THE COMPLETE WORKS OF E. M. FORSTER

by E.M. Forster

EXCELLENT CLASSIC LITERATURE BOOK, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Collections, Romance, Ebooks

Kindle Edition

First published July 13, 2011

About the author

Edward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect".

He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.

Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.

Reviews

[Markus]

A wonderful author, I loved all his books and would surely re-read any of them with pleasure.

[Amy Stapleton]

Haven't actually gotten through all the novels, but finished Room with a View. I found it to be a very enjoyable read, despite the fact that really not much happens. If you read the synopsis you'd think the story has got to be stuffy and boring. But there's a real flair for character observation on the part of omniscient narrator. If I had to classify the narrator's persona, it would be a skeptic of the individual, but an optimist of human kind as a whole. The only suspense in the whole book concerns what will happen to Lucy. But she's such an interesting character, at such a vulnerable and pivotal point in her life, that we can't help but wonder which road she'll take. I really appreciate the fact that even the "villains" in the story are given deeper and better selves, and nobody comes off looking really bad. There's hope for all of us, it seems!

[Dave]

“Angels…” is marvelous; “A Room…” almost bests the famous film adaptation and the others are pretty entertaining, with the exception of “The Longest Journey,” which seemed a bit tedious and overwrought. “The Road to Colonus” perhaps in it’s brevity, provides a sweet, ironic ‘bookend’ to the collection. Forster’s fame is shown here to be deserved and hard-won.

[T.]

I reviewed each of the novels individually; the collection included short stories, most of which were supernatural, and not as good as the novels.

[Mark Tedesco]

Love his full length novels. His short stories are a mixed bag; some I liked, others left me scratching my head.

[Jaq]

Some very good stories, that have stood the test of time.

[Marcus]

I attained this collection mainly because of The Machine Stops which one of my absolute favourites & is a timeless warning about humanity’s relationship with technology. The other short stories were not as good though one about people racing each was an interesting allegory.