What do you think?
Rate this book
Howards End
This is a guide to the novel, not the novel itself.
104 pages, Paperback
Published April 9, 1987
8 people are currently reading
126 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 1, 2012
I was urged to read Howard's End by my wife, who views this as her favorite novel. I'm very glad to have read it, as the quality of the writing was astounding. Both lyrical in an old-fashioned way, yet clear in a modern way, with plainly-described but complex themes of relationships among people, the clash between the traditional and modern, and how they interact.
July 6, 2014
I liked the way the author intertwined the lives of people in three families, and let us get inside their minds and hearts. The plot also has some interesting twists and turns. The morals of the time were so different from now, I sometimes felt alienated from some of the characters, even though I could see how they were constrained by their social conditions.
August 19, 2014
I couldn't get past the first 100 pages- it wasn't making sense and I just could not get into it.
Read
December 11, 2017One of the best books I've ever read.
June 3, 2014
"While her lips talked culture, her heart was planning to invite him to tea." 4-17-14.
The face—the face does not signify. It was the face of the photograph, but older, and the teeth were not so numerous as the photographer had suggested, and certainly not so white. Yes, Jacky was past her prime, whatever that prime may have been. She was descending quicker than most women into the colourless years, and the look in her eyes confessed it."
It is the starved imagination, not the well nourished, that is afraid.
It is those that cannot connect who hasten to cast the first stone.
It is the peace of the present, which passes understanding.
The face—the face does not signify. It was the face of the photograph, but older, and the teeth were not so numerous as the photographer had suggested, and certainly not so white. Yes, Jacky was past her prime, whatever that prime may have been. She was descending quicker than most women into the colourless years, and the look in her eyes confessed it."
It is the starved imagination, not the well nourished, that is afraid.
It is those that cannot connect who hasten to cast the first stone.
It is the peace of the present, which passes understanding.
February 16, 2012
"Howard's End" is a tragic story about characters' and families' lives intertwined by the country house, "Howard's End". The Wilcox and Shlegel families weather hatred, love, caring, difference in life philosophies, and loyalty and vengeance.
EM Forster writes well -- but his writing is very dated as are the customs and mores of the characters in his book. At times I wondered if the conversations he was writing could actually haver happened in the times or if they were just the product of how he imagined people might talk to each other (especially his converstaions between women!)
EM Forster writes well -- but his writing is very dated as are the customs and mores of the characters in his book. At times I wondered if the conversations he was writing could actually haver happened in the times or if they were just the product of how he imagined people might talk to each other (especially his converstaions between women!)
December 12, 2014
This book is an excellent study in personalities and the influence of perceived social barriers upon relationships. E.M. Forster's writing style is honest and still fairly accessible to today's reader. His descriptions are entertaining and even made me laugh out loud several times. I sometimes got lost in the references to popular philosophies of the time, but the overall meaning of the text was not obscured for me.
April 9, 2014
How does one make the mundane life of the wealthy interesting? With beautiful prose, and with universal truths, that's how. The book is well written and the reader was spot on. Content aside, I believe I might enjoy Forster's description of my dish towels, especially if read by Milligan.
If you like Howard's End try Brideshead Revisited.
If you like Howard's End try Brideshead Revisited.
June 4, 2014
This book changed the way I wander. It makes you slow down as if taking a stroll around an English garden. I think of tea and sisters and laughter and also sorrow and reality. There is beauty in pain, friendship in dire times and family that cannot be broken though the world changes all around.
October 8, 2014
I liked this book. The writing was excellen, in the style of a Jane Austin novel, yet it dealt with more modern themes such as the class structure in England and the beginnings of the change of woman's role in society.
February 27, 2013
Wonderful book -- great to venture into the girls' lives as they work with the old and the new worlds of expectations.
March 26, 2014
I listened to this while driving to and from Indianapolis. I loved the readers dialect. The author's use of the English language was superb. I was totally absorbed by it.
August 2, 2014
Very good but slow. I really never connected to any of the characters. Didn't really like anyone in this book.
January 21, 2015
Expertly plotted and technically well-written, but contrived and dull.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews