Howards End by E. M. Forster

Howards End by E. M. Forster

Publisher: MT Publishing Co. (2010)

339 pages, eBook (Purchased Myself for $0.99)

Book Rating: 4 Stars

Content Ratings:

Violence: Mild-Moderate-Brutal

Swearing: Clean-Light-Filthy

Sexual Content: White-Pink-Red

(Sexual Topics are at times vaguely implied)

Summary:

Two artsy and philosophically inclined sisters, Margaret and Helen, met the Wilcox family while on holiday, and despite the unlikely connection of their dissimilar families, they keep meeting up with one another and find themselves becoming more permanently connected as time goes on, though a chance meeting with a poor clerk named Mr. Bast throughs a wrench in it all.

My Thoughts:

The contrast between the artistically inclined Schlegel family and the very practical and business-minded Wilcoxes permeate the book. Then there is poor Mr. Bast, wanting so badly to educate himself and attain all that he thinks that entails, while completely without the means of doing it, and the Schlegels wanting to help him in his education, but not knowing how to go about it. A great study of people, their actions and their intentions, as well as the things done that they wish they hadn’t done, as well as the particular endearing quality that certain places and/or houses have for some people. I’ve seen the movie many times, and always wanted to read the book. I’m so glad I did.

Edition Notes:

This Classic Literature ebook edition is a perfectly adequate reading copy and very reasonably priced. It contains only the text itself, with no introduction and no appendix of extra materials. This edition did contain a few editorial mistakes (misspellings and such), but it was still very readable and I wasn’t overly troubled by it. For the price, a good reading copy.

Quotes:

“It isn’t going to be what we expected. It is old and little, and altogether delightful—red brick.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—life is sometimes life and sometimes only a drama, and one must learn to distinguish tother from which—“-E. M. Forster, Howards End

“What’s an engagement made of, do you suppose? I think it’s made of some hard stuff that may snap, but can’t break. It is different to the other ties in life. They stretch or bend. They admit of degree. They’re different.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“To trust people is a luxury in which only the wealthy can indulge; the poor cannot afford it.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“There had always been something to worry him ever since he could remember, always something that distracted him in the pursuit of beauty.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“It’s better to be fooled than to be suspicious—that the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want—of—confidence trick is the work of the devil.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“His mind and his body had been alike underfed, because he was poor, and because he was modern they were always craving better food.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“But after all—there’s never any great risk as long as you have money—money pads the edges of things—God help those who have none.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“It is thus, if there is any rule, that we ought to die—neither as victim nor as fanatic, but as the seafarer who can greet with an equal eye the deep that he is entering, and the shore that he must leave.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—their hands were on all the ropes—“-E. M. Forster, Howards End

“Actual life is full of false clues and sign-posts that lead nowhere. With infinite effort we nerve ourselves for a crisis that never comes.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—had risen out of the abyss, like a faint smell, a goblin football, telling of a life where love and hatred had both decayed.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—wondered whether it paid to give up the glory of the animal for a tail coat and a couple of ideas. Culture had worked in her own case, but during the last few weeks she had doubted whether it humanised the majority, so wide and so widening is the gulf that stretches between the natural and the philosophic man, so many the good chaps who are wrecked in trying to cross it.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“But they to him were denizens of Romance, who must keep to the corner he had assigned them, pictures that must not walk out of their frames.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“No affection gathered round the card, but it symbolised the life of culture, that Jacky should never spoil.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“It is the little things one bungles at. The big, real ones are nothing when they come.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“Only some rubbish about furniture—it alone endures while men and houses perish, and that in the end the world will be a desert of chairs and sofas—just imagine it!—rolling through infinity with no one to sit upon them.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—this outer life of telegrams and anger.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“The poor are poor, and one’s sorry for them, but there it is. As civilisation moves forward, the shoe is bound to pinch in places, and it’s absurd to pretend that any one is responsible personally.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—the real thing’s money, and all the rest is a dream.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—and had the sense of great things sweeping out of the shrouded night.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“—all the things and people for whom he had never had much use and had less now.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

“In that case he must pay heavily for his misconduct, and be thrashed within a inch of his life.” -E. M. Forster, Howards End

Movie Adaptations:

Howards End (1992)

Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter

TV Rating: PG

My Rating: 5 Stars

Adaption: Verbatim-Tweaked-Veiled

Eye Candy: Plain-Pretty-Sultry