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Howards End (Barnes & Noble Classics)

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I have read Howard's End two or three times and listened to it once on tape and it remains one of my favorite novels. Many people were introduced to it by the film, which, good though it was, does not begin to capture the subtle wisdom Forster put into this book. Howard's End can be seen as a quaint period piece about British culture in the early Twentieth Century. On another level, however, it's a brilliant exploration of the human soul. In the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, Forster has created the perfect embodiment of the eternal conflict between reason and passion. These two families, destined to be united by the marriage of Margaret Schlegel to Henry Wilcox, represent two seemingly irreconcilable aspects of humanity. The Schlegels are artistic, intellectual and impractical; the Wilcoxes materialistic and unapologetically bourgeois. Margaret and Henry have their differences, but it is their relatives who display the more extreme family traits. Margaret's sister Helen is a classic bohemian; Henry's son Charles is a humorless and intolerant banker. As the novel unfolds, the two families are forced to confront each other and decide whether to ultimately part company or compromise. What is most impressive to me about the novel is the naturalness and grace with which the story unfolds. When an author uses characters to embody universal qualities, it is quite a challenge to make the people and story real and not merely symbols. Howard's End succeeds brilliantly as both a thoroughly engaging novel and a rather profound metaphysical inquiry.

I first read Howards End during the final year of my Undergraduate degree, and it quickly became my favourite book (displacing Wuthering Heights). There is something within it that really speaks to some people --- I say 'some,' because I have recommended it to many friends, and their responses have run the gamut from a fascination similar to my own, to outright boredom and frustration with the book. Personally, I felt I connected with Forster's lament regarding the loss of a sense of place and permanence in the modern world.

I must disagree with some of the reviewers here, when they say that the issues Forster tackles have little relevance today. I think what attracted me to this book was Forster's examination of those very issues --- most specifically, the quandry that still plagues us today: how can we live an examined, meaningful life in the entropic modern world? I would argue that Howards End is still very relevant.

Forster depicts a society in change, but also a society that is a direct relative of our own. He shows the conflicts of modern VS rural, city VS nature, business/sport VS intellect/art, and smug patriarchy VS proto-feminism. If you identified with the second choice in those four sets, then it is likely that you will very much appreciate the social commentary woven into Howards End, and you will find its sermon of "Only Connect!" something of a mission statement --- I certainly did.

Really, Howards End almost reads like an allegory. The different families (Schlegel, Wilcox, and Bast) each represent aspects of a society in transition, each one lacking some vital component to make it viable. The Schlegels are intellectual but ineffectual (declining "old money") and are generally feminine, while the aggressive Wilcoxes live in a shallow world of "telegrams and anger" (ascendent business class) and are generally masculine. The Basts are impoverished, kept from achieving their desires for both wealth and intellectual stimulation by their social and economic situation. Finally, there is Ruth Wilcox, who represents a lost patriarchal rural idyll, which Forster seems to both mourn and criticize at the same time.

A large portion of the charm and interest I found in Howards End came in watching these three 'sets' of characters bounce off each other, just as the larger groups theya re meant to represent interact within a society. Whether their intentions are good or bad, they usually end up doing each other harm. The results of these complex interactions are certainly interesting to read. By the end of the book, Forster has cleverly found a way "end" the conflict and graft what he sees as worthy about each family into one unit, offering an improbable, almost dream-like solution to the problems presented by the novel.

Finally, there is this: when it comes to the actual technical aspects of writing, Forster is a master. Whether or not you agree with his social agenda or his philosophies regarding the examined life, you will have no troubles reading Howards End. The prose is clean, clear, and flowing --- just like a mountain stream.

The Schlegel sisters are interested in the arts and in the more idealistic liberal social movements of their early 20th century world. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic. There seems to be little in common between the two families, but not even a highly embarrassing early amorous encounter can keep them apart. Poor Leonard Bast is as idealistic as the Schlegels, but encumbered by an unloved wife with a shady past, he has not their financial means to avoid dealing with the practicalities of life. Caught between the two factions, he eventually is crushed. Only Margaret Schlegel is finally strong enough to bridge the gap between the practical and the ideal by exerting her benevolent humanity, her passionate and yet controlled determination that people must "connect."HOWARDS END is a minor masterpiece, capturing perfectly the conflict between rigid Victorian values and the more free and open changes in the turbulent years before World War I. Forster handles his characters with great sensitivity and sympathy, yet with a subtle and skillful irony. The novel is not intended for rapid reading, but there is a felicity of expression that is an ample reward for careful perusal. Less fastidious than Henry James, not quite the equal of Trollope in characterization, a more subtle stylist than William Dean Howells, Forster combines some of the best elements of all three of these social chroniclers in an important work that is both highly personal and universal in scope.

In this 1910 story of Edwardian England, Forster illustrates the conflicts between the superior attitudes of the aristocracy and a developing feeling of obligation toward the "lower" classes which World War I will soon bring into sharp relief. Margaret and Helen Schlegel are intellectual and sensitive to the arts, with compassionate hearts for those less fortunate.

When Margaret, at age twenty-nine, is affianced to a much older widower, Henry Wilcox, this conflict of attitudes is brought to the fore. Henry, insensitive and believing himself actually entitled to his family's privileges, is cold and reserved, though Margaret believes that "Henry must be forgiven and made better by love."

Helen, her sister, a 21-year-old with an enthusiasm for the life of the imagination, has no sympathy for Henry's staid pronouncements and failure to pay attention to the people "below him" who are dependent upon his whims. When a young clerk finds himself out of his bank job as a result of something Henry has said, Henry refuses his wife's entreaties to give the destitute Leonard a job.

Immensely sympathetic to the economic position of the poor and women, Forster illustrates their financial dependence on others. Margaret, who secures the reader's total sympathy, must try to educate a close-minded dolt like Henry, but she achieves only limited success. Later, his belief that Helen reflects negatively upon himself and his family inspires a disaster with far-reaching consequences.

Filled with incisive observations and great wit, the novel follows the narrative pattern of a melodrama, but Forster's sensitivity to both sides--the practical and conservative values of Henry vs. the emotional and idealistic sides of Margaret and Helen--elevates the novel above the tawdry. With the action centered around the Wilcox home at Howard's End, the reader realizes that the estate is a microcosm for the conflicts of the nation.

This edition, thoroughly annotated, is the definitive critical edition containing resource material and an explication of references. Comprehensive background material for the period, critical analysis of Forster's themes, and careful notes throughout this novel provide a wealth of research materials for the literary critic and historian. Mary Whipple

In this 1910 story of Edwardian England, Forster illustrates the conflicts between the superior attitudes of the aristocracy and a developing feeling of obligation toward the "lower" classes which World War I will soon bring into sharp relief. Margaret and Helen Schlegel are intellectual and sensitive to the arts, with compassionate hearts for those less fortunate.

When Margaret, at age twenty-nine, is affianced to Henry Wilcox, the much older, widowed husband of a friend, this conflict of attitudes is brought to the fore. Henry, insensitive and believing himself actually entitled to his family's privileges, is cold and reserved, though Margaret believes that "Henry must be forgiven and made better by love."

Helen, her sister, a 21-year-old with an enthusiasm for the life of the imagination, has no sympathy for Henry's failure to pay attention to the people "below him" who are dependent upon his whims. Eventually, a casual remark by Henry leads to the loss of a job for Leonard Bast, a penniless young clerk, but Henry refuses to accept any responsibility whatsoever and refuses his wife's entreaties to give the destitute Leonard a job.

Immensely sympathetic to the economic position of the poor and women, Forster illustrates their financial dependence on others. Margaret, who secures the reader's total sympathy, is charged with educating a close-minded dolt like Henry to be kinder and more empathetic towards the people he considers below him, but she achieves only limited success.

Filled with incisive observations and great wit, the novel follows the narrative pattern of a melodrama, but Forster's sensitivity to both sides--the practical and conservative values of Henry vs. the emotional and idealistic sides of Margaret and Helen--elevates the novel above the tawdry. Henry is a product of his time and his class, but though times are changing, he is too dense to realize it. The Wilcox home at Howard's End is a microcosm, and its conflicts are those of the nation at that time. Thoughtful and entertaining, Howard's End still draws in readers after almost a hundred years. Mary Whipple

The film is dessert. The novel is a thoroughly satisfying meal. The movie is beautifully photographed, faithfully captures the dialogue, and it even gets the comic moments right. But it can't do more than hint at the pleasures of "the real thing."

