A Room with a View

by Hilary Maxwell-Hyslop (Adapter), E.M. Forster

Book by Forster, E. M.

Genres: Classics

102 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1908

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

the plot was alright , but all the talk of Charlotte was annoying, the mother was annoying , and I personally felt the chapters were longer than necessary at times and the point was put across so was a bit long winded especially towards the end going on about greece

[Ioan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed feelings; overall I’d say positive. It made its point well in the beginning, strong anti conformist and anti snobbish. My main grievance was that none of the characters were likeable, except perhaps Freddy; though in some ways this was a strength as even though one of the characters were being a right nob you could see how they were a product of their surroundings and not condemn them completely. It was one of those novels in which at times I feel as though some parts were unnecessary and at others it felt as if things had been omitted. The appendix at the back was vexing and shouldn’t have been added.
There was one chapter in the novel which I found completely hysterical and with more fun moments like it, his belief, to someone (like me) who misses some of the finer elusions and extended metaphors, in the need for passion and truth would be all the more apparent, because when it comes down to it, that’s what the novel seems to be primarily about.

[Jungwan Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel “A Room with a View” is my third romantic novel in English. This made me illustrate beautiful views about the scenery and their love. The heroin Lucy Honeychurch traveled to Italy with her cousin Charlotte. When they were disappointed with their room which view was not good, Mr. Emerson and his son George who had a bad reputation in British society gave their room that had a good view to Lucy and charlotte. After then, Lucy got to like George unconsciously while she underwent some incidents. However, her cousin Charlotte disliked him because she was typically conservative. Therefore, Charlotte brought Lucy home. Lucy also felt love with George, but she could not break her British sense. Lucy who came back home got engaged to Cecil who was also conservative like Charlotte. When Lucy had a mental conflict about love and marriage with Cecil, George moved next her house, and then, George made her awake to her real mind and love. Eventually, Lucy and George got married.
When I read stories that Lucy and George were getting to become close and to be interested in each other, I reminded my experiences. When I started to feel my love to my ex-boyfriend before, I did not know even if I like him. He might also not know about it. We just spent a time together and got to know each other before we recognize to love. When Lucy fainted from seeing a cruel fighting scene, George took care of her. It was very similar with my experience. When I went to theater with my ex-boyfriend before we were boyfriend and girlfriend, I felt on the stair. At that time he took care of me until the movie finished, and I went home. He bought medicine and put it on my ankle. In addition, when I walked hardly, he gave his arm to me. After that event, I got to more like him. Therefore, I could empathize with Lucy and George’s emotions. However, I could understand Lucy’s conflict. Although she got to know becoming to love him, she conflicted herself. I was curious what made her hesitated. When he came to her, she did not like him. I was sorry about it. I wanted they got together fast. Besides, I was worry about her decision to break the engagement. I am also little conservative. I thought she should have decided the engagement carefully. I could feel she did not love Cecil when they got engaged. I was not a right choice.
Nevertheless, I could understand Lucy’s mind that chose Cecil to be a husband. I felt I am getting an old woman that considers person’s background or reputation. Before, I had never thought about my future husband’s background such as a career, a salary, an education, etc. however, I consider little what he does, how much he has studied, how much he is intelligent. I thought Lucy might have conflict about it when she decided to engage to Cecil. However, I could also feel her decision was wrong. An engagement and a marriage are very important event in life; therefore, it must be decided very carefully. A husband and a wife are a life companion. It is not only the background, but the personality and emotional connecting also very important to have a life relationship. In a view of a background, Cecil might be a good person, but he was not a life companion to Lucy. If she married him, her life would be lonely. I think my age is the age to marry, so this novel was not just a romantic novel to me. I could empathize with her circumstance and emotion. In addition, I could learn 18th~19th centuries’ aspects of the British’s lives and thoughts. Most interesting thing is this novel’s ending. I like happy-ending of a romantic novel. I was happy they got married. That’s why I like a classic romantic novel. I should recommend this to my friends who do not find any person who they love yet.

[Olivia kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

In short, this book illustrated that one middle class English lady named Lucy trabled Italy, and then she started to look at herself and the world around her with her passion. In addition, she finally found real love.

I felt this book was lack of something. The description about the flow of her changing mind was short of details. I could not sympathize with Lucy and with the reason why she left her fiance. Although the up and down of her feelings was the important motive for this book, i could not keep my eyes on her because her feelings were illustrated very mild in this book. Maybe this book has just 99 pages, so a good many details had to be omitted or reduced;therefore,it lost passion and exiting.

I cannot agree that women's happiness are achieved by marrying men. Lucy got married her real love in the end. This was what Lucy got finally after realizing her passion and the real world. Just marriage!! She could be something else instead of being a wife if she was reborn. This is the limitation of the literatures at that time,20th.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Forster explores, in a very simple and brief way, what it means to conform to society versus be true to one's own self.