Publisher's Synopsis
Edward Morgan Forster (1879 - 1970) is best known for his beautiful novels - ironic with delicious plots, highlighting the hypocrisy and discrimination in early 20th-century British society. This volume brings together five of Forster's most notable works: A Room with a View. This is the ultimate coming of age novel, written so beautifully that no other novel of its type ever needed to be written. The young English middle-class girl, Lucy Honeychurch is wooed by two men, George Emerson and Cecil Vyse. One represents social acceptance, the other love and the whole stories is intertwined with irony. The novel takes us through the transformation of Lucy from innocent to wounded to unlikeable to unemotional and then to passionate. How Forster does this is a mystery and it the novel is pure magic. Howards End. This novel is a work of art. Howard's End is a country home but it represents England, the fate of both being uncertain due to extreme upheavals in social and economic changes in the post Victorian era. Forster is profound and witty in equal measure and he loves each of his characters and treats them with compassion as they fall helplessly towards the inevitable tragic end. The Longest Journey. This novel is the one Forster said he was most pleased to have written. It is a novel that grapples with some deep philosophical questions: What is the right way to live and what the wrong? Can anyone ever tell us how to live our life? Forster once again plunges us into a world of conventions and fakery, he pulls off the veneer of politeness and shows the rottenness inside. It challenges us never to stop questioning and to never be complacent with our morality. Where Angels Fear to Tread. This was Forster's first novel and is short but remarkably mature. The story is based around Lilia Herriton who takes a trip to Italy, gets married and is preganant with her first child before her family have a chance to stop it. Sadly, Lilia dies in childbirth and so the family see fit to try to recuse the child from being brought up as an Italian, preferring him to be groomed to be an English gentleman. It is a comedy of manners exposing the English superiority complex and obsession with class. The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories. A series of short stories exposing once again Forster's genius and wit.
