The New Collected Short Stories

by E.M. Forster

Includes the classic anthologies originally published as The Celestial Omnibus and The Eternal Moment, as well as three important stories published after Forster's death: "Dr. Woolacott," "The Life to Come," and "The Other Boat."

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Edward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect".

He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.

Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.

Reviews

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1058044.html

I knew that one of these stories is "The Machine Stops", a riposte to H.G. Wells' visions of a mechanised future, but I expected the rest to be vignettes in Forster's distinctive but generally naturalistic aesthetic style. I was therefore surprised to find that of the twelve stories, ten can be classified as fantasy (and "The Machine Stops" as science fiction) with only the last one, "The Eternal Moment" having no overtly unrealistic elements. And they are interesting stories, too, sometimes giving a wicked spin to traditional concepts of death and the afterlife, sometimes just being wicked. I hadn't really considered Forster as a genre writer before, so it was quite a revelation.

One trick he does rather well is the unreliable narrator - a couple of his viewpoint characters are overconfident men who reveal enough of themselves that the reader can be sure that the writer does not sympathise with them. I have found other uses of the "unreliable narrator" unsatisfactory, if there is no discernible hint that (to adapt Achebe's phrase about Conrad) the character enjoys anything less than the author's complete confidence. Forster can drop those hints entirely discernibly without damaging the integrity (or readability) of his narrative; one of the things that makes him a great writer.

[Erica-Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was refreshing and interesting to re-read Forster's short stories, for which he is rarely celebrated. In this collection, magical realism is center (ala The Longest Journey), and the quirky use of language that he and Virginia Woolf made famous in their Bloomsbury group is incorporated throughout. A few of the stories read "dated" now, as so few writers employ the subtleties and poetics that cloak the plots in many of these stories. Yet the journeys Forster takes us on are so enjoyable (if confounding) for the sheer humanity they impart.

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Celestial Omnibus (1911):
The Story of a Panic--2
The Other Side of the Hedge--2
The Celestial Omnibus--2
Other Kingdom--2
The Curate's Friend--2
The Road from Colonus--4

The Eternal Moment (1928):
The Machine Stops--2
The Point of It--2
Mr. Andrews--2
Co-ordination--1
The Story of the Siren--2
The Eternal Moment--2

Dr. Woolacutt--2
The Life to Come--2
The Other Boat--4
***
Arthur Snatchfold--2
Mr. & Mrs. Abbey's Difficulties--3