Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

May 28, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

I own a beautiful copy of this book. It's a 1962 pocket edition hardcover printed in England and I have all of Forster's novels in a matching set of them. So when I say that I want to tear this book apart, please understand the very serious implications of that statement.

I want to break the binding, remove each page from its mesh, and lay it out on the table. I want to do this, very badly. I want to do this thing that I would never consider doing to any book, ever (even something by More...

19 comments like (53 people liked it)

May 09, 2009

April rated it:

This is the first book that I've just tipped over in love with in a long time.

Having seen the movie Howard's End, and knowing that E.M. Forster wrote in the late 19th/early 20th century, and having watched that episode of The Office where the Finer Things Club discussed this book, I fully expected it to be a dull, dry slog.

But it was not. It was a pleasure.

Lucy Honeychurch learns that the rules of society can--and sometimes should--be broken. She learns More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2008

Steven rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2008

Ann rated it:

What a beautiful story!
I really didn't know what to expect—would this be a character story, a philosophical one, a romance? It ended up being a lovely mix of all three. The story centers around Lucy, a young woman who realizes, for the first time, that she has ideas of her own. In other words, it's about Lucy learning how to make decisions for herself, and learning what she truly wants out of life.
The book is full of delightful characters and beautiful passages. Yet, Forster isn' More...

14 comments like (8 people liked it)

Mar 11, 2008

Maggie rated it:

I find comedies of manners and WASP dramas about one's place in society so tiring... last night we finally got a true plot development and I woke up a bit. I'm such a bad "girl" reader this way. Cue some action, PLEASE.

UPDATE: I can't keep reading this. Taking it off the bedside table. I am such a bad girl!

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Jo rated it:

After an unfortunate incident with A Passage to India (I left reading it until the last minute because I found it so dull and tedious when I had to read it at university and it almost resulted in my failing of a module), I have been reluctant to return to the works of E. M. Forster.

If there is one thing I learnt from this incident it is this: Don’t leave your essays until the last minute, kids!

But I believe I was suitably punished for my flippant attitude towards my de More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 15, 2008

Laura rated it:

Forster’s most delightful novel chronicles the awakening of Lucy Honeychurch, whose sojourn in Italy broadens her views, and ultimately her life, far beyond anyone’s expectations—not least of all her own! Forster draws the characters with precision, humor, and depth, from the spinsterish cousin Charlotte Bartlett to the priggish fiancé Cecil Vyse (“He was mediaeval. Like a Gothic statue.”). Many laugh-out-loud moments as Forster satirizes an Edwardian middle class desperately clinging to the la More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Alison rated it:

I wish I had just re-read this book so I could speak to it more justly. This is one of the most romantic books of all time. I wanted to name my daughter Lucy because of this book (Jason vetoed the idea). It's so short and easy to read at least once a year. Love. It.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 10, 2011

Lauraadriana rated it:

I like EM Forster A LOT, Maurice is a favorite. This book is the de riguer critiquie of English society and the repressive ridiculousness of it all.

Lucy is touring Italy accompanied by incredible uptight cousin/chaperone Charlotte. Lucy explores Italy and her feelings about love and herself and meets interesting and different people along the way that alternately aid and confuse her self-exploration. An interesting statement and a finely written book. Then again it's Forster, so that More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2008

Michelle rated it:

Having been unimpressed with "A Passage to India," I wasn't expecting too much from this Forster novel. I was tickled to be proved wrong. The plot is interesting, the language is "clever," and the philosophy is respectfully thoughtful and ridiculous. However, what really makes the novel great is the author-reader relationship. From the opening pages the narrator/author is openly aware of his audience. He mocks, pities, pokes at, and exposes his own characters, at the sam More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

Lisa rated it:

I picked up this book because I'd liked "Howards End" and because it was 50 cents at a book fair. I was pleased to discover that the first part of the book takes place in Florence and enjoyed reading scenes in Santa Croce, near the Arno, etc.

I also enjoyed reading this book because I just finished teaching a semester of Survey of British Lit II, and so it's fun to see how Forster exemplifies the Edwardian era, the transition between the Victorians and the Moderns. The pro More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Caoimhe rated it:

I read this whilst on holiday in Tuscany, as I thought it perfect for the setting. I loved it, but for me the book is inseparable from the fantastic 1985 film adaptation by Merchant-Ivory. In this case I would actually recommend seeing the film before reading the book; especially if you have never been to Italy before. It was a bonus to have an image of the characters and settings in my head to refer to beforehand and the film brought the real potential drama of the book out. On a straightforwar More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Jo rated it:

I went into this book not really knowing what to expect, or to be more honest, I think I went into it expecting a romance. I had seen the movie when I was 11 or 12, so I had a vague recollection of passionate kisses in the bushes (that makes it sound so errotic, but it is really not at all--I wish it were.)

I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. It is a victorian-type novel that starts out in Italy with various characters, the main one being the love-interest, Lucy. She and More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2009

Sarah rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2007

Leanna rated it:

First, I must be clear that I started reading A Room with a View before this week’s episode of The Office. Although I would gladly join the Good Things Club, it did not inspire me.

Instead, I found this book at my apartment and decided it is time I read it. I started it as a teenager, but when I discovered the film version—which I adore—was so faithful to the book, I didn’t see the purpose.

I enjoyed A Room with a View, but this is a case of the film spoiling the book. T More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Marcie rated it:

I first read this book in high school but picked it up again when I was studying in London. The strange thing is the British version, or perhaps only this mysterious edition found only in this particular university library, had an alternate ending written later and added in. No longer closing with a happy ending in Florence this edition's chapter took you into Lucy and George's future. A post-WWI future where he cheated on her while away at war. And though he stills loves her, he (and the res More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 19, 2008

Scott rated it:

This comes as a surprise. I really didn't expect that my favorite novel this summer would be a hundred-year-old Edwardian romance full of snobs, twits, and silly young girls. But every page of E M Forster's A Room with a View (1908) was a delight. The book is an almost perfect blend of humor and seriousness (heavy on the humor with just enough earnestness to keep it all on an even keel). The characters are all memorable, the settings splendid, and the plot (though just a bit weak at the end) kep More...

0 comments like

Apr 09, 2008

Amy rated it:

I finally got around to reading this book, and I'll admit it was a challenge not just playing the movie along in my head the whole time. Happily, it's an enjoyable read in its own right. Forster's prose is playful and wise and surprisingly relevant to the 21st Century -- Cecil Vyse may be the first literary character who enjoys popular culture ironically, who is utterly exhausted by the hard work of constant scorn, and he lives on in every sneering hipster in a trucker hat.

This book More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2008

Matthew rated it:

It is so pleasing to me to return to so-called "classic" literature and love it just as much as I love contemporary fiction. Don't read Forster for his plots, which are relatively traditional, or his style, which is nothing too amazing. Don't read him for his characters, all of whom, despite being excellently done, are rather clichéd. Read him instead for his narrators, which talk directly to the reader with a flippant, almost mocking tone that makes you smile despite yourself. A ROOM More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2008

Lucy rated it:

I found myself in the rare situation of reading a book after I've watched the movie. Unfortunately, my mind was forced to conform to the images of the actors and actresses playing the parts of George and Lucy and Cecil. Thankfully, they were good images and I was comforted to know that a movie I loved was as good as the book it stemmed from.

Kind of a quirky book for period literature, but I like it all the more because of it. It's funny and honest and satisfying. If you're not up More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Helen rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2010

Karen added it

In an era where the heroine playing Beethoven was considered shocking, the novel seems before its time. The Emersons are Socialist athiests devoted to the philosophy of freedom, causing them to behave in a manner that defies convention. Caught between the allure of the Emerson son George and her socially acceptable, yet dry and repressive, fiance Cecil Vyse, Lucy is on the cusp of womanhood and learning where her place in life is supposed to be.[return][return]Her journey begins in Italy along w More...

0 comments like

Feb 06, 2012

Karen rated it:

"It is so difficult--at least, I find it difficult--to understand people who speak the truth." "There's enough sorrow in the world, isn't there, without trying to invent it." "The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected." "At times our need for a sympathetic gesture is so great that we care not what exactly it signifies or how much we may have to pay for it afterwards More...

0 comments like

Jan 26, 2012

Homes rated it:

Meh! I picked this book up because I had read an article on Mental Floss listing the most desirable men in literature. George Emerson was the only one I was not familar with and since I agreed with all the other names (ie, Gilbert Blythe, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Rochester), I figured this was a slam dunk. But . . . meh! Perhaps I was affected by having just completed Howard's End (the library book had both both and HE was first and I wasn't a big fan of it either), but it did not grab my imagination. Not More...

0 comments like

Jan 25, 2012

Brenda rated it:

Opening on a quaint Pension or hotel in Italy, A Room with a View follows the journey of Lucy Honeychurch as she grows into a woman and discovers what she wants along the course of several romantic adventures in Italy and her native England. This is a great coming-of-age and romantic novel for those who like this type of book. I did not initially think I would enjoy it, but after getting more invested in the characters; I began to enjoy it more. The main character is Lucy Honeychurch who is b More...

0 comments like

Jan 03, 2012

Julie rated it:

I'm not sure how a voracious reader like me missed this classic novel, but luckily, my book club picked it and I promptly downloaded the audio (narrator: Wanda McCaddon). I found myself immediately transported to Florence, Italy, and completely captivated by the travails of young Lucy Honeychurch. Everything about this book is perfect: the descriptions of Florence and the muddy Arno (where I visited long ago and toured with my then-future husband); the stinging digs at tourists who go abroad o More...

0 comments like

Nov 20, 2011

Kevin rated it:

This was a bit more romantic than what I usually go for, but it was an interesting insight into the interplay between people of different classes and the contrast between city and rural sensibilities of people living in the UK around 1900.

**Contains Spoilers**

This is the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a young English woman on vacation in Florence with her cousin Charlotte Bartlett. In Florence, they meet the Emersons, an unrefined father and son with unconventional views o More...

0 comments like

Oct 21, 2011

Andrea rated it:

While traveling in Italy, a young Victorian woman Lucy Honeychurch hopes to explore and learn about the artwork and architecture of the area. Instead she has a brush with violence that leads her into a an intrigue with a young man. She flees her passion, traveling from Italy back to England, where she must learn to listen to her own heart.

I was impressed with Forster's take on his characters, making them complicated and interesting and often funny. I especially enjoyed his portrayal o More...

0 comments like

Oct 12, 2011

Lois rated it:

I loved almost all of this book. The first half, in which Lucy and her entertainingly passive-aggressive chaperone go to Italy, is quite funny, especially in its lampooning of tourists; it's both comforting and saddening to know that tourists haven't changed since the book was written in 1908. I have known (and probably been) all the kinds of tourists Forster pokes fun at, from the Miss Alans, who want to see the world but for it to be as much like home as possible, to Miss Lavish, declaring tha More...

0 comments like

Sep 18, 2011

Darlyn rated it:

More at my blog: Your Move, Dickens

Let me just say that if George Emerson were a living, breathing person, I would probably want to date him. He’s like that loner guy in high school who reads deep books, and sits by himself in the cafeteria—the mysterious type we all wanted to get to know. I loved how he slowly “woke up” and really started to live, and I like to think that I could wake up too. I could be walking down the street, and something magical could happen to me, making me LIVE More...

0 comments like

reviews