Howard's End First Edition 1910 with flyleaf autograph by the author
E.M.
Forster's novel has an antique ring and modern readers may find it
difficult to enter into sympathy with the characters and the societal
context of Edwardian England.
KumKum, Sujatha, Zakia, & Abbas at the Yacht Club before the reading
Forster
creates one of the most improbable characters in literature, Leonard
Bast, and surrounds him with improbabilities: the morbid interest of
two cultured women in his upliftment, the championing of his cause as
their moral duty, and the readiness of one of the them to copulate
with him as a recompense for poor advice given earlier.
Sujatha, Zakia, & KumKum
There
are many themes Forster takes up: class hierarchy and the hypocrisy
that lies at the bottom of it, a lament for the passing of pastoral
England, socialism and whether being your brother's keeper is
necessary in the modern world.
Vijay
Two
worthy women enliven the novel: the wise Mrs Wilcox, long-suffering
in her marriage to a man who shared none of her sympathies; and the
mature Margaret who knew she had to put her husband in his place
once, in order for the marriage to survive on a equal basis.
Kavita, Sujatha, KumKum, Vijay, & Joe (Zakia left early for the Iftar)
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