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A review by notwellread
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
5.0
The exquisite prose style of this novel cannot be overlooked (I read this because two of my friends apparently consider Forster the greatest English prose writer, and it’s been a few years since [b:Howards End|3102|Howards End|E.M. Forster|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385160500s/3102.jpg|1902726]), but at the same time it has a lot more than to offer than the style alone. A lot of classics are discussed nonchalantly as though everyone has already read their contents, but this is not always well-advised – here I was glad to go in knowing very little about the content as much of it took me by surprise, especially the humour and the life philosophy.
I was glad that Lucy turned out to be more than an ingénue – in fact, her inner wisdom, intuition, and spiritual awareness becomes pivotal, and I felt very proud of her as a protagonist who ends up in a sort of Bildungsroman situation and finally takes agency in her situation. I loved Miss Lavish as well – though her character is a bit of a bohemian stereotype, she is well portrayed and true to life. It helps, too, that Cecil is perhaps the greatest character conjured up by human imagination – he stole the show for me, and I was sad to see him go.
Once again, the beauty of Forster’s writing style cannot be challenged, but I would warn at the same time that somehow the reading of it does not always come naturally – I suppose because he can focus a great deal on description and tends to favour slowness to suit the mood (though this is punctured with sudden notes of brevity in more dramatic moments, marking the contrast), and it can cause the reader to ‘space out’ at times. I suppose this is another case where you appreciate the writing style for artistic purposes even at the times when it’s not the most approachable. It must still be said, though, that it suits the setting and mood perfectly.
The story could be a little slow in the first part (though I have never been to Florence so I enjoyed ‘seeing’ the tourist sites through Lucy’s eyes), but the second half brought it up – a lot was happening and the overarching significance of the novel, as it became explicit on the page, affected me quite deeply. Although much of the novel is humorous, it became profound and took itself more seriously in the final thirty pages or so, yet the change is not jarring at all and the motifs tie together as the message suddenly comes through loud and clear (admittedly, I also found some significance here as it pertains to my own life, and so it struck me particularly hard).
(There are many more things to be said, I’m sure, and although it is short I yet feel I have only touched on the surface of its complexities, but nevertheless I hope I have given some impression of its achievements. Thanks be given to those who recommended.)
I was glad that Lucy turned out to be more than an ingénue – in fact, her inner wisdom, intuition, and spiritual awareness becomes pivotal, and I felt very proud of her as a protagonist who ends up in a sort of Bildungsroman situation and finally takes agency in her situation.
Spoiler
I also really appreciated that Charlotte was not dismissed, and that we are left with a final note of her own complexities and all that – the message of ‘Only Connect’ (as Forster gives it in Howards End, stands all the stronger for it.Once again, the beauty of Forster’s writing style cannot be challenged, but I would warn at the same time that somehow the reading of it does not always come naturally – I suppose because he can focus a great deal on description and tends to favour slowness to suit the mood (though this is punctured with sudden notes of brevity in more dramatic moments, marking the contrast), and it can cause the reader to ‘space out’ at times. I suppose this is another case where you appreciate the writing style for artistic purposes even at the times when it’s not the most approachable. It must still be said, though, that it suits the setting and mood perfectly.
The story could be a little slow in the first part (though I have never been to Florence so I enjoyed ‘seeing’ the tourist sites through Lucy’s eyes), but the second half brought it up – a lot was happening and the overarching significance of the novel, as it became explicit on the page, affected me quite deeply.
Spoiler
I truly felt that I was learning alongside Lucy – at first I was nodding along with her as she decided that she would focus on her own liberty and not on men, and as Mr. Beebe noted that “Those who marry do well, but those who abstain do better”, but in the end I saw that she was right to allow herself the apparent foolishness of pursuing her own happiness. I was able to learn the message alongside the protagonist.(There are many more things to be said, I’m sure, and although it is short I yet feel I have only touched on the surface of its complexities, but nevertheless I hope I have given some impression of its achievements. Thanks be given to those who recommended.)