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A review by batrock
Howards End by E.M. Forster
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
There's a loose policy around these parts of not really rating or reviewing the "classics". It is hard to know what to say about Howards End, viewed as E.M. Forster's masterpiece; it is instantly less accessible than A Room With A View, and its encapsulation of the time it was written is its strength and its detriment. 114 years after publication, the world is very different and, as Forster emphasises in the text, the England he describes is already on its way out.
The fact is that a lot of the big dramas in Howards End would be shrugged off in the modern era, and so much of the psychology in its examination of the three tiers of society described herein are near alien to the modern mind. Matthew Lopez made a good fist of adapting and updating it for his Olivier-and-Tony-winning The Inheritance, but that has its own excesses and shortcomings to contend with that are not Forster's at all.
So what, then, to say? Howards End is strangely static in a way that a lot of books that have endured for more than a century are not and Margaret, while a vibrant heroine, makes opaque decisions that don't make sense even by the end of proceedings. Why do the Wilcoxes endure when they are clearly beasts? Why must it always be that we must Only Connect with the Other when they will make no attempt to Connect with us, and we know that they cannot ever succeed - as Margaret is aware in her heart of hearts?
Howards End is not a novel that you discard out of hand, but it is a lot more effort than some of Forster's other work. It is something that must be meditated upon because, without concentrated toil to contextualise and sit with it, Howards End remains nearly as shut up and mothballed as its titular estate is for the majority of its run. If I ever return - and I may very well - it's possible that I'll have a deeper understanding and love this more.
The fact is that a lot of the big dramas in Howards End would be shrugged off in the modern era, and so much of the psychology in its examination of the three tiers of society described herein are near alien to the modern mind. Matthew Lopez made a good fist of adapting and updating it for his Olivier-and-Tony-winning The Inheritance, but that has its own excesses and shortcomings to contend with that are not Forster's at all.
So what, then, to say? Howards End is strangely static in a way that a lot of books that have endured for more than a century are not and Margaret, while a vibrant heroine, makes opaque decisions that don't make sense even by the end of proceedings. Why do the Wilcoxes endure when they are clearly beasts? Why must it always be that we must Only Connect with the Other when they will make no attempt to Connect with us, and we know that they cannot ever succeed - as Margaret is aware in her heart of hearts?
Howards End is not a novel that you discard out of hand, but it is a lot more effort than some of Forster's other work. It is something that must be meditated upon because, without concentrated toil to contextualise and sit with it, Howards End remains nearly as shut up and mothballed as its titular estate is for the majority of its run. If I ever return - and I may very well - it's possible that I'll have a deeper understanding and love this more.