by E.M. Forster
I'd already read A Room With A View when I picked this up, I had high hopes because I had really loved it. This was a bit more muddled but charmingly enjoyable, as I've come to think of Forster as.
With this book you sometimes feel as though you've missed a key event because there isn't always a connecting passage. The event will just happen and you'll stop thinking, "Wait, what?" Character names are tossed out with no explanation as to who they are or even what gender, the younger Schlegel brother is named Tibby (I thought he was a girl).
If you enjoy reading foggy, thoroughly English books then this is for you. There are many ideas discussed in the story, whether civilization and activity can go together, how a place can be adored more than a person, and the idea of being classy when not a member of upper class society.
Margaret and Helen Schlegel are idealistic sisters in 1910s England, the first chapter starts off with Helen writing to her sister from Howards End, a country house, where she is staying with the rich Wilcox family. The two families are initially tied together when Helen and the younger son Paul Wilcox profess to be in love. The engagement is quickly broken off because Paul is not able to marry, he has no money and is soon to depart for Nigeria. Mrs. Wilcox is a vague, dreamy creature, she owns Howards End and loves it like it is a member of her family. She and Margaret begin a sort of friendship when the Wilcoxes move to London, right across the street from the Schlegels. I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to give it away. But the story deals with: class connections, reaching out to others, and social prejudice.
Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. 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.
- Margaret Schlegel
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