A Room with a View

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Summary: Do yourself a favor...
Review: ... and spend an afternoon reading A Room With A View. Wry, enthralling, funny, and charming, there aren't enough superlatives to describe my favorite of Forster's books. Granted, if you don't like English literature, you'll probably condition yourself into not liking it, but if you give A Room With A View a chance, you'll be surprised. Immensely readable and enjoyable social satire that's as fresh and funny today as when it was first written.

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Summary: Forster is excellent
Review: Although the book itself can be slow at times, Forster's style and language is always strong. Not the best book I have ever read, but well worth the relativly short time it will take you to read it.

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Summary: A delightful social satire.
Review: Concerning Lucy's passionate playing of Beethoven upon the piano, the Rev. Mr. Beebe once said, "If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting--both for us and for her." At the time of the remark, Lucy is a very conventional young woman, with perhaps occasional rebellious thoughts. The Emersons, father and son, are somehow not quite acceptable in her social circle, and though George is so bold as to kiss her impulsively, she is determined to forget him. Instead she finally gives in to the repeated proposals of Cecil Vyse, a thoroughly fashionable young gentleman, if not very exciting. So the stage is set for this splendid satire on the English social strata of the early part of the 20th century, a time when the formal structure of the Victorian era was beginning to fray at the edges. Vyse is a delightfully drawn male chauvinist prig; nobody likes him, but everyone is willing to accept him, and Lucy convinces herself that she is in love with him. However, Vyse's own penchant for getting his way by playing rather cruel practical jokes brings the Emersons back into the picture. Confronted by the contrast between the not quite classy but intelligent, thoughtful (and bold) George Emerson and the arrogant, boorish, but elite Cecil Vyse, Lucy finally decides to live as she plays Beethoven, with exciting results. This early work of Forster's is a pure delight, with a light and well-controlled tone throughout. Although there would be a danger of stereotyping to illustrate the different social classes, Forster skillfully makes the characters well rounded and unpredictable, as in the scene when Lucy breaks her engagement to Vyse, expecting his feelings of masculine superiority to precipitate an argument, but instead being somewhat dismayed when he behaves as a perfect gentleman. Although HOWARDS END is usually rated above A ROOM WITH A VIEW, I prefer this slighter, but consummately well-done, novel.

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Summary: A true great
Review: What can I say that hasn't already been said by the other reviewers? This book is tremendously entertaining, the characters are developed wonderfully and there are even moments in the book when I found myself laughing out loud. Do yourself a favor and read it.

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Summary: A classic piece of British Literature
Review: British writer Forster writes a romantic love story which takes place in England at the turn of the century. Young Lucy, is engaged to Cecil, a man of her class and social level. However, her views of the world changes drastically when she takes a trip to Florence, Italy and meets George.

George and his father are rumored to be socialists and free thinkers. They quickly prove they have a tongue. George and Lucy have many interactions. First, they exchange rooms on account that Lucy's view is not what she wanted. He also helps her home after Lucy sees a bloody fight in the town's square. They also take an excursion to see a beautiful valley, where George makes his intentions known that he appreciates Lucy.

When Lucy returns to England, George once again is put in her midst. With George's influence, Lucy begins to see that Cecil is stifling her. Challenging her Victorian principles, she must decide between the free willed George or the controlling Cecil.

I enjoyed the book a great deal. It reminded me of a British version of a Sinclair Lewis novel where Lucy must challenge her societal roles. There is also a hint of women's liberation in the book as well. The idea is similar to Lewis's "Main Street". However, I did find the book challenging to read; I am not a big reader of British literature and I found the wording a little clumsy and hard to follow. None the less, it was a good read and the ideas that Forster conveyed make this one a classic piece of British literature.

