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Howards End Kindle Edition

by E. M. Forster (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 4,230 ratings

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"Howards End" is E. M. Forster's classic story of the varying struggles of members of different strata of the English middle class. The story centers around three families; the Wilcoxes, who made their fortune in the American colonies; the Schlegels, three siblings who represent the intellectual bourgeoisie; and the Basts, a young struggling lower middle-class couple. "Howards End", one of Forster's greatest works, is a classic dramatization of the differences in life amongst the English middle class.

ISBN-13

978-1420929171
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Digireads.com Publishing
Publication date

March 31, 2004
Language

English
File size

795 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000FC1DQS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Digireads.com Publishing (March 31, 2004)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 31, 2004
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 795 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 194 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #680,742 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #7,492 in Fiction Classics
- #20,651 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #131,409 in Literature & Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 4,230 ratings

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E. M. Forster
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Aran Joseph Canes

A Shift in the Collective Moral Perspective

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2022

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E.M. Forster’s novels epitomize the values of the Bloomsbury set to which he belonged. Howard’s End wittingly satires the highly class conscious world of Edwardian England. A Room With a View portrays the vapidity of the arranged marriages of his day and makes a convincing case for matrimony based only on romantic love.

Influenced by the Cambridge philosopher G.E. Moore, who thought that the good could only be intuited instead of reasoned to, the Bloomsbury authors helped accomplish a revolution in morals which is ongoing. Instead of stemming from an ancient text, or derived from reflection on the correct behavior for the rational animal, Forster pens an articulate appeal for sensitivity to the needs of every person, the goodness of the human body and a strong aversion to moral judgment.

Thus, the Wilcoxes of Howard’s End orate proudly on the just desserts of their labor but blithely ignore their dying matriarch’s request to bequeath her house to someone outside the family. Mr. Wilcox is forgiven for an affair conducted with an orphaned teen, but refuses to house his sister-in-law who is pregnant out of wedlock. Throughout, upper class suitors are generally shown to be stuffy, self-obsessed and unfeeling towards the women they desire.

But it is no longer the early 20th century and we can now see the results of the experiment in Bloomsbury ethics. We’ve supposedly ended loveless marriages but instead have children growing up without the stable family structure they so strongly desire. The classes are thankfully less like a caste structure, but we’ve found other affiliations, like political party, on which to divide our communities. And while the body is certainly a good, it doesn’t take the recognition that many body images have to be photoshopped to realize that something is out of sorts with our obsession around the body.

I don’t feel a need to impose my philosophy on anyone, but I do think that we can use reason to establish virtues, norms and guides that transcend cultures and go beyond the simple ethic of good-heartedness and no personal judgment. But if you want to trace this source of modern mores, E.M. Forster’s early 20th century novels are perhaps the best place to start. Not only enjoyable, they subtly set about revolutionizing the world and thus they’re essential just for understanding ourselves. Highly recommended.

12 people found this helpful

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Elizabeth May

Six stars!

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2023

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This is a must-read classic of English literature. I was truly captivated. The story, revolving around the interconnected lives of three families in early 20th-century Britain, beautifully delves into themes of class, love, and societal change. What I particularly loved was Forster's skill in portraying rich and complex characters, making me reflect on the importance of understanding and empathy. The central theme of connection resonated with me, making it not just a historical commentary but a timeless tale. It's a thought-provoking read that I'd highly recommend.

4 people found this helpful

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BobH

DON'T MISS THIS POWERFULLY MOVING AND BEAUTIFUL NOVEL !

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2021

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What can I possibly say about this beautiful and moving masterpiece that hasn't already been said?

In its richly-woven universe it fully encompasses beauty and adventure; understanding and forgiveness; picking up the pieces and making a place of our own; striving to live a generous, poetic and heroic life amid mental hardness and stilted propriety; the ultimate meanings of the varieties of love, death and family ties....

But above all and everything, it is about sympathetic human connection (and the tragic consequences of its failure).

As the two-word preamble to the title page warns us: 'Only connect...'

Perhaps at the book's core is the searching for - and finding - Home (and all that that most beautiful of words implies). And the numerous houses in this lovely novel - whether in the city or the country - play their unavoidable and strongly salient part in the unfolding flesh and blood dramas... with the powerful presence and allure of one particular House above all others....

