Howards End

My review is not a review of Howard s End as much as it is a review of the negative reviews.Most of the criticism seems to be that the readers felt that this book had nothing to do with them They weren t familiar with the places in England referenced in the book It was too English It wasn t universal True on some counts This book isn t about you It isn t about now It isn t directly relevant to today It won t feed the soul of the egomaniac.It is, however, a beautifully written book with a interes [...]

New mini series begins showing on Starz in the U.S April 2018 Discussion keeps a house alive It cannot stand by bricks and mortar alone I ve fallen in love with the Schlegel sisters twice now in separate decades I plan to keep falling in love with them for many decades to come They are vibrant defenders of knowledge, of books, of art, of travel, of feeling life in the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and spleen on a daily basis Margaret and Helen have a brother, Tibby, poor lad, who is plenty brigh [...]

I loved this book so much that I will never be able to do it justice in this review I finished it several months ago, but still I think of it often and have recommended it to numerous friends While reading, I used countless post its to mark beautiful and thoughtful passages.Howard s End was one of the novels I took on my visit to England earlier this summer I wanted to read English authors while I was there, and I m so glad I did The specialized reading completely enhanced the trip, and it was e [...]

I ve read three of Forster s most well known novels, and yet, I don t feel I know them at all Even this one, as I read it, was fading from memory I don t mean to say that his work is forgettable, but with every Forster book I ve read amazing human portraits and elegant, occasionally profound turns of phrase somehow they all flitter on out of my head It s as if they were witty clouds intelligent and incorporeal Heck, I ve even seen movie versions for a couple of them and I still don t recall what [...]

This novel from 1910 has a lovely Shakespearean flavor of good intentions leading to unintended consequences Urgent letters between sisters kicks off its engaging plot about the collision between two very different families The younger sister Helen Schlegel, visiting the rural Howard s End estate of the conservative, wealthy Wilcox family, writes to Margaret that she is love with and wants to marry one of their sons Paul which grew out of a single impulsive kiss Margaret urges her aunt to travel [...]

Only connect is doubtless the most famous line from this book, and typical of Forster s knack for sprinkling unexpectedly modern sounding phrases into his proseOTThis is the story of the Schlegel sisters half German Edwardians living in London They are intellectual and comfortably off, but bohemian Bloomsbury than establishment They encounter the wealthier and conservative Wilcoxes and the struggling clerk Leonard Bast Their altruistic attempts at social engineering are sometimes amusing but u [...]

Many critics consider this to be Forster s masterpiece, and it is hard to imagine a searing and poignant examination of the social, philosophic, and economic issues facing England during the fascinating window between Queen Victoria and World War I Forster uses three families the intellectual and impractical Schlegels, the materialistic and empire building Wilcoxes who drove through the bucolic Shropshire countryside and spoke of Tariff Reform , and the working class Basts to explore the centra [...]

Reading this at the time I did is an event I can only describe as lucky , seeing as how both my reasoning and the circumstances hardly heralded how much I would love this work The facts Carson s The Beauty of the Husband A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos left me with a craving for something white and male and English, a rare beast these days that has made this the seventh work out of 45 read this year that fits that all too often ubiquitous combination of characteristics I turned to the stacks, thi [...]

The Schlegel sisters seemed like characters plucked straight out of a Jane Austen book, or books Some combination of Emma Woodhouse Emma and the Dashwood sisters Sense and Sensibility But the story and the style are entirely Forster s The focus of the story is the social class differences in English society The setting is Edwardian Era England, sandwiched tightly between the end of the Victorian Era and the beginning of World War I Most of Forster s novels were published in this 1st decade of th [...]

Howards End is E.M Forster s statement on classism, and because he is E.M Forster, it is the most elegant and romantic comment on the struggle of classes that you will ever read It begins with a rich, old money family getting deeply upset by the idea of their youngest son getting entangled with a middle class, bohemian half German young woman The Schlegel sisters are from a comfortable but middle class family, that cares about literature and art than they do about money and status They meet and [...]

I started out liking this I was even thinking this was going to be my first four star novel of the year However, as Howards End progressed I found myself caring less and less about what was going on By the time I was 50% of the way through I was just waiting for it to finish I felt the exact same way about Where Angels Fear to Tread Maybe it s Forster s prose I don t know I think Forster and I are going to have a turbulent relationship.

I vaguely remember seeing the film adaptation of Howards no apostrophe s End decades ago I don t remember much about the plot, I just vaguely mis remembered it as a story of some mad old biddy giving a house to Emma Thompson I suppose if you must give away a house to someone Emma Thompson is not a bad choice, she is pretty cool Anyway, after recently readingA Room with a View andThe Machine Stops I have added E.M Forster to my much coveted list of favorite classic authors he missed my sci fi lis [...]

IntroductionSuggestions for Further ReadingA Note on the Text Howards EndExplanatory Notes

I m afraid I m going to end up saying most of exactly the same things as I said about A Passage to India, but I guess this one gets an extra star I m not sure if that s completely fair, but I rather think I might be mellowing in my old age I m starting to give stars for enjoyment I hear that s what one ages.So firstly, I was a little bit surprised to find myself liking this book at all, because Forster is rather snotty and British, and he does have a tendency to wax lyrical about the meaning of [...]