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Summary: Very entertaining
Review: I have long been a fan of Jane Austen and have become so spoiled by her wonderful writing and complex yet perfect sentences that I seldom find anything enjoyable by comparison. However, "A Room with a View" was one of the most wonderful non-Austen books I have ever read. I laughed out loud many times at the way Forster worded things, especially the chapter titles (eg. "How Ms. Bartlett's Boiler was so Tiresome"). At the beginning, he seemed to be making fun of his characters - at their simple-mindedness and lack of depth - but then he commenced to transform them (mainly Lucy) and make them into wonderfully admirable people. It seemed that justice was served to Cecil when he served as the means through which Lucy and George were finally united. I enjoyed every minute of this book but would recommend it only to those who would appreciate it and who would be reading it by choice.

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Summary: For lovers and those of 'Romantic' Italian sensibility
Review: 'Everyone' has seen the movie (possibly several times) and enjoyed the beauty of the Tuscan landscape. This is an extremely witty book that examines the social mores of the English villagers of their class and time. It's not actually a long way between this and Joanna Trollope. It's a type of literature the English have been doing superbly for, well, centuries. This is not a hard book to read. It has nicely observed things to say about class attitudes, but is not particularly profound or deep. Just enjoyable.

Younger readers might find it hard, especially if they have not had experience of the type of social structures and attitudes depicted. It will help you to understand about other places and times. All that is important for helping to understand where we are now.

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Summary: zzzzzzzzzzzz.........
Review: maybe i could have enjoyed this book if i could have understood. i'm a high school freshmen in honor's english and i was forced to pick out a classic novel to do a critique on. unfortunatly, i read peoples reviews on this book and it sounded good. don't get caught up in the web of boring-ness. maybe if you're an english scholar you're understand this book, but being just a normal teenager, i sure didn't. i found myself falling asleep many times while reading this book, so i was forced to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks and snack on a variety of candies just to stay consious. take my advice and do yourself a favor, READ SOMETHING ELSE.

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Summary: Wonderfully Engaging
Review: I'm embarrassed to say that I had avoided Forster's work because I had wrongly assumed that, given the time in which he was writing (early 20th century), his fiction would surely be stuffy, dry and dull. I was completely wrong. In fact, this short novel's charm stems from it's casual, leisurely pace and the surprisingly winning chances it takes in terms of style (the chapter titles, Forster's penchant to pause the action and speak directly to the reader).

Others have noted disatisfaction with the ending. I partially agree. I think the conclusion does wrap up things a little too neatly. But since this is an early Forster effort, it's understandable that he hadn't quite discovered how to end a novel with a bit more complexity. On the other hand, I cannot help but read A Room With a View through the lens of the classical definition of Comedy (which is the antithesis of Tragedy) where we are given a situation that begins with harmony/order and slowly slips in to crisis/chaos, only to surface in again, in the end, in a state of general cheer. And if one compares A Room With a View to, say, the Comedies of Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing, for instance), I think that Forster was very much trying his hand at novelistic Comedy: the foreign setting, a quirky cast of loveable (yet somewhat typecast) characters, chapters that function as Acts, and a somewhat formulaic (yet Classical) plot structure. I heartily recommend this slim wonderful novel.

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Summary: A Beautiful Analytic Novel
Review: E. M. Forster's "A Room with a View" can certainly be taken as little else than a charming and amusing Eduardian love story. But to do so is to belittle the true grace and beauty of this stunning piece of literature. Like so many of Forster's works (indeed, like so many of his contemporaries), "A Room with a View" is about grappling with the infinite in a world so seemingly, "flat, stale and unprofitable." Through the medium of a story, Forster brings to light the heroine's own internal struggle from childishness, to mindless conformity ("the ranks of the benighted"), to a sort of "awakening." In short, Lucy Honeychurch's own journey is parallel to the historical changes in mindset that have formed our modern restless society. The book is rife with meaning and symbol, found in action as well as chapter titles. The language is beautiful, the characters charmingly (and sometimes sardonically) drawn, and the sense of place outstanding. "A Room with a View" is an excellent starting place for those interested in reading the works of Forster, both because of its brevity and also because of its historical youthfulness (his first novel). Although I felt the ending lacked in explanatory action, and I was not wholly satisfied with its philosophical conclusion, "A Room with a View" is doubtless an excellent piece of literature that works on several levels. Lovers and scholars of the various liberal arts would do very well to read this, as well as lovers of Eduardian and modern British novels.