Howards End: E.M. Forster's House of Fiction

Twayne's Masterwork Studies #93

by Alistair M. Duckworth

In Howards End , E. M. Forster describes Edwardian England not as a golden afternoon of Empire, but as a time of conflict between nations, parties, classes, and the sexes. Forster's England is one in which a peaceful rural past encounters a frenzied urban present, the countryside is threatened by urban encroachment and pollution, intellectuals quarrel with businessmen, art vies with sport as a recreational activity, cultural tastes collide with popular tastes, entrenched male power ignores or suppresses emerging female aspirations, and laissez-faire economic attitudes are harmful to the poor and underprivileged. Such conflicts, as Alistair Duckworth demonstrates, pervade the novel's episodes, settings, conversations, and commentaries. On the publication of Howards End in 1910 Forster was recognized as a major Edwardian novelist. Forster's subtle characterizations, narrative ironies, perfectly pitched dialogues, and evocative treatment of place established him in the great tradition of the English novel of manners. Living in a fragmented society, Forster brought new depth to that tradition; he engaged the divisive issues of his time by presenting them as human encounters in domestic contexts. His perspective was that of a liberal humanist—in Howards End he obviously favors the progressive attitudes of the Schlegel women to the Social Darwinist behavior of the Wilcox men. As a realist, however, he reveals not only the relative powerlessness of benevolent intellectuals to bring about social improvement, but also their financial complicity in the system they oppose. In its critique of "commerce" and "culture" in a swiftly changing world, and in its searching exploration of sexual roles, Howards End has remarkable relevance to the present. Rather than arguing that Forster brings the novel's oppositions together to form an aesthetic whole and provide a satisfying political solution to the problems of his time, Duckworth values Howards End for its formal diversity, mu

164 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duckworth places Howards End in literary and historical context and outlines some of the critical responses to it from publication to 1992. He discusses the idea of a novel as "work" vs. "text," then Howards End's plot, setting, characters, dialogue, and narrators. Following Barthes, the novel is more interesting "as a text than as a work." I.e., a novel is no longer viewed "as a unique aesthetic product" but "as an assemblage of narrative structures already present in language or the literary tradition."

Some passages that enlightened me: Howards End "is not utopian: obviously preferring the liberal-progressive and humanitarian world of the Schlegel sisters to the utilitarian and social Darwinist world of the Wilcox men, it recognizes not only the relative powerlessness of benevolent intellectuals to effect social change, but also their financial complicity in the very system they critique."

"Forster's admonitory address to not one but two sorts of reader separates him from the high aesthetic modernism that descended from Flaubert and James. Their heirs were Conrad, Ford, the early Joyce, Woolf - authors who refined themselves out of existence while assiduously protecting the aesthetic autonomy of their novels."

"Margaret Schlegel is, in James's terms, a center of consciousness, but compared with, say, Lambert Strether in James's The Ambassadors (1903), she is not...the consistent filter of her author's views."

"Rather than hold novels against a standard in which fictional form and political vision coincide, it may be more useful to accept that all great novels are ideologically problematic, filled with discontinuities, false directions, and internal contradictions. Critics have realized this from the first publication of Howards End; like Widdowson, they have for the most part judged it a great novel. Why? Not because it achieves a coherent vision - it does not.....Howards End is a great novel for other reasons: it provides us with a detailed representation of a world in fragments as this world is experienced in domestic relations and contexts..."

[Sheila Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. I’ll come clean. I didn’t actually finish this book! Hahaha!
It was far above my intellectual powers. I think. I failed to understand the author’s methodology. Was he concerned with portraying real characters and real situations? Or were they merely the vehicle for him delivering a social lesson? Of course, it was both. But, do you know what? I CBA’d. Those characters were unappealing. It’s like going to a dinner party and having to get on with people you don’t know but happen to be sat next to. Is it worth expending the energy to get to know them? Is it ignorant just to not try because you already feel tired at your first fumbling attempts? Whatever. I gave up. I’m usually enough of a literary snob that I soldier on with difficult texts. But, face it, I’m getting too old for pretence! With the time allotted to me in this strangest of all dramas called ‘Life’ I will only read those books that grab me by the throat. Sorry to all those worthy authors that I am going to miss out on. Including you, Edward Morgan Forster II. A grave injustice. I’m the loser. Your reputation lives on.

[Kathy Wivell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a laborious read and I'm not sure how to rate it. Some of the passages use beautiful language but are far too long. All the characters are flawed and symbolic of a type, but not likeable. As a social commentary the book is maybe acceptable, but otherwise the plot is weak, the story slow moving and not enjoyable.