Howards End

Edward Morgan Forster

Jan 1921 · A. A. Knopf

About this eBook

Howards End is a tale of two very different families brought together by an unusual event. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic, leading lives of "telegrams and anger." When the elder Mrs. Wilcox dies and her family discovers she has left their country home-Howards End-to one of the Schlegel sisters, a crisis between the two families is precipitated that takes years to resolve. Written in 1910, Howards End is a symbolic exploration of the social, economic, and intellectual forces at work in England in the years preceding World War I, a time when vast social changes were occurring. The Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, embodies the competing idealism and materialism of the upper classes, while the conflict over the ownership of Howards End represents the struggle for possession of the country's future.

Ratings and reviews

Novel by E. Morgan Forster (British), published in 1910. This gBook is scanned from 1921 printed book, A. A. Knopf, New York. A modern classic, it presents in historical time & place (London & environs, 1906-10) the fictional lives and interrelationships of two bourgeois families. Humane, incisive descriptions & commentary on contrasting social manners & values in the urbanizing world just before the Great War; a thematic focus is on the conception of rootedness in sense of place throughout people's lives.

How anyone could possibly enjoy this insane babble is beyond my understanding. Looks like it was written by a half wit for others of the same disfunction. I made it through the first 2 chapters. A stiff drink will do me some good.

I love how well the book describes not only the state of society circa 1900, but intimates how even the calmest people of the time knew it needed to improve. Throughout the book, Reason in the form of Margaret is searching for a way to explain how things need to hold the past while reaching to a kinder future.