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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780486424545
ISBN: 0486424545
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2002-10-29
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications

Margaret Schlegel, engaged to the much older, widowed Henry Wilcox, meets her intended the morning after accepting his proposal and realizes that he is a man who has lived without introspection or true self-knowledge. As she contemplates the state of Wilcox's soul, her remedy for what ails him has become one of the most oft-quoted passages in literature:

Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.

Like all of Forster's work, Howards End concerns itself with class, nationality, economic status, and how each of these affects personal relationships. It follows the intertwined fortunes of the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and the Wilcox family over the course of several years. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes, on the other hand, can't be bothered with the life of the mind or the heart, leading, instead, outer lives of "telegrams and anger" that foster "such virtues as neatness, decision, and obedience, virtues of the second rank, no doubt, but they have formed our civilization." Helen, after a brief flirtation with one of the Wilcox sons, has developed an antipathy for the family; Margaret, however, forms a brief but intense friendship with Mrs. Wilcox, which is cut short by the older woman's death. When her family discovers a scrap of paper requesting that Henry give their home, Howards End, to Margaret, it precipitates a spiritual crisis among them that will take years to resolve.

Forster's 1910 novel begins as a collection of seemingly unrelated events--Helen's impulsive engagement to Paul Wilcox; a chance meeting between the Schlegel sisters and an impoverished clerk named Leonard Bast at a concert; a casual conversation between the sisters and Henry Wilcox in London one night. But as it moves along, these disparate threads gradually knit into a tightly woven fabric of tragic misunderstandings, impulsive actions, and irreparable consequences, and, eventually, connection. Though set in the early years of the 20th century, Howards End seems even more suited to our own fragmented era of e-mails and anger. For readers living in such an age, the exhortation to "only connect" resonates ever more profoundly. --Alix Wilber

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Forced
Review: If you read this novel on your own (as in, it is not assigned to you as a form of assigned reading in school) then you will enjoy it because you obviously know what you're getting yourself into: whimsical dialogue between gossiping British ladies. I do realize how ridiculous and inaccurate this description is but I'm mad because I have been forced to read this book for school and I really hate it so therefore my opinion of it is very negative. Teachers should not force these types of books upon their students. The rate of enjoyment for this book is very limited to those who either teach English or have a keen interest in it. Very few students will be able to appreciate and enjoy this novel for its merits, of which I'm sure there are many.

I do not expect this review to be helpful to anyone who is looking at this book as a means of pleasure reading.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Brilliant, epic depiction of English society before World War I
Review: It's hard to say enough about this book. Forster's novel about the tortured relations between three families and the struggle for ownership of a house is a fundamental tale -- maybe THE fundamental tale -- of class relations in England before the First World War.

The basic plot is so well known, there is no point in repeating it here. But the book is incredibly rich. Forster's depiction of the arriviste commercial bourgeoisie, the monied intelligentsia, and the threatened lower class is incredibly insightful. The manner in which he details their lives, loves, socialization, aspirations, and mentalities tells us more than any traditional history book could.

The writing is lithe and even comical. Forster's witty asides and factual embellishments impress and enhance the text rather than distract from it. It is a brilliant book, both in content and style. It is a must-read for any lover of English literature or history.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Who Will Inherit England?
Review: Born in 1879 England, E.M. Forster attended King's College at Cambridge; thereafter his family fortune enabled him to live as please. He traveled extensively; dabbled in the celebrated Bloomsbury Group, which included the celebrated Virginia Woolf; and strove to conceal his homosexuality from the general public until his death in 1970. Although he was widely read during his lifetime, a series of films based on his novels prompted a major re-evaluation of his work during the 1980s and 1990s, and he is now considered among the finest English prose stylists of the early 20th Century.

Written in 1910, HOWARDS END is the fifth of six novels Forster wrote, and like most of his work it focuses on issues of social class. In this instance, the action of the novel centers on the house Howards End and the three families who swirl through it. The house itself is owned by Ruth Wilcox, the wife and mother of a highly conventional, conservative family. Upon her death, she wills the house not to her family, which she feels will not appreciate it, but to friend Margaret Schlegel. Ruth's husband destroys her will and conceals the legacy from Margaret--but in an ironic turn of events falls in love with and marries her.

The story itself revolves around Margaret Schlegel and her sister Helen. Half-German, well educated, and more independent in thought and manner than most Englishwomen of their era, the sisters also become friendly with bank clerk Leonard Bast. In their efforts to assist him, however, they become leading figures in a scandal that threatens the Wilcox family as a whole. Throughout the novel ownership of the house, and the lies and hypocrisy used to retain it, becomes a symbol of class struggle as those who have power and status (the Wilcoxes) seek to retain it and those who do not (the Basts) seek to obtain it.

Forster is indeed a great stylist, and although the novel is indeed famous for its themes and symbolism he never places them above story or characterization. He possesses both the gift of straight-forward narrative and delicate touch, and the result is a perfect balance, a pure pleasure to read from start to finish. Although HOWARDS END is not as widely read as A PASSAGE TO INDIA, it certainly deserves to be. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Still laughing at the negative voter

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Women have rights
Review: This book is a confused woman's rights saga.
Personally, it is somewhat repulsive in
it's Victorian and anachronistic point of view.
It most reminds me of Jane Austin in it's treatment
of social situations and romance.
I don't think it is a good idea to encourage
either this or August Strindberg's attitudes toward women.
We need a better approach.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Great literature
Review: A true classic! Irony comes in double helpings here, as Forster presents many themes of opposites, such as city vs. country.

Highly recommended.

James Conroyd Martin, author of PUSH NOT THE RIVER and AGAINST A CRIMSON SKY Push Not the River

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