Howards End in Constant Reader

Aug 10, 2010 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read2010, modern-library-100-best-novels

I always say E.M. Forster is one of my favorite writers, but I hadn't ever bothered to read Howard's End. Now I have, and now I'm not so sure. He certainly was perfect for me at 18. At 32, I have my doubts.

"Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die."

Longer musing here, with quotations! ...more

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Jul 17, 2007 Yulia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A compendium of my comments from thee Constant Reader Classics Corner discussion on HE:

I just couldn't understand the connection formed between Margaret and Henry. Was it meant to be a surprise to the reader, because if so Forster was successful. But then, even in Passage to India, I couldn't understand the friendship at the core of the book, so perhaps this was not as intentional as he'd like us to believe.

Coincidentally, Zadie Smith, who modeled On Beauty on this work, seems to have inherited A compendium of my comments from thee Constant Reader Classics Corner discussion on HE:

I just couldn't understand the connection formed between Margaret and Henry. Was it meant to be a surprise to the reader, because if so Forster was successful. But then, even in Passage to India, I couldn't understand the friendship at the core of the book, so perhaps this was not as intentional as he'd like us to believe.

Coincidentally, Zadie Smith, who modeled On Beauty on this work, seems to have inherited Forster's inability to create a marriage that is in any way believable. I kept on thinking during OB that Howard married Kiki for her mother's house!

As for the manslaughter conviction, it didn't seem right to me considering the nature of the death, but I have no legal training and certainly no knowledge of the British system, so I speak only as a would-be juror.

Forster does get at a very real component of human relationships in noting that pity can inspire tenderness, compassion, and even love, but I think it's overly simplistic to say women react one way to the flaws of a partner and men, another. In their context, generalities don't tend to rankle me so much, but when taken from their surrounding cushioning, they're quite ridiculous.

I do think, as Ruth suggests, that the narrator was omniscient and every now and then steps into the mind of a character, whether male or female, and records their thoughts without putting these thoughts in italics or quotation marks. That's the only way to explain the random moments in which the narrator seems to have a woman's perspective instead of a general unisex one. Why else would Forster have a narrator of a different sex and not develop her perspective and societal standing more fully (is she an intellectual? an aristocrat? is she single), as Happy points out.

But how is this discussion making me rethink my admiration of Forster? As it is, I'm hearing my own doubts about the book reflected in the others' comments. Who knew I wasn't alone in my cynicism!

Kathy, I love your abyss image. I suppose it comes to each of us at different times in life and perhaps we're defined by what we do at such times. The abyss is much less forgiving for the lower classes, as displayed by Leonard and Kathy. And it brings to mind Wharton's House of Mirth and poor Lily Bart, who just couldn't pull herself out.

Gail, yes, all these characters are alive today, I believe. Is this reassuring or worrisome? ...more

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Oct 17, 2007 Gail rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-british

A sad, sad tale about...well...about a woman who inherits a house and the man who feels he's entiitled to it. Complicated plotting, but beautiful writing. The reader is left with regrets for all the people involved except, perhaps, the second female lead.
Edited 05/2008: A second, closer reading gives one a much more complex experience. The resolution of all the plot intricacies is a bit too pat, but the reader is left with a feeling of fulfillment nevertheless.
There’s a single sentence in this ...more

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Apr 21, 2008 Linda rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, england

This is the classics selection for May in the Constant Reader group, so I decided to give it a try. I couldn't remember if I'd read it, but I finally determined that I had only seen the movie (which I hadn't liked all that much). It's interesting to watch how my attitudes towards the characters have changed. When I was younger, I really didn't like Margaret, and felt rather betrayed by her marriage to Henry Wilcox. Although I still don't like any of the characters all that much, I feel more comp ...more

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Jan 21, 2008 Dottie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, classics-corner

Read this one sometime aroundthe time as I viewed the film -- Merchant-Ivory? -- and loved both. Now for a reread with CC on the CR group -- this should be fun. I'll most likely rent the film to view it again also. ...more

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