Every page of the book offers, not just lush landscapes, but ideas worth arguing about. It reminds us that people's actions are bubbles on the surface, the outward and visible signs of events that take place deep within their interior worlds. What's astonishing about this story is how thoroughly it plumbs those worlds. Like Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, Forster has the power to take us way down into the lives of his main characters. We witness what they are becoming, moment by moment. And brooding over the whole story is the wordless, intuitive influence of Ruth Wilcox (the Vanessa Redgrave character) and the power of her love for family and home.

A hugely enjoyable book that demands to be read again and again.

Class consciousness, a common topic in British literature, is emphasized clearly in "Howards End," which draws the class distinctions along very bold social, economic, and political lines. Forster is frank in his observations that such a class system has made Britain the imperial force that it is, but it also paves the way for the worst sort of elitism, which inevitably leads to hypocrisy and the creation of double standards.

In the novel, the upper class, the symbol of British imperialism, is represented by the Wilcox family, who own a rubber company that operates out of Nigeria; the novel's title is the name of their country manor, one of their several residences. The father, Henry, is a trickle-down theorist who believes the great disparity of wealth between the upper and lower classes is necessary to maintain the strong economy, a sentiment that is echoed by his callous older son Charles.

The Wilcoxes have befriended two sisters, Margaret and Helen Schlegel, who, living modestly off their father's inheritance and not having to work, may be considered middle class. They both are highly educated and idealistic with regard to social reform and equalizing the classes; Margaret the older and more serious, Helen the more frivolous.

A conflict arises when Ruth Wilcox, Henry's wife, having spent some pleasant hours and developed a special friendship with Margaret in London, informally bequeaths to her Howards End, which results in a subtle moral paradox: This wish is not legally binding, but isn't Henry dishonoring his wife's memory by dismissing it? The point becomes moot when Henry and Margaret, overcoming their differences of opinion, genuinely fall in love with each other and marry.

The lower class is represented by a young office clerk named Leonard Bast who attempts to transcend his social status by earnestly reading Ruskin and attending cultural events -- his fateful first encounter with the Schlegel sisters is at a Beethoven concert. Although his intellectual posturing falls flat with the Schegels, they see him as a model of social change and make him their pet project. However, it is his slatternly wife Jacky who establishes the real significance of his presence in the novel, which is to expose a blatant double standard of which Henry Wilcox freely avails himself.

Forster is an excellent empathic writer, able to convey with unusual sensitivity his characters' thoughts, feelings, and motives, rivaling Edith Wharton in this skill. He demonstrated this attribute to great effect in "A Room with a View," but I feel "Howards End" is a triumphant improvement over its predecessor. By using the social aspects of "A Room with a View" but eliminating the levity and the feeble attempts at comedy, he managed to construct what very well may be considered the definitive Edwardian novel.

The world of HOWARD'S END is a study of polar opposites: reason versus passion, idealism versus pragmatism, and sentiment versus sense. In E. M. Forster's other novels, he expands on them as well, but in them he does so in a light and bantering tone such as in A ROOM WITH A VIEW or in culturally clashing context as in A PASSAGE TO INDIA. But in the English country-house world of HOWARD'S END, Forster takes a middle view. His focus is on a close up examination of the contrasting and clashing universes of two families: the Wilcox family of reason, practicality, money, and general conservatism; and the Schlegel family of idealism intellectualism, sentimentality, and general liberalism. In such a clash of cultural outlooks, Forster implies that any reconciliation between them can be achieved only at the cost of human tragedy.

