** spoiler alert ** This is yet another book that I was inspired to read prior to the PBS Masterpiece presentation on Sunday 4/13/08. (Again, I was horribly disappointed in the televison adaptation, but that is another story altogether.) Interestingly enough, this book (or more appropriately, the mention thereof) also crossed my path when it was discussed on a recent episode of the American version of The Office wherein Pam, Oscar, and Toby select this book for discussion as part of their “Finer Things Club.” I got a bit of a chuckle out of that, but I must say that this book truly was a treat. I was expecting a very stuffy, boring British book, but what I got instead was one of the most romantic and heart-tugging books I have ever read.

This is the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a delicate upper middle class English rose, who visits Italy with her older cousin Charlotte. The room at their hotel in Florence contains no view and shockingly, the Emersons – consisting of the rather strange father Mr. Emerson and the son George – offer their rooms because it does have a great view of the Arno River. Lucy constantly runs into the uncouth Emersons, and George Emerson, because he is a bit of a pimp, gets into the habit of kissing her. Things in Italy are always better. As far as romantic situations go, it doesn’t get much better than Lucy accidentally running into George after a carriage trip in the Italian countryside standing on a terrace covered with blue violets. He “contemplates her as one who has fallen out of heaven,” and kisses her again, and she seems to like it, but George Emerson is definitely below her station and being with him would not be sensible. Lucy and her cousin dash off to Rome to be away from the Emersons.

Lucy returns to Surrey and has agreed to marry the snobbish Cecil Vyse. In a rather convoluted coincidence, the Emersons have now moved into a villa in the same town. Everyone is playing tennis at the Honeychurch’s and George finds a way to kiss Lucy again, pointing out that he is the much better man and that he wants her “to have her own thoughts even when he holds her in her arms.” (Whole lot of ahhh moments in this book.) Lucy eventually realizes that Cecil is not right for her and breaks off the engagement. We already knew this was inevitable after a tremendous passage from Forster where he describes a rather flat kiss between Lucy and Cecil and notes that “passion should never ask for leave when there is a right of way” - one, of many, perfect passages in the book.

Lucy is very confused and eventually runs into Mr. Emerson and he lets her know she is in quite a muddle. Tremendous lines here from Forster about not knowing you are in love with someone even when you are and that “you can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. . . . love is eternal.” Lucy eventually realizes she loves George and the book ends with her and George and the same hotel in Florence, enjoying a room with a view.

A lot I can say about this book, but one thing I will say is that I think it is a better romantic novel than anything Austen has ever done (that I have read as of yet). I say this from the obviously biased perspective of a man. Unlike the Austen male leads who tend to sit back and do nice guy things hoping that the heroines will come to appreciate that they are honorable and decent and deserving of affection, George Emerson knows what he wants and takes proactive steps to go our and get it. My experiences with romantic pursuit, which are indeed quite limited and quite chock full of failures, has indicated that the guys who just sit back trying to be “nice guys” and hoping that the object of their affection will fall head over heels because they do such nice things, tend to end up alone and frustrated. The guys, like George Emerson, who spends a good portion of the novel simply relaying to Lucy that he is the better man, are the one’s that tend to do the kissing. (I could write a bit more on the misguided attempts of so-called nice guys, but I will refrain.) More than that, though, I thought the dialogue and romantic parts of this book were far superior. Matter of opinion, I guess, it just surprises me that this book does not get more play.