Brief Lives: E. M. Forster

Brief Lives

by Richard Canning

A century after his novels first came out, E. M. Forster remains one of the most widely read and best-loved authors of the 20th century. He made his name with novels such as A Room with a View and Howards End , which, with their detailed analyses of English snobbery and racism, established him as an uncompromising critic of hypocrisy. Forced to conceal his sexuality from his readership, Forster also wrote, but never published, a novel of gay love, Maurice . Richard Canning considers the literary development of one of England's most noted writers in this insightful biography.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief Lives: E.M. Forster, while under a hundred pages, is not slight. It is rich, informative, compact, and everything a good biography needs to be. Published by Hesperus Press, Richard Canning’s life of the author of A Passage to India and A Room With a View helps us understand how Forster, who wrote his last novel in 1924 and died in 1970 filled that span with a full life of critical writing, world travel (often in the company of his mother) and a never-ending search for love with a capital L. [return][return]He continued to write throughout his life but just not the great novel people hoped for and expected. He despised Hollywood and persistently refused to allow his books to be filmed. His libretto for Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd, was first performed in 1951 to critical acclaim. He corresponded with the vast cast of friends and acquaintances including J.R. Ackerley, Christopher Isherwood, C.P. Cavafy, T.E.Lawrence and many others. He lectured at Cambridge and wrote commentary for the BBC. He kept busy.[return][return]His inner life was a mixture of joy and sorrow. He was never willing to admit publicly to his homosexuality, partially because of the repressive laws of Britain at the time, but also to protect his overpowering (and long-lived) mother Lily. An early novel, Maurice, with it’s gay themes, would never be published in his lifetime. The foreword to Maurice describes his struggle with his own homosexuality.[return][return]His humanistic viewpoint led him to continually explore the themes of class differences.

[Joan]

This short biography of E.M. Forster, part of Hesperus Press' "Brief Lives" series, is an excellent one. It is not, nor is it intended to be, an authoritative work on Forster's life and work. It is, however, a good introduction. In a strictly chronological way, Canning hits the high points, and in so doing, he provides insight into Forster's life, his relationships, public and private.

There's very little discussion of Forster's works, except insofar as they fit within the biographical story. Indeed, if there is any part of the book that could have been elimnated, it is the short last chapter, Afterlife, which is as close as Cannign comes to literary criticism. It seems oddly out of place.

While those who have read Forster will naturally find more in this book than those who have not, it can be read with appreciation by anyone, and any reader will find it informative. Definitely recommended.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll bet most readers of the British writer and critic E.M. Forster (1879-1970) had no idea that he was gay until the posthumous publication of Maurice in 1971. Until then the author of, most famously, A Room with a View and A Passage to India, would have seemed as conventional as any other writer of his era. He would have been astonished to discover that in the 21st century he has become a gay icon, in company with Oscar Wilde whom he thought trivial.

Read the rest of my review about this very short biography at http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/201...

Cross-posted at Library Thing.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its brevity sometimes means that the narrative is rather bitty. Forster had a ten year burst of creativity and then sixty years in which he contributed little to the literary canon. Constrained by the relationship with his domineering mother and by his homosexuality he lived a repressed life with occasional (injudicious) bursts of venality and sybaritic indulgence. If nothing else this brief biography might encourage readers to pick up or return to A Passage to India; Forster's masterpiece. His ambition in life to be capable of embracing new people and new ideas until he died is one that I share; he inconsistently achieved his aim (time will tell if I do).