Customer Reviews

Arctic Summer (Hesperus Classics)

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If you've ever read and loved any of the novels of E. M. Forster, be sure to read this one too. Forster chose not to finish it, but it works brilliantly as a self-contained novella, telling the story of two men who represent different ideals and whose paths cross in surprising ways. Swift, intense, insightful, classic.

This slim volume contains what E.M.F. managed to write before writer's block set in. There is no real plot - the book ends before the plot has any chance to develop - so what you get is a handful of characters and scenes in typically Forsterian style.
One cannot help but wonder - would it be a good novel? My impression is that it would not. Certain elements and scenes have been used before (close reading reveals especially similarities to A Room with a View), and there is little new and striking. The central conflict between action and ideas would probably be too little to sustain another novel after Howards End.
In short - a necessary reading for any true Forsterian and it is very good that it is finally available in a mass-market paperback (the Abinger edition is very difficult to find) but not necessarily for the general reading public. General reading public, however, should immediately aim for the next novel Forster managed to complete: A Passage to India.