Aspects 

of  the  Novel, or E.M. Forster’s (In)formal Criticism

1Since its publication in 1927, E.M. Forster’s critical essay Aspects  of  the  Novel  has fared both rather we

ll and rather badly. The book was first conceived as a series of lectures which were delivered at Trinity
College, Cambridge—unexpectedly leading to Forster’s subsequent election as a Fellow of King’s
College, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. Aspects  of  the  Novel  still haunts academic
discourse today, since the inevitable mention of flat and round characters entails a compulsory footnote
on Forster. Yet the book also triggered unfavourable responses from the
start, from F.R. Leavis who thought the lectures appallingly bad to Ford Madox Ford who was infuriated 
by Forster’s callous reference to literature as ‘the whole caboodle’ (Forster 95). For Ford, this was as bad
as if a priest had elevated the Host in order to discuss the way in which bread is baked, little less than
sacrilege. For such lectures, coming from Forster, who was at best a shy public figure, to arouse such ang
er, suggests that there was something a little heretical in the book’s approach to literature, and we may 
wish to have a look at Forster’s unconventional
attempt, which does lead him astray at times, but which also produces a few ground-breaking intuitions.

2Yes—oh dear yes—Aspects  of  the  Novel  is E.M. Forster’s version of

criticism. There is no denying that, in many ways, Aspects  of  the  Novel  is old-ashioned. In postmodern
days, characterization no longer appears as a crucial tool to assess a book’s
worth. Equally embarrassing are Forster’s subjective value judgments, dismissing Jane  Eyre  as a ‘little m
ansion’, not a great literary edifice, on a par with Cranford  or The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel, or placing J
ames Joyce’s Ulysses  side by side with such supposedly unforgettable books as The  Magic  Flute  by Gold
sworthy Lowes Dickinson or Flecker’s  Magic  by Norman Matson. Indeed, with stubborn emphasis,
Forster actually sums up and quotes Flecker’s  Magic  for three and a half pages, which, compared with
the half line devoted to Jane  Eyre, seems hardly forgivable.