E.M. Forster: A Life

by P.N. Furbank

This authorized biography traces the growth of the novelist--his education and travels, his literary success, his sexual and social emancipation as an admitted homosexual, and his emergence as an active public figure

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Books About Books, Religion, Psychology

359 pages, Hardcover

First published July 25, 1977

About the author

Philip Nicholas Furbank was an English biographer, critic and academic. His most significant biography was the well-received life of his friend E.M. Forster.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve owned this two-in-one volume for years and finally opened it after Jasmine's wonderful essay-review of Maurice had me thinking of Forster’s probable loneliness. Reading this made me feel better about that aspect of his life: yes, there was much (mostly physical) loneliness in his life, but he was not as sexually unadventurous or as alone as one might think. (Of course loneliness can feel even deeper upon returning home, alone, after encounters that need to be conducted in secret.) More importantly, Forster highly valued and cultivated friendship; and the affection and love (including for a member of a triangle) that flowed from him was appreciated and valued by those on the receiving end.

I was also pleased to find that Forster used the endearing word “muddle” in real life as often as Lucy Honeychurch does in his fictional world.

But I don’t believe a review of a biography should review the personality of its subject, so I will also say this work is an achievement: meticulous, frank, sympathetic, and honest. It likely will be too detailed for many, but I appreciated all of it. Forster opened up his papers and, to a certain extent and for a relatively short period of time before his death, himself to the biographer; and the latter made wise and full use of all these resources and more. I believe Forster too would be pleased.

[David Freeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most intelligent and sympathetic literary biographies I've ever read. The edition I own is marked Volume One; I am looking for Volume Two, and am excited at the prospect of continuing the journey of this remarkable author.

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very vivid portrayal of the writer, from birth to death, and chronicles everything with extensive research: Forster's early awareness of his homosexuality, his school years, and his wide-ranging travels (which heavily influenced his writings).

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Especially interesting on Forster's passionate defense of freedoms of thought, speech, and art during his later years. Furbank also did a monumental job of searching out letters, journals and diaries. He tends to draw on these to excess at points. I started skimming whenever I saw those long indented passages coming up.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable biography and a remarkable life. Forster lived 90 years and only wrote novels for about half of it, but his legacy is huge, and his personal impact may have been greater even than his literary one. He was much beloved. The biography deals frankly with his homosexuality, and the gay sub-culture he inhabited, and one of the great strengths of the book is that you can see how radically the world changed on this topic and in general in the span of this one life history.

On A Passage to India: "Talking today he said it was absurd to say as the Times review had done that he was writing about the incompatibility of the East and the West. He was really concerned with the difficulty of living in the universe."

From an essay from a long-time friend, Joe Ackerley:
I would say that in so far as it is possible for any human being to be both wise and worldly wise, to be selfless in any material sense, to have no envy, jealousy, vanity, conceit, to contain no malice, no hatred (though he had anger), to be always reliable, considerate, generous, never cheap, Morgan came as close to that as can be got."

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent biography with lots of extracts from letters, diaries and such. Since the author actually knew Forster personally, you get a much more direct impression of him as well as plenty of anecdotes that do their job in making the human being Forster become real. While the book sometimes shows its age through the use of some expressions that are thankfully no longer in use, I was pleasantly surprised by the way it dealt with Forster’s homosexuality. I also loved that there always was a date at the top of the page that makes it easy to keep track of when what was happening. (Seriously, all biographies should have that.)

I really enjoyed these last months getting to know Forster better, and I am going to miss this book. I’ll continue with a collection of his non-fiction writing for now.

[Nershwin G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book a while back. Incredible biography. Right up there with the biography of James Tiptree, Jr. (a/k/a Alice B. Sheldon).

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

E.M. Forster is one of my favorite authors, so even though I had already read another biography of him (Wendy Moffat's excellent A Great Unrecorded History), I was still excited when I stumbled upon this one in a used book store. Furbank was a personal friend of Forster's, and Forster asked Furbank to write a biography of him after his death. While remarkably frank for the time that it was written, you do get the feeling that Furbank had to be circumspect about certain parts of Forster's life to protect others who were still living. It's probably too lengthy for anyone but a pre-existing fan of Forster to enjoy it, but I loved learning new tidbits about his life. The chapter of Furbank's personal memories of Forster was particularly interesting. Given the times in which we live, I was especially struck on this reading by the chapters about the 1930s and what it felt life to live through the rise of authoritarianism and the looming shadow of war. It felt a little too timely.

[J. Walker]

I admit to reading 240 pages of the 325 presented here; somewhere in 1912, the adventure stopped, the interest flagged, and I never picked up the volume to follow it to its inevitable conclusion.
I thought at the time the book was evasive and rather dry; 30 years later, a biography would be written whose prologue was titled, "Start with the fact that he was homosexual", and suddenly the narrative springs to life, and the characters come alive in a way that Furbank failed to achieve.
Having read the 21st century narrative, I can now go back to this book and compare and contrast the parts I never initially read.

[adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not the best literary biography I've ever read, though it's certainly better than a Peter Ackroyd one. Perhaps this might have something to do with the fact that Forster's life wasn't exactly thrilling. I would recommend the first volume of the biography to anyone interested in Forster during the years which he was writing novels.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of Forter's life--not his books.

[Ann]

Still working on this -- but ist is avery dense, academic biography -- so there is a limit to how much I can read at one time.

[Kent Hayden]

Ran out of time with this library book. I had to return it.

[Jonathan Fryer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive life of one of the quintessential 20th century British authors.

[Kate]

Mentioned in A Shadow in the Garden: A Biographers’ Tale by James Atlas