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Dec 27, 2011

Zelda rated it:

My review is not a review of Howard's End as much as it is a review of the negative reviews.

Most of the criticism seems to be that the readers felt that this book had nothing to do with them. They weren't familiar with the places in England referenced in the book. It was too English. It wasn't universal. True on some counts. This book isn't about you. It isn't about now. It isn't directly relevant to today. It won't feed the soul of the egomaniac.

It is, however, a More...

4 comments like (66 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2010

Choupette rated it:

I'm afraid I'm going to end up saying most of exactly the same things as I said about A Passage to India, but I guess this one gets an extra star? I'm not sure if that's completely fair, but I rather think I might be mellowing in my old age - I'm starting to give stars for enjoyment. I hear that's what one ages.

So firstly, I was a little bit surprised to find myself liking this book at all, because Forster is rather snotty and British, and he does have a tendency to wax lyrical about More...

25 comments like (14 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2011

Eric rated it:

My first Forster; and despite half-consciously interpolating Woolf-like reveries for Mrs. Wilcox—she’s like Mrs. Dalloway but described from a great distance—I enjoyed it very much. Forster’s structure is a perfect fusion of the dramatic and the essayistic; his style maintains a careful balance of lyricism and exposition; and his characters are at once individuals and types. It’s easy to see why Forster is, or was, such a critical darling, especially if that critic be the grave, pouchy-eyed Lion More...

27 comments like (11 people liked it)

Apr 27, 2008

Happyreader rated it:

While "only connect . . ." is the book's epigraph, this book also makes me think of the Dalai Lama's statement that "kindness without wisdom is cruelty." The Wilcox family may be positioned as the book's villians but both Schlegel women cause their share of harm too and only faintly seem to make their own connections.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Jimmy rated it:

Wow. This was powerful. I would like to read it again, knowing more of what to expect, not that the plot is particularly... central. But, the book starts off so light and slow, almost like a comedy of manners, and a hilarious one at that. But then the middle section, which was hard for me, because I felt a shift. It seemed more like things were being set up to happen but I didn't know what. The middle section didn't exactly connect with me at all times and I found myself kinda forcing myse More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 15, 2008

Laura rated it:

Many critics consider this to be Forster’s masterpiece, and it is hard to imagine a more searing and poignant examination of the social, philosophic, and economic issues facing England during the fascinating window between Queen Victoria and World War I. Forster uses three families—the intellectual and impractical Schlegels, the materialistic and empire-building Wilcoxes (who drove through the bucolic Shropshire countryside and “spoke of Tariff Reform”), and the working class Basts—to explore th More...

0 comments like (15 people liked it)

Aug 23, 2008

Rachel rated it:

Finally a book this year I can LOVE! I have been waiting 8 whole months for it! I love both the movie and now the book. In fact, the movie is pretty much a perfect staging of the book, so if you like the movie you will probably like this.

It might sound odd but one of the things I love about this story is its reassurance that there is a potential for good in all of us- the rich, the poor, the educated etc. There are no villains or heroes in this story. Everyone wants to be good a More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2011

Manussawee rated it:

It took me a long while to get into the book. As the matter of fact, I still don't like his writing style - it was too confusing to me. I felt that conversations were fused together that I often didn't know who was talking. However, after finishing the book, his writing style became a minor flaw in my eyes. I just loved his character developments, and I just couldn't get over the plot! I really wanted to know if Margaget would ever find out that Mrs. Wilcox had bequeathed her Howards End. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 09, 2009

April rated it:

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1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2007

Joe rated it:

"I'm afraid that in nine cases out of ten Nature pulls one way and human nature another."

Young and impressionable at the age of 18, I fell in love with an older man who introduced me to E.M. Forster. Being a busy college student, I never gave myself the time to read his works, but instead watched every movie version. Howards End was my favorite.

Ten years later, I finally read the book.

