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 A Personal Awakening a Century Ago - Still a Valid Lesson November 23, 2008
This charming little novel which has recently celebrated its centennary can be easily put down as a period piece. E M Forster foresaw it already in his note which he added to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first edition. Yet a prospective reader would be most wrong to do so. There is a lesson here which still needs to be learned by many.
The title gives away some of the content - the main heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, needs to get away from the stuffy atmosphere of late Victorian England in which she was brought up - the symbol of which is for EMF the room. Her escape takes place in stages - the first of them is her trip to Italy where she finds landscapes and people most different from those she was accustomed to. It is also there that she meets the man she falls in love with, George Emerson. Yet these changes come too quickly for her. Lucy yields to the demands of her chaperone and escapes back to England, finding on the way a more appropriate suitor, Cecil Vyse.
When the three young people meet again in England, a fight for Lucy's soul begins anew. Lucy has to decide whether she prefers Cecil who will keep her under his protection in his house as a work of art for others to admire, or George with whom she will have to face the challenges of the world but be free.
What is the lesson for us today in a world where there are no chaperones or stage-coaches? We also must make similar decisions - choose freedom which always comes at a cost or safety for which we must pay with our freedom. We choose between being true to ourselves or satisfying the demands of others. Lucy's adventures may serve as a perfect food for thought for those facing seemingly dissimilar but actually very similar decisions. It is the more valuable as Forster does not show easy decisions or easy solutions. The happy ending is never free and yet still worth striving for.
"We were promised a room with a view..." November 15, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
After I saw the 1985 Merchant Ivory film, I was curious about the book. Its not often that the film is as good as the book, but in this it was, so faithfully adapted. When I got the book after seeing the film, I felt I was seeing the film again while reading, the film was sooo faithful to all the key plot and character points in the book and many of the minor ones too. Whether you've seen the film or not, definitely read the book as well. There are one or two typos but its very readable. This is one of my favorite romantic novels, and whats so great about it is that its not a stereotypical "romance novel", its for guys as well. Read it.
 Great Book, Rip-Off Sub-Quality Printing November 11, 2008
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is one of the great English Novels. Unfortunately, this is a sub-quality printing by an anonymous publisher that somehow got through Amazon's quality control process. There are numerous typos on every single page, mostly bad paragraphing and the like, making it actually unreadable. Don't buy the version with the steeple on the cover and the big Helvetica typeface.
A beautiful story! October 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really didn't know what to expect--would this be a character story, a philosophical one, a romance? It ended up being a lovely mix of all three. The story centers around Lucy, a young woman who realizes, for the first time, that she has ideas of her own. In other words, it's about Lucy learning how to make decisions for herself, and learning what she truly wants out of life.
The book is full of delightful characters and beautiful passages. Yet, Forster isn't above seeing the humor in life, and many characters are quite amusing, and the chapter with the pond is probably one of my favorites!
I was surprised, a little, by the ending, but in looking back I can see where it fits. I'd like to read it again, knowing where the book is headed, because I think there's so much more there that I didn't grasp the first read through.
In all, it's easy to see why this is a classic!:D I think it's totally deserving of that status.:)
 Social comment on the English abroad/at home October 13, 2008
In Forster's A Room with a View, sheltered young Lucy Honeychurch (what a name!), traveling abroad with her spinster aunt, happens to meet George Emerson and his doting father. Lucy is not quite sure what to make of the pair, as they seem kind enough but are unpolished in their manners and way of thinking. One morning, during a day trip to the mountains, George comes upon Lucy amidst a field of violets and impulsively kisses her.
This indescretion is hurriedly hushed up, and Lucy returns to her home in England. There, she becomes engaged to a respectable young man, a good match by all social accounts, but with whom she has very little in common. Who should happen upon the scene but George Emerson? Lucy finds herself conflicted and confused, unsure of whether to make the socially advantageous match expected by her friends and family or to make a break with convention and think for herself a bit.
While this novel starts out VERY slowly, it picks up speed as one goes along, providing a very satisfying ending. Lucy is so intolerable at the beginning of the book that it is difficult to keep reading, but, thankfully, as she becomes more in command of her own thoughts, she is much easier to relate to. (I find this often with female characters in "classic" literature. It is all one can do to keep from shaking them by the shoulders sometimes. I understand that women were more repressed - oppressed?- when these stories were written, but it can be awfully trying for a modern woman to read such characters. In that respect, reading contemporary novels is sometimes easier.)
I also found the novel's debate about expatriates/natives versus tourists interesting, as the same arguments are traded around travel circles today - i.e. the "ugly American," those who are inseparable from their guidebooks, etc. It's funny to see that people's views on such a subject have really changed very little in the past 100 years!
Though some of this novel is set in Italy, do not expect much of the rich, atmospheric descriptive passages one would hope to find in a contemporary novel of this sort. During the primary character's time there, she is still very much mentally confined, and because we are seeing things through her vision, the novel is more concerned that she see the "right" paintings and statues so that she can say she's seen them. Eeesh.
At any rate, this book is certainly worth reading. I found it to be a pointed social comment on the mores of of the time.
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