E. M.

Forster

E. M. Forsters life
Birth:

1879 born in London, son of an architect College, Cambridge: 1897-1901 Group: 1910s-1920s.

Kings

Bloomsbury

E. M. Forsters Life

Travel: Italy and Greece with his mother; Egypt, Germany and India with the Classicist Goldworthy Lowes Dickinson in 1914

E. M. Forsters Life
After

the age of 45: stopping writing novels, producing little more fiction apart from short stories only for himself and a small circle of friends Honorary fellowship at Kings College, Cambridge Death: died in Coventry at the age of 91 in 1970.

Key themes in Forsters novels

1. The pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society 2. The irreconcilability of class differences 3. Sexuality: a general shift from heterosexual love to homosexual love over the course of his writing career. (the posthumously published novel Maurice and the short-story collection The Life to Come

Forsters Novel: Howards End

Directed by James Ivory, 1992 Emma Thompson, the best actress

Howards End

Maurice
(directed by James Ivory, 1987)
A

homosexual love story

A Passage to India (1984 directed by David Lean)

A Passage to India

Published in 1924, the last completed novel that Forster published during his lifetime. Major Characters in the novel: 1. Dr. Aziz: 2. Cyril Fielding 3. Adela Quested 4. Mrs. Moore 5. Professor Narayan Godbole 6. Ronny Heaslop

A Passage to India (1984 directed by David Lean)

Themes:

1.

the difficulty of friendship between an Englishman (the colonist) and an Indian (the colonized) 2. the racism and oppression of the British who rule India

A Room with a View

in 1908, Forsters most famous and popular novel. Time background: the British Empires zenith, the Brits enjoyed the fruits of a system of exploitation and oppression Spatial background: Part I and the last chapter: Florence, Italy Part II: Surrey, England
Published

A Room with a View

Cultural and Social background:

1. The remnants of Victorian sensibilities: A. refinement B. the virtue of young girls C. the control of passions 2. A time of change: A. Women began to clamor more loudly than ever for equal rights B. Socialists were challenging old ideas about class and religion C. Artists and thinkers began to challenge Victorian attitudes about emotion and sexuality

A Room with a View

Major

Themes: 1. Propriety and Passion 2. The beauty of human beings 3.. The beautiful and the delicate 4.. Womans position and independence 5. Connection between nature and man

A Room with a View

Symbolic

views: rooms: conservative and uncreative, e.g. Mrs Honeychurch, Cecil usually pictured in a room views: forward-thinking and modern character types, e.g. Freddy and the Emersons often described as being outside

meanings of rooms and

A Room with a View

The symbolic differences between Italy and England: Forster idealized Italy as a place of freedom and sexual expression. Italy promised raw, natural passion that inspired many Britons at the time who wished to escape the constrictions of English society. While Lucy is in Italy her views of the world change dramatically, and scenes such as the murder in the piazza open her eyes to a world beyond her protected life in Windy Corner.