And it stirred in me the kind of visceral response that only tru More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2007

Conor rated it:

This is by far the best Forster I've read. The characters are subtle and completely relatable. The narrator makes himself known in a way that draws you closer to the characters because it is what the would want. The discussions on London are easily applicable to New York, or any other big city. Forster basically divides people into two kinds: those who are "practical" and those who are poetic. Having done this, he allows for each to have a bit of the other within them.

More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2007

علی rated it:

Not all are the same! Experince the world with no prejudice! Break the existing order and make a new and better one! Love! Is these what Forster trys to say for about hundred years ago?
هرتفوردشایر کجاست و خانه ی هوارد، که فارستر خود زمانی در آن زندگی کرده است، چه ظاهری دارد؟ من اما در باغ و خانه ی "منتصر" که از دوران کودکی به یاد دارم، شباهت عجیبی به این فضا دیده ام. ان رمز و رازی که یک باغچه و یک عمارت در دورانی از زندگی می تواند در ذهن آدم نماینده ی تاریخ یک دوره، یک خانواده یا More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 02, 2008

David rated it:

I had forgotten how good, how amazingly good, Forster's writing is. The rendering of conversation, the revealing of characters in their distinct and separate personalities through their conversation, is astonishing, and full of comedy and perception. His social portraiture makes me smile, laugh, nod in recognition. Then suddenly the prose turns inward and with equal acuity probes the obscure recesses of sensibility. And all the while, one watches as Forster shows how these small comic contingenc More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 05, 2008

Michael rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 02, 2011

La Stamberga dei Lettori rated it:

Only connect,

questa la frase centrale del romanzo, parole che si possono ancora leggere sul monumento dedicato a Edward Morgan Forster nella chiesa di St. Nicholas, a Stevenage.

Casa Howard è infatti considerata, ancor più che Passaggio in India, l'opera più significativa dell'autore britannico, e arduo è sfondare il velo simbolico che permea tutta l'opera per penetrare al livello superiore rispetto a quello immediatamente leggibile: accennare alla trama del romanzo, infatti, significherebbe pros More...

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Jan 19, 2009

Leslie rated it:

I enjoyed the book quite a bit, not only because of the social commentary and fantastic characterizations, but also because it is set in the guise of a wholly interesting story.

First and foremost, I see this book as a commentary on the differences between the classes in turn of the century (20th) England. The main characters are the Schlegel sisters who are members of the intellectual bourgeoisie, the Wilcox family who are members of the capitalist upper class and the Basts who are str More...

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Jan 19, 2012

Marilee rated it:

Howards End is about class, gender, and culture at the beginning of the 20th century. It is also about notions of home and different ways of being in the world. I'd especially recommend it to fans of Downton Abbey.

Some gems from the book:
"Some are born cultured; the rest had better go in for whatever comes easy. To see life steadily and to see it whole was not for the likes of him" (46).

"Her thought drew being from the obscure borderland. She could not exp More...

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Jan 08, 2012

CaterinaAnna rated it:

Although this had more plot than I had anticipated, I could understand its reputation as an elegy for what remains, a few days after finishing, is the sense of time. A time where the final destinies of the characters makes perfect moral sense. A time that I'm glad I don't live in: I repeatedly thought 'Why is she doing this?' about the elder sister (but that's probably to do with the existence at least one intolerant man in my own past rather than a mere 21st century perspective), proud of the d More...

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Dec 12, 2011

Ben rated it:

Howards End is somewhat like a Dickens’ novel, save where the light storytelling charm of Dickens would be found is instead a more philosophical and serious variety of narrative.

The novel is beautifully written at times and deeply philosophical at others, but in the end, as a synopsis the core issue of Howards End is the lead character’s struggle to deal with incompetence: whether it be willful ignorance (of the political type) or insubstantial dreams (of the poetical type). To re More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

Sarah rated it:

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 tha More...

