A Room with a View - Chapters 14 thru Conclusion

[Linda2]

Did contemporary modesty make it difficult for Austen to write a passionate scene at the end? I have to admit I've never read her, but I've seen some filmed versions.

The story in the RwaV Appendix sounds tongue-in-cheek to me.

[Abigail]

I don’t think it was modesty, or that it would have been difficult for Austen; I think there was simply a greater distance between public and private in her day. She gave us all of Mr. Collins’s proposal because there was no way Collins and Elizabeth would be a couple. But Darcy’s second proposal to Elizabeth was the start of an intimate relationship and therefore a private thing.

Also, we must remember that Austen did not think of herself as writing romantic fiction—that’s a modern overlay on her work. She was writing comedies of manners, and what mattered to her was how a person functions in society. The ethics of interpersonal behavior was much more her beat.

[Piyumi]

Abigail wrote: "I don’t think it was modesty, or that it would have been difficult for Austen; I think there was simply a greater distance between public and private in her day. She gave us all of Mr. Collins’s pr..."

True facts :)

[Bonnie]

A View without a Room - E. M. Forster
1958 Appendix to “A Room with a View” (part 1 to WWII)

“ A Room with a View was published in 1908. Here we are in 1958 and it occurs to me to wonder what the characters during the interval. They were created even earlier than 1908… It is not my preferred novel – The Longest Journey is that – but it may fairly be called the nicest. It contains a hero and heroine who are supposed to be good, good-looking and in love - and who are promised happiness. Have they achieved it?
Let me think.”

Lucy (Mrs. George Emerson) - now in her late sixties.
George in his early seventies.
They are still a personable couple, and fond of each other and of their children and grandchildren…. I cannot think where they live.

After Florentine honeymoon they probably settled down in Hampstead, no Highgate… George cleared out of the railway and got a better-paid clerkship in a government office, Lucy brought a nice little dowry along with her, which they were too sensible not to enjoy, and Miss Bartlett left the what she termed her little all… they had a servant who slept in, and were becoming comfortable capitalists when World War I exploded – the war that was to end war – and spoiled everything.

“George instantly became a conscientious objector. He accepted alternative service, so did not go to prison, but he lost his government job and was out of the running for Homes for Heroes when peace came. Mrs. Honeychurch was terribly upset by her son-in-law’s conduct.”

“Lucy now got on her high horse and declared herself a conscientious objector too, and ran a more immediate risk by continuing to play Beethoven. Hun music! She was overheard and reported, and the police called. Old Mr Emerson, who lived with the young couple, addressed the police at length. They told him he had better look out. Shortly afterwards he died, still looking out and confident that Love and Truth would see humanity through in the end.”

“…squalid move to Carshalton… now had two girls and a boy and were beginning to want a real home – somewhere in the country where they could take root and unobtrusively found a dynasty. But civilization was not moving that way. The characters in my other novels were experiencing similar troubles. Howard’s End is a hunt for a home. India is a Passage for Indians as well as English. No resting-place.”

“….Windy Corner dangled illusively. After Mrs. Honeychurch’s death there was a chance moving into that much loved house. But Freddy, who had inherited it, was obliged to sell and realize the capital for the upbringing of his family. An unsuccessful yet prolific doctor, Freddy could not do other than sell. Windy Corner disappeared, its garden was built over, and the name of Honeychurch resounded in Surrey no more.”

[Bonnie]

A View without a Room - E. M. Forster
1958 Appendix to “A Room with a View” (part 2 WWII to end)

“In due course World War II broke out – the one that was to end with a durable peace. George instantly enlisted. Being both intelligent and passionate, he could distinguish between a Germany that was not much worse than England and a Germany that was devilish. At the age of 50 he could recognize in Hitlerism an enemy of the heart as well as of the head and the arts. He discovered that away from his wife he did not remain chaste.”

Lucy, less varied. Gave music lessons and broadcast some Beethoven, who was quite all right this time, but the little flat at Watford, where she was trying to keep things together against George’s return, was bombed, the loss of her possessions and mementos was complete, and the same thing happened to their married daughter at Nuneaton.

George rose to rank of corporal, was wounded, taken prisoner in Africa, imprisoned in Mussolini’s Italy… When Italy collapsed he moved northward through the chaos to Florence. The beloved city had changed, but not recognizably. The Trinita Bridge had been destroyed, both ends of Ponte Vecchio mess, but the Piazza Signoria, where once a trifling war had occurred, still survived. So did the district where the Pension Bertolini had once flourished – nothing damaged at all.

“And George set out - as I did myself a few years later - to locate the particular building. He failed. For though nothing is damaged all is changed. The houses on that stretch of the Lungarno have been renumbered and remodeled and, as it were, remelted, some of the façades have been extended, others have been shrunk, so that is impossible to decide which room was romantic half a century ago. George had therefore to report to Lucy that the View was still there and that the Room must be there, too, but could not be found. She was glad of the news, although at that moment she was homeless. It was something to have retained a View, and secure in it their love as long as they have one another to love, George and Lucy await World War III - the one that would end war and everything else."

“Cecil Vyse must not be omitted from this prophetic retrospect. He moved out of the Emersons’ circle but not altogether out of mine. With his integrity and intelligence he was destined for confidential work, and in 1914 he was seconded to Information or whatever the withholding of the information was then entitled. I had an example of his propaganda, and a very welcome one, at Alexandria. A quiet little party was held on the outskirts of that city, and someone wanted a little Beethoven. The hostess demurred. Hun music might compromise us. But a young officer spoke up. ‘No, it’s all right,’ he said, ‘a chap who knows about these things from the inside told me Beethoven’s definitely Belgian.’ "

“The chap in question must have been Cecil. That mixture of mischief and culture is unmistakable. Our hostess was reassured, the ban was lifted, and the Moonlight Sonata shimmered into the desert."

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

Thanks for that, Bonnie. I enjoyed reading it.

[Deborah, Moderator]

Thanks for sharing this Bonnir

[Piyumi]

Oh Thanks for the info, good to read it :)