A Room with a View

Rating:
Summary: Confused Heroine
Review: Though a romantic story with good character development and scene painting, it can be difficult to enjoy if the main character is inconsistent throughout. Lucy is a reckless person who cannot make up her mind about anything. She admires George, but commits to marry Cecil. She rejects Cecil because she adopts George's assessment of Cecil's character. She will not marry George the Truthful because he does not fit Cecil's standard of propriety (though the author does not quite tell us that). She is indecisive and is making everyone miserable, when finally some odd man with absurd philosophies pushes her to make a decision which, our author tries to convince us, was the correct one. Should you disagree that he has a message in this story, just read some of the other reviewers.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular Reading by Joanna David
Review: It's hard to know which to praise more, E. M. Forester's witty comedy of manners, or Joanna David's nuanced and entertaining reading of the book. Clearly, the combination of the two is that rare marriage of great writing brought to life by a talented actress. If you only listen to one audio CD this year, you would do well to make it this one.

Forester writes about an England that is long gone . . . but not forgotten. The middle class has its wits and its respectability to defend itself from the vagaries of a challenging world. Naturally, the middle class prefers its own company and so-called manners are merely an excuse to keep everyone else at bay. The absurdity of this way of living is highlighted when Forester takes a young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch (don't you love that name?), off for a trip to Florence in the company of her maiden cousin, Charlotte, who also serves as chaperone.

A variety of English tourists are gathered in a small Italian pensione in Florence when Lucy and Charlotte arrive. Both women had asked for and been promised rooms with a view. Upon arrival, they got just the opposite. Complaining over dinner about this, two men, a father and his son, immediately offer to exchange rooms. This offer breaks most rules of good manners at the time, and the women turn down the kind, well-intentioned offer. Thus far can manners cause one to go against one's best interests. During their time in Florence, the women find themselves confounded and redirected by the honest helpfulness of the Emerson men. But the familiarity raises dangerous challenges for Lucy, and she flees their company.

The rest of the story looks at the consequences of the flight and focuses on Lucy's attempts to find a way of life that makes sense for her . . . rather than being a slave to social convention.

Describing the story's plot doesn't do justice to the witty satires and ironic comments about the pompously respectable. It's a delicious romp, and Ms. David makes it all the more so.

If you are like me, you'll find yourself racing to the end to find out what Lucy does with herself.

Rating:
Summary: Live like Beethoven
Review: A witty comedy with literature beauty which is expressed through the clever exchanges, personal thoughts and philosophic lines (but not causing your temple to creased). Lucy Honeychurch, a young girl from a bourgeois middle-up class, decided to look at the world by visiting Florence in spring time, chaperoned by her elder cousin, Miss Charlotte Bartlett. What was started by an argument about a room with a view developed into an impulsive kiss from George Emerson amid the violets thus ended the Florence period in a flight to Rome, away from the 'bold' suitor.

Now, George Emerson was not a brackish bold person. He was just a passionate one, who had deep feelings about anything and was in a distress mood over 'everything doesn't fit' and there was no reason for him to enjoy life, though he didn't intend to commit suicide. While his father is an outright-spoken person which didn't fit nicely with English stiff etiquette style. Together, they were misfits among English tourists in Florence's Bertolini Pension. But a murder scene just took place right before Lucy's eyes and George, coincidentally, was able to help her away from the mass. From then on, his dour view of the world was changed and he discovered the wanting to live his life and Lucy found some extend of the deep emotion of a George Emerson.

His impulse to kiss Lucy is understandable for a passionate guy, who was unprepared, caught the most beautiful sight of a lovely Lucy, who had revived him, among the violet blooming on the hill where you can have the best view of Florence. But unfortunately, the kiss was also seen by Miss Bartlett and that certainly put a chaos feeling to Lucy. Being forbidden to tell the accident to her mother or anyone else and fled to Rome the very next day, she did not have time to think her feeling over and quickly countered and proposed by Cecil Vyse, the son of her mother high society acquaintance in Rome.

The uncertainty, self-denial and buried feeling masked all her actions. The frivolity and passionate spirit that loved the Beethoven music just went under beneath the hypocrisy of 'clever' society standard. Would she discover her true self and feeling at the right time? Or should George go back to his previous gloomy state? What would the so called clever society think?

Find the funny but thoughtful lines in between and be invigorated by Beethoven!

Rating:
Summary: Ridiculously Inspiring
Review: A Room with a View revolves around a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, who lives in England. The story is about the daily life of Lucy and her family and the few adventures Lucy partakes in, some with acquaintances which she meets on a few month excursion. She takes a trip to Florence, Italy to discover a cultural world outside of England, but instead, discovers a new side of her self that, when she returns home, she misses and finds herself wanting to revisit. Lucy encounters many new things and unorthodox people in Italy whom she tries to understand and finds she cannot. A startling romantic incident during her trip causes Lucy to become puzzled and contemplative. When she returns home, she is immediately engaged to a family friend, Cecil Vyse, who is a young man who disapproves of her family yet seems to think she is quite appealing. Soon, though, some individuals, out of complete chance, come to live on Summer Street, near her home, and soon the enigmatic emotions she experienced on her summer vacation are back to haunt her. Lucy has a choice to make which consumes her and makes her seem very troubled to her family. A Room with a View is considering a comedy because it's numerous satirical suggestions towards society and it's quirky, but well developed, characters. It is a short, refreshing read which has an easy-to-follow plot, and yet incorporates philosophical and symbolic views of the lives of the characters. Many people can enjoy this novella, and even might find the author's expansive and comedic vocabulary entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: This Book Wouldn't Be Published Today
Review: This is another one of those so called "classics" that continue to be overrated based on the fact that they are "classics." Not to be confused with more deserving titles that make one wonder how a body of work can sound so fresh and accomplished after 50, 100, 200 + years, this particular work should be put on the bookshelf along with Count of Monte Cristo, Tarzan, The Lost World, etc. that are written by famous and gifted writers but in their off days, or off years for that matter.
This book is difficult to get into and that is the beginning and the end of it. This is literature not a scientific endevour.
If the manuscript were submitted for publication today, it would either not see the light of day or first get edited into shape and out of recognition. Story is good. Storytelling needed much better effort.

Rating:
Summary: A little corny slice of Italy
Review: A Room with a View is the classic love story. The woman falls in love with one man then gets torn apart from him. Months later she meets a new guy and sadly accepts his proposal to marry him even though she has feelings for the other man but knows she will never see him again. Then to throw in the climax he comes back they fall in love again, she breaks off the engagement with the other man and they go off and live happily ever after. I think this story is a little too corny for me. You can tell what is going to happen in the novel before it ever does. There aren't very many surprises in the novel and I think that is where I lost interest in the book. It is full of love, adventure and drama. Overall it has a good plot line and if you love traveling and Italy you will love this novel.