| Author | E.M. Forster |
|---|---|
| Title | A Room with a View |
| Year | 1908 |
Edward Morgan Forster (1879 – 1970) was an English novelist. He completed only six novels, all written between 1905 and 1924. His best known works are A Passage to India and Howards End.
A Room with a View follows the development of Lucy Honeychurch. When the novel starts she is a young, naive, insecure girl, anxious to follow the conventions of society. During her travels through Italy she learns to think for herself and choose her own path through life. The central theme of this book is the choice between following society’s conventions and following one’s heart, the conflict between being delicate and being beautiful.
“Have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time – beautiful?”
“Beautiful?” said Miss Bartlett, puzzled at the word. “Are not beauty and delicacy the same?”
WARNING: The rest of this article contains spoilers.
The first part of the novel is set in a pension in Florence, Italy. The guests are all English tourists, and among them is Lucy, who travelled to Italy under the supervision of her older cousin, the spinster Charlotte Bartlett. The novel opens with Lucy and Charlotte complaining about their rooms, that don’t have a view. Their conversation is overheard by a Mr. Emerson, who offers to swap rooms. Charlotte refuses at first, thinking the offer improper, but later accepts the repeated offer. Mr. Emerson, unconventional, socialist, and atheist, is in Italy with his son George. The Emersons are often ignored or snubbed by their fellow travellers because they don’t follow the conventions of society, and probably also because they belong to a lower social class then the others.
Lucy’s stay in Florence is marked by several meetings with the Emersons. She likes them, especially George, and is confused by her feelings because she thinks she is not supposed to like them. George falls in love with Lucy, and unexpectedly kisses her. Charlotte, who witnessed the event, decides to take Lucy away from Florence, and the next morning they leave for Rome.
The second part of A Room with a View is mostly set in, or near, Lucy’s home in Surrey. Lucy recently returned from Rome, where she has spent several months. In Rome, she has spent a lot of time with the Vyse family, old friends of the Honeychurches. Their son Cecil has proposed twice to Lucy, but she refused. The second part opens with Cecil visiting the Honeychurch home. He proposes again, and this time Lucy accepts. As the story continues, we get to know Cecil as supercilious, pretentious and selfish. He finds country life and country people (including Lucy) far inferior to his circle in London. He thinks Lucy charming and attractive, but does not care about what she thinks or feels: “[..], as often happened, Cecil had paid no great attention to her remarks. Charm, not argument, was to be her forte.“
Lucy begins to realize that maybe Cecil is not the right choice for her. She becomes more acutely aware of her feelings for Cecil when the Emersons show up in the neighbourhood, and George befriends her brother Freddy. George manages to kiss her again, and she angrily sends him away. But before he goes, he tells Lucy how he thinks about her engagement, that Cecil tries to control her, that she “listen[s] to his voice instead of [her] own“. The same evening, she breaks of her engagement.
To avoid George, and to avoid having to deal with her own feelings towards George, she decides to travel again – this time to Greece. But at this time, she only needs a little push to be willing to accept her own feelings. That push is given by Mr. Emerson, George’s father, whom she meets accidentally. At the end of the novel, Lucy has learned to form her own opinion, to lead her own life, and to do beautiful things even when they are not delicate.
A Room with a View was read as part of the 2007 winter classics challenge.
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