Howards End (Classic Literature)

by E. M. Forster

Overview

The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic, leading lives of "telegrams and anger." When the elder Mrs. Wilcox dies and her family discovers she has left their country home—Howards End—to one of the Schlegel sisters, a crisis between the two families is precipitated that takes years to resolve. Howards End is a symbolic exploration of the social, economic, and intellectual forces at work in England in the years preceding World War I, a time when vast social changes were occurring. In the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, Forster perfectly embodies the competing idealism and materialism of the upper classes, while the conflict over the ownership of Howards End represents the struggle for possession of the country’s future. As critic Lionel Trilling once noted, the novel asks, "Who shall inherit England?" Forster refuses to take sides in this conflict. Instead he poses one of the book’s central questions: In a changing modern society, what should be the relation between the inner and outer life, between the world of the intellect and the world of business? Can they ever, as Forster urges, "only connect"?

Book Excerpt

One may as well begin with Helen’s letters to her sister.

Dearest Meg,

It isn’t going to be what we expected. It is old and little, and altogether delightful—red brick. We can scarcely pack in as it is, and the dear knows what will happen when Paul (younger son) arrives to–morrow. From hall you go right or left into dining–room or drawing–room. Hall itself is practically a room. You open another door in it, and there are the stairs going up in a sort of tunnel to the first–floor. Three bed–rooms in a row there, and three attics in a row above. That isn’t all the house really, but it’s all that one notices—nine windows as you look up from the front garden.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012091727
Publisher:	MT Publishing Co.
Publication date:	01/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	722 KB

About the Author

Book Excerpt

One may as well begin with Helen’s letters to her sister.

Dearest Meg,

It isn’t going to be what we expected. It is old and little, and altogether delightful—red brick. We can scarcely pack in as it is, and the dear knows what will happen when Paul (younger son) arrives to–morrow. From hall you go right or left into dining–room or drawing–room. Hall itself is practically a room. You open another door in it, and there are the stairs going up in a sort of tunnel to the first–floor. Three bed–rooms in a row there, and three attics in a row above. That isn’t all the house really, but it’s all that one notices—nine windows as you look up from the front garden.

Date of Birth:

January 1, 1879

Date of Death:

June 7, 1970

Place of Birth:

London

Place of Death:

Coventry, England

Education:

B. A. in classics, King's College, Cambridge, 1900; B. A. in history, 1901; M.A., 1910