The Schlegel sisters Margaret and Helen are vacationing in Germany where they meet the Wilcoxes. Rather inexplicably, Helen is invited to visit them in London. Helen accepts, and falls in love with Paul Wilcox, a match of which the Wilcoxes much disapprove due to class differences. Sadly, both Paul and Helen agree not to see each other. Forster here depicts how status can be used as a club to crush human love. Later, the Wilcoxes rent a house that is coincidentally near the Schlegel home. Ruth Wilcox, the matriarch, meets and develops a sincere liking for Margaret and they become fast friends. When Ruth dies, her family discover a letter in her effects that her final wish was to pass her ancestral home, Howard's End, to Margaret. The Wilcoxes disregard the letter and do not tell Margaret of its contents. Ruth's husband meets Margaret, and despite the differences in their ages, status, backgrounds, and political convictions, they fall in love and marry, much to the disgust of his family. Meanwhile Helen falls in love with a disreputable young man named Leonard Bast, who is married to a much older harridan who tricked him into marriage. This woman, again coincidentally, was once the mistress of Mr. Wilcox. Helen gets pregnant by Leonard. Mr. Wilcox writes a will that leaves Howard's End to Margaret just as Ruth would have wished.

There is very little of the levity that one finds in A ROOM WITH A VIEW. HOWARD'S END is a dead serious look at a society that prides itself on clean class distinctions, an abiding concern of Forster's, but here his focus is on presenting then unveiling the sources and consequences of those artificially erected barriers that Forster implies are built in to an entrenched and ossified caste system that has little chance to change. The conservative Wilcox family, though tarred with a broad brush of authorial disapproval are not seen as totally in the wrong, nor are the liberal Schlegels depicted as purely driven saints from heaven. Forster is careful to show families in contrast and clash but also families that intersect at critical points of common humanity. As both families emerge either cleansed or sullied, Forster seems to say that both are like everyone else, and that if even clashing cultures can find that point of intersection, then the tragic end of HOWARD'S END need not be replicated in those clashing cultures.

Most of Forster's oeuvre examines the confrontation between "old England" and "new England," but none does the job so well as "Howards End." Tradition and modernity, wealth and poverty, honor and honesty, the rule of men and the rights of women--the Edwardian age brought these conflicts to the fore, and here Forster portrays the battle through the prism of class warfare.

The members of the nouveau riche Wilcox family have borrowed their ideals of privilege and duty from the aristocratic class to which they aspire--but those adopted principles are sorely tested by the bookish liberalism of the comfortably middle-class Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, daughters of a German immigrant. The "stiff upper lip" of Henry Wilcox has long been immune to the virtuousness of his ailing wife and the insufferable dim-wittedness of his pampered children, but his world is torn asunder by the twin assault of Margaret's reasonable worldliness ("a practical little woman") and Helen's romantic idealism.

A third household--the impoverished, unmarried Leonard and Jacky Bast--represents an underclass dispensable to the likes of the Wilcoxes, who regard them as little more than erstwhile labor (or, we discover, as far worse). For the Schlegel sisters, the hapless couple serves as the beneficiary of their "schemes of Social Reform." Although the presence of Leonard Bast at first seems peripheral to the story, his position as "protege" to Helen's charitable impulses brings the conflict between the two wealthier families to a head when Helen blames Henry Wilcox and her own inference for Leonard's misfortune--and expects them both to make good. "How wide the gulf between Henry as he was and Henry as Helen thought he ought to be!" That gulf becomes a chasm that threatens to swallow all three families whole.

The battle, in Lionel Trilling's phrase, is over "who shall inherit England," and Forster's startling ending and even more unexpected epilogue serve as both warning and prediction. Yet Forster's memorable witticisms and gripping intrigues keep the social message from ever becoming heavy-handed (although, granted, the finale depends on a melodramatic, if horrific, twist of fate). For those who have never read Forster, this novel is the place to start.

In this 1910 story of Edwardian England, Forster illustrates the conflicts between the superior attitudes of the aristocracy and a developing feeling of obligation toward the "lower" classes which World War I will soon bring into sharp relief. Margaret and Helen Schlegel are intellectual and sensitive to the arts, with compassionate hearts for those less fortunate. When Margaret, at age twenty-nine, is affianced to Henry Wilcox, the much older, widowed husband of a friend, this conflict of attitudes is brought to the fore. Henry, insensitive and believing himself actually entitled to his family's privileges, is cold and reserved, though Margaret believes that "Henry must be forgiven and made better by love."

Helen, her sister, a 21-year-old with an enthusiasm for the life of the imagination, has no sympathy for Henry's staid pronouncements and failure to pay attention to the people "below him" who are dependent upon his whims. When Henry asserts that Porphyria Fire Insurance