end.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    "Let's go to Italy!" "Yes, let's!" I decided to read this book for the wrong reasons (our upcoming trip to Italy and my incessant need to immerse myself in all things Italian) but by the time I'd finished reading the first page, marveling at the beauty of Forster's writing, I knew I'd found a new addition to my list of Books You Must Read. Our main character, Lucy Honeychurch (what a great name!) is off to Italy with a relative. She meets a man, George Emerson, who startles her, frightens her, with his intensity, and she bolts back to her secure home in England and quickly becomes engaged to a comfortable man. But it is too late for comfort, and when she finds herself unexpectedly meeting up with George again, Lucy must choose between a life and a semblance of a life. Beautiful writing. You will love this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 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."***
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    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.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    2 stars

    Lucia (Lucy) Honeychurch is a conventional young woman on tour in Italy in the early 20th century who is accompanied by her middle aged cousin who is a spinster. The trip awakens more in her as she meets some unconventional people and witnesses a murder. She falls in love with George Emerson, an unconventional man who is a socialist and very much an individual. However, she denies and suppreses this as they are separated by Lucia's cousin, Miss Charlotte Bartlett. Lucy becomes engaged to a man she thinks she loves before meeting George once again, and the rest you have to read to find out.

    The book started of rather insipidly, and there wasn't much depth put into the characters. Forster often used surnames as characters labels (surnames such as Eager, Lavish, Vyse (a surname, but sounds just like vise aka vice), or after famous people with certain outlooks that tied into his characters), which I found rather annoying. I finished this for 1001 books, etc, but was not thrilled with this book. Forster clearly meant this book to be a statement, but I didn't find it impressive in the least.