Howards End by E.M. Forster

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A really enjoyed this. Forster writes some great dialogue, perfectly capturing the speech of people who regularly speak nonsense in an authoritative tone. In that way, it captures the confidence of the English middle classes in Edwardian Britain.

The novel is in many ways reminiscent of Austen; the social codes restraining the characters are a little more liberal than is seen in an Austen novel but are nevertheless often repressive; a pregnant unmarried woman being enough to cause a scandal. However, the central tension of the book concerns social class. The Schlegel sisters seem to have a minor aristocratic background or at least outlook, with a regular income that means they don't have to work and artistic/political interests that they pursue in a half-hearted and somewhat louche fashion. By contrast, the Wilcox family are distinctly bourgeoise, having many business interests and all round poor taste, as evidenced (for example) by their obsession with cars. A childhood indiscretion ties the fates of the two families ever more closely together while constantly highlighting their differences.

The other family important to the plot are the Basts, who are poorer and feature less frequently, despite their centrality to some of the events. The Basts are less well defined, often little more than caricatures, with the author patronizing them in a similar way that the Schlegels do.

The author seems interested in exploring the idea about how the social classes, as represented by the three families, might live in harmony but has little idea of how this could be conceived, constrained as the novel is by a complacent liberalism that can conceive of political conflict only through the trivialities of the Schlegel’s ‘debates’, which must inevitably give way before the brutal although practical logic of the Wilcoxes. I think this is why the Basts are given so little agency; they cannot be allowed to shape their own fate.

That being said, the characters and conflicts are beautifully drawn, and the book is filled with delightful passages. There is a real sense of excitement late on when Helen Schlegel (the younger sister) unveils a secret that causes the denouement of the book, despite the revelation being mundane to modern readers in its inherent significance. The author regularly draws on pastoral descriptions of England as a gentle lament to the kind of progress being pushed by the Wilcoxes. Given that the Wilcox’s social views are prevalent, the authorial worries about them are often given in mystical terms, in descriptions that often approach magical realism. Forster is an extremely elegant and witty writer who makes the three families the centre of a world that holds a great deal of magic, despite the powerfully described expanding road network that stinks of petrol.

A novel very much of its time but also with hints of eternity; a truly lovely book.



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