A Room With A View/Howards End/Maurice Author:E.M. Forster "E.M. Forster, born in England in 1879, is one of a very few modern novelists whose works are as loved as they are admired. Gracefully and dramatically they combine wit, a love of nature, astute social criticism, and a complex and sympathetic understanding of human nature. In these three novels Forster explores a perennial theme--the contradic... more »tory demands of passion and civilization and the difficulties of staying true to the best ideals of each. In "A Room with a View" published in 1908, the beautiful Miss Lucy Honeychurch is inhibited by the restrictive conventions of Edwardian England. But during her first visit to Italy, the close supervision of her guardian cannot prevent new passions from stirring, passions which throw the attention of a stuffy suitor--and an entire way of life--into doubt. In "Howards End" published in 1910, Forster follows the relationship of the Wilcox family, landed aristocrats who over the generations have become increasingly concerned with minding their money, and the Schlegel sisters, Helen and Margaret, cultivated and politically liberal young women of German extraction who are alternately repelled and attracted by the Wicoxes and their heritage. Forster completed "Maurice" in 1914, but it was not published until 1971. It tells the story of Maurice Hall, an undergraduate at Cambridge before World War I who discovers that he is homosexual. The manuscript was found in Forster's rooms at Cambridge after his death in 1970. The New York Times called it, "A wonderful novel to read--rich in its subtle intelligence, beautifully controlled in his development, deeply moving--in short, the work of an exceptional artist working close to the peak of his creative powers."« less