Reviews - A Room with a View

3.92k reviews for:

A Room with a View

E.M. Forster

3.78 AVERAGE

crackerjax's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

emilybee94's review against another edition

4.0

emotional funny lighthearted reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

aducharme4's review against another edition

3.5

lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rosieellen's review against another edition

3.75

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

happylilkt's review against another edition

4.0

This book was not what I expected, but it was my first foray into Forster. Much more sensual than James or Wharton, but still a similar theme: classes vs equality, hypocrisy, and, of course, romance.

I really enjoyed it and want to reread it immediately. Also I want to go to Italy now and stand in a field of violets :)

happylilkt's review against another edition

5.0

Lucy Honeychurch: "The world is certainly full of beautiful things, if only I could come across them."

Mr. Beebe: "If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays [the piano], it will be very exciting both for us and for her."

So can you guess what takes place over the course of Forster's sensuous and satirical novel? Forster loves to skewer the British classes and there is no better place for it than following British tourists in Florence, Italy and back again.

Lucy Honeychurch is in many ways an Edwardian Alice entered into her own kind of Wonderland, which is in her case, an almost equally incomprehensible Florence. "The well-known world had broken up, and there emerged Florence, a magic city where people thought and did the most extraordinary things." "She recalled the free, pleasant life of her home, where she was allowed to do everything, and where nothing ever happened to her."

"She oughtn't really to go at all," said Mr. Beebe, as they watched her from the window, "and she knows it. I put it down to too much Beethoven." Yes, Miss Honeychurch *has* been brought up to treat people and subjects "with delicacy," to know and do what propriety demands; but Beethoven, Florence, and violets do overwhelm at times, don't they? They are perhaps, "less delicate [but] more beautiful."

I could go on and on, but I won't... I will simply share one of my favorite discoveries on this recent rereading of the novel:
"Miss Bartlett was already seated on a tightly stuffed arm-chair, which had the colour and the contours of a tomato."

h555's review against another edition

3.0

It was good, I had issue with some of the characters. It is the first time I have read a historical romance classic that is written by a man so it is probably something to do with that.

I loved Lucy and George but I felt their romance was a bit forced, I don’t truly believe that she loved George but found him intriguing and might have liked him but I don’t think it wasn’t until old Mr Emerson forced her to ‘confess’ did we even see her true feelings about it. And that was at the end of the book.

I enjoyed reading about Italy, the culture clashes but the character Charlotte really messed with me the wrong way.

I have underlined and annotated a lot of passages in this book for my own personal choice and for my novel that I’m writing but I think it will be a long time until I pick it up again.

Something didn’t sit right with me about this book.