A Room with a View

By E.M. Forster, 229 pages (1908).

This is deeply sarcastic, pessimistic book about what would today be called the middle class in prewar England.  The first part takes place in Italy, where Miss Lucy Honeychurch is traveling with her cousin.  Lucy later tells us that she was too old when she took this trip, part of her patrician education, abroad.  The trip goes poorly because the company at the pension where they stay is so poor and because the cousins don't really get along.  Lucy is younger and more modern, less consumed by making the proper impression and maintaining the proper distance from people outside the family.  She is not the weak link, however, because these characteristics make her stronger and more comfortable with travel than her cousin.

The second part transitions back to England, to the Honeychurch home of Windy Corner.  We are told it is an ugly house, but one appropriate for beautiful people who build a house that appreciates its surroundings rather than trying to impress the surroundings with the house. In this part, Lucy struggles with her fiancee and a man she met, but certainly did not like, in Italy.  Much of this part is Lucy's thoughts, both internal and shared.  Her character is really developed here and the second part is much more interesting.

The themes in the book are, as I said, mostly pessimistic--critiques of religion and class.  There is also a struggle between men's and women's roles and how they change based on time and class.  I was not especially convinced by the positions that Forster takes, and he seemed skeptical himself.

Number seventy-nine on the 100 best novels, I found it rather bland.

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