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Oct 27, 2011

Roberta rated it:

Casa Howard racconta la storia di tre famiglie che intrecciano le loro esistenze in modo decisamente romanzesco. In mezzo a loro, fatale (in modo diverso) per tutti, sta proprio casa Howard.
Margaret, Helen e Tibby Schlegel sono i componenti di una famiglia inglese di origini tedesche. Rappresentano l’anelito alla libertà, alle pari opportunità, alla cultura.
I Wilcox sono invece una famiglia borghese, profondamente radicata in quella cultura del lavoro che in quel periodo cambiò così More...

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Sep 25, 2011

Emma rated it:

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Jul 28, 2011

Angela rated it:

This was good to revisit (I read it in high school and loved it, and reread it at some point in the intervening years). I enjoyed it, but this quote from Forster colored the way I read the whole thing (found in the introductory essay, originally from his "Commonplace Book"):

"Howards End my best novel and approaching a good novel. Very elaborate and all pervading plot that is seldom tiresome or forced, range of characters, social sense, wit, wisdom, color. Have only just More...

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Jun 02, 2011

Sarah rated it:

This book was a very odd read. It wasn’t thrilling or enthralling. It wasn’t exciting or horrific. Absolutely nothing about the plotline stands out to me. But…I continued to read it a bit at a time and as it progressed, the bits kept getting bigger until I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. And before you ask, no it wasn’t one of those marathon to finish just so I can say I’ve read it types.

This is phenomena can only be explained by the writing of E.M. Forster. I have never read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 02, 2011

Barksdale rated it:

The beginning of this book is amusing, lighthearted and well paced, as we meet the sisters Helen and Margaret. It had the whimsical feel of Cold Comfort Farm. But as the themes developed it becomes ponderous and moralistic. The recurrent theme of the hardworking, stolid, business class as the backbone of British supremacy seems utterly dated in view of the relative decline of British glory. The theme of the differences in men and women, and society's double standards ring true, but are prese More...

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Jan 07, 2011

Bethany rated it:

A very beautiful sad story. I wish that someone would leave me a Howards End. Reading about women struggling for independence is always interesting to me because I just can't comprehend it. How could she be so submissive? How could he be so obtuse, especially when confronted directly? Those kind of interactions don't seem possible to me. One reason I love to read is because I have such a hard time seeing from others' perspectives and reading helps me, but I always have to ask, is this real More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2010

Tania rated it:

I'm doing a school project about E. M. Forster's novels and the first one I read was Howards End. Must say, a hard read. It took me months to read the first half of the book. But the truth is that from Margaret and Henry's engagement to the end of the novel, it's all really fast and easy-reading.

I loved reading it, but I agree with those who say it's more a commentary than a novel. I think the author just wanted to let us know what he thought about the society of his century by saying More...

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Oct 27, 2010

Jeremy Allan rated it:

It may have been a hundred years since this book was published, but while reading it, I could often feel transported, not into the story itself, but to the rooms where Forster & the rest of his Bloomsbury set would gather and debate the times. Forster's main failing as a novelist is where you can feel those heady conversations getting their full exposition in the voices of his characters, where unlikely speakers become mouthpieces for the Bloomsbury concerns. What are they? The amorality of E More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 16, 2010

Kristina rated it:

Is there such a thing as a perfect novel? The answer is probably no; and if it could even approach yes, then we have to agree upon, or at least articulate for ourselves, a definition of “perfect.” I want to be as objective as I can; there are many books I love that I would not call “perfect,” because they have parts I love that don’t really fit, or parts that do fit but that I don’t think are well done, or (the most typical for my personal taste), they try to tackle too much, have too many chara More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 26, 2010

Clarissa rated it:

ummary: "Only Connect," Forster's key aphorism, informs this novel about an English country house, Howards End, and its influence on the lives of the wealthy and materialistic Wilcoxes; the cultured, idealistic Schlegel sisters; and the poor bank clerk Leonard Bast. Bringing together people from different classes and nations by way of sympathetic insight and understanding, Howards End eloquently addresses the question "Who shall inherit England?"

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