"IT IS THOSE THAT CANNOT CONNECT WHO HASTEN TO CAST THE FIRST STONE." (page 326)
~~~~~~
This well-made hardcover Everyman's Library (Alfred A. Knopf) edition is the one to get.

6 people found this helpful

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Sirius

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2013

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Friend told me that Forster's writing style reminded her of Chechov's works. We both grew up with Russian classics and I had to try this one - I know it is a famous work, but I will probably never catch up with all "cultural gaps" I still have in English written literature. Actually, I have read one work by this author - "Maurice", so I was somewhat familiar with his writing, but nothing else. I loved it - I read a lot of genre fiction and mostly review romance books, but I had to say at least something about this one. Yes, it did remind me of Chechov a lot and mostly because author's look at his characters was so very sympathetic no matter how unsympathetic these people could act. It is a realistic book, that's pretty much sums it up in my opinion. Yes, it is also a portrayal of British culture at that time, but I did not grew up in that culture, so I cannot say how well it was done, I just enjoyed very well written story which felt like real life, but made sense.

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Hélène V.

Prix raisonnable et service rapide.

Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2022

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J'ai obtenu le format de livre que je recherchais, soit un livre à couverture souple, mais d'un format un peu plus grand qu'un livre de poche. De plus il a été livré très rapidement.

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Antenna

Accepting our differences

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2023

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In what was to prove the end of an idyllic period for the leisured English middle classes just before the outbreak of World War One, E. M. Forster captures the tensions and lack of “meeting of minds” between two middle class families with very different roots and attitudes: the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes. The intellectual Schlegels get away with appearing a bit unorthodox since they are half-German, that is “foreigners”. They are idealistic within their cocoon of privilege, living comfortably on inherited money. The much wealthier, pragmatic, materialistic Wilcoxes have built a fortune “in trade” and have no compunction about “keeping the workers in their place”. As Henry Wilcox observes,
“You do admit that, if wealth was divided up equally, in a few years…the hard-working man would come to the top, the wastrel sink to the bottom”.

Through a fateful meeting of the Schlegel siblings with the bookish, music-loving clerk Leonard Bast, Forster portrays the rigid class divide of the early 1900s. Too poor even to afford a decent umbrella, too decent to abandon the ageing, former prostitute lover who has latched on to him, unable to regain a foothold on the ladder of respectability when he loses his job through no fault of his own, it proves too hard for him to win acceptance and pursue his interests.

Howards End seems an unlikely place for the Wilcoxes to live, being a somewhat unfashionable place in the depths of the countryside, based on Forster’s own childhood home, “Rooks Nest House”. It turns out that this belongs to Mrs Wilcox, a rather unsatisfactorily vague, two-dimensional character, dismissed as “uninteresting” by Margaret Schlegel’s chatterati friends. She exerts a calming influence on her family, but is not the woman one would expect Mr. Wilcox to have chosen for a wife. It seems that she is the “guardian” of a house which is the almost mystical symbol of an idealised way of English life that is fast disappearing at the turn of the C19 century. Knowing that she is terminally ill, she appears to hold, but never clearly expresses, the belief that Margaret Schlegel is more suited to own the house than the soulless, capitalist family into which Mrs Wilcox has married. The implications of her decision form an important part of the plot.

It may be surprising that, when widowed, the patriarch Mr. Wilcox falls for Margaret, the plain, serious-minded elder sister who has devoted herself to her orphaned siblings to the point of risking becoming an old maid. It is understandable that she seeks “a real man” in the form of Mr Wilcox, even though the two are clearly fundamentally different in their attitude to life.

The main characters, at least on the “middle class” side, are well developed. Margaret’s younger sister Helen, impetuous with a hint of instability, plays the role of the character prepared to challenge the system, but ill-equipped to cope unaided when “it comes to the crunch”. Brother Tibby provides a further contrast as the hypochondriac, wimpish bookworm cosseted by his sisters, who do not seem to resent the fact that, being the male child, he is the one to go Oxford.

Written at the end of a prolonged period of social stability and convention, but foreshadowing some dramatic changes, this stands out as one of the first “modern” novels, quite radical and original in certain respects. The story proceeds with some unexpectedly humorous moments and a sense of real connection between the characters in the form of conversations to which one can relate. Forster focuses on the relevant scenes, confidently omitting any superfluous “linking” chapters. Perhaps he can be forgiven for drifting occasionally into overblown Victorian-style philosophising.

This is an engaging family drama, with some profound insights which repay rereading. It can be read at two levels: either an Edwardian soap opera, or a quite complex amalgam of Forster’s deep reflections on the nature and future of English society, the differences between people and the ultimate need for tolerance. Although the characters may be a little wiser at the end, the wry truth remains that in any crisis the poor and the underdogs will tend to be the ones who lose out, but hints of the approaching war suggest that the escapist paradise of Howard’s End may not last.

One person found this helpful

Som

Loved it !

Reviewed in India on March 5, 2022

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The story is great. The narration is superb. Loved the prose. Its lyrical and lucid. Pick it up and read.

Also have to mention, I searched the book. It was on the BBC list or something. All I did was searched for the best of English novels and this title intrigued me.

Such a page turner, a riveting story. You'll have lots as takeaway.

One person found this helpful

Otto

Un ritratto delle classi della società inglese dell'inizio del Novecento

Reviewed in Italy on July 13, 2020

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Non avevo mai acquistato queste edizioni, ma devo dire che sono rimasta soddisfatta!
La copertina è plastificata e le pagine sono di buona qualità anche se non ho apprezzato molto la presenza della linea che separa il titolo del libro dal corpo del testo, ma è un gusto estetico personale. La storia è molto bella, perché racconta dell'incontro tra classi differenti con le loro divergenze e battaglie personali. Consigliatissimo!