While this book has an interesting plot and deals with various themes, it wasn t executed as well as I would ve hoped It basically deals with two sisters, Helen and Margaret, and their sister dynamics and family dynamics However, this is also a story of differences between the middle class and the poor, love, death, hope and revenge As you can see, the plot contains multiple strong elements, but what had me puzzled was the fact that Forster centers everything around the estate called Howards End [...]

I ve already mentioned my thoughts on this book, and sadly, they haven t changed or improved Im just relieved it s all over I shall endeavour next to read Where Angels Fear to Tread and then I can compare my experiences with both books and hopefully have a positive one the second time.

My first Forster and despite half consciously interpolating Woolf like reveries for Mrs Wilcox she s like Mrs Dalloway but described from a great distance I enjoyed it very much Forster s structure is a perfect fusion of the dramatic and the essayistic his style maintains a careful balance of lyricism and exposition and his characters are at once individuals and types It s easy to see why Forster is, or was, such a critical darling, especially if that critic be the grave, pouchy eyed Lionel Tril [...]

My third Forster after Where Angels Fear to Tread and A Passage to India and the first one I truly loved Unlike the fairytale ish, lighter philosophy, less sociology A Room with a View which I chased it down with, it s definitely realistic, although the unbelievably modern ending matriarchy, no less was stunning What I loved most was the narrative devoted to class and money the rich cultured girls of Forster s fiction at least one of them know they are cultured only because they are rich, and [...]

Howards End is a chatty, witty, philosophical novel about the state of England in the years leading up to the first world war.There s a sharp sense of place Howards End, the estate, was modelled after Forster s childhood home , and by focusing on three separate families, you certainly understand the social hierarchy of Edwardian England The book s famous epigraph Only connect refers to the need for humans to empathize with others, cutting across boundaries of class, culture, geography and the si [...]

3.5 stars I like the symbolism in E.M Forster s novel Howards End Houses seem to symbolize the different periods Howards End, described as the old and little red brick which represents the old rural England in contrast to new flats in London expensive with cavernous entrance halls, full of concierges and palms which are a sign of modern times to come E.M Forster portrayed skillfully the three main families and their houses, symbolizing three different social classes at the beginning of the 20th [...]

While only connect is the book s epigraph, this book also makes me think of the Dalai Lama s statement that kindness without wisdom is cruelty The Wilcox family may be positioned as the book s villians but both Schlegel women cause their share of harm too and only faintly seem to make their own connections.

Rereading this old favourite reminded me of my university days back in the 90s when I first discovered E M Forster and fell completely in love with his works I devoured several of his books at the time as well as the wonderful Merchant Ivory and other film adaptations of his best novels This time round it was a different reading experience, as it always is when you read something many years later the book is the same, but you ve changed and have read many books I still appreciate his Edwardian [...]

Well, this took me long enough to finish I swear, I always become the laziest, most sluggish reader the second classes start up I read about one book every quarter, it s pathetic But, tardiness aside, I ve heard about this book for ages and I m so glad I finally know what all the hullabaloo s about It s a good book, but not my favorite Forster I daresay, I think A Room With a View is holistically better But I fully appreciate the sentiment, dramatics, and philosophy expressed in Howards End It s [...]

There are a million books about the inner lives of English people Here is one of them I can t begin to express how much it bothers me that there s no apostrophe in Howards.

Quite often I found myself wishing someone else had written this novel The story is fabulous I was completely riveted by the story What I didn t like were Forster s constant philosophical interjections which for the most part were platitudes dressed up in a whimsical fairy language Here s an example As a prisoner looks up and sees stars beckoning, so she, from the turmoil and horror of those days, caught glimpses of the diviner wheels On every single page he breaks into the narrative to offer up [...]

I m afraid that in nine cases out of ten Nature pulls one way and human nature another Young and impressionable at the age of 18, I fell in love with an older man who introduced me to E.M Forster Being a busy college student, I never gave myself the time to read his works, but instead watched every movie version Howards End was my favorite.Ten years later, I finally read the book And it stirred in me the kind of visceral response that only true art can do This is than a novel about families and [...]

There s always something in Forster s work that prevents me from completely loving it It s clever and satisfying Maybe it s that the divisions between those who are artistic and culturally appreciative those with soul and those who are crass, commercial, grasping, too much of the machine age those who lack soul are drawn a little too crudely Or maybe it s because I know I m supposed to side with the artistic people, but their conversations are so silly and verging on nonsensical I suppose I m mi [...]

I d love to write one of those reviews with important quotes from the book, but since I couldn t decide which would be better I will just let my rating speak for itself.

At this point in my reading life, I have read two other E.M Forster novels A Passage to India and A Room with a View I enjoyed both of them, thought they were exceptionally well written with wonderfully rich descriptions.I liked Howards End a bit less.It s a decent story, though not unusual Three different families a wealthy, old money family, the Wilcoxes an idealistic German family that values culture and experience over material gain, the Schlegels and then there s Mr Bast, a scrappy, poor ba [...]

Howard s End strangely reminded me of several Jane Austen s books Same themes of blending of classes Emma , sisterly love Sense and Sensibility , and witty humor However this book was not as compelling as any of Austen s As much as liked this complex story of relationships between three families belonging to three different classes of pre war England as much as I enjoyed the exploration of turn of the century issues of women s equality, great disparity between rich and poor, social immobility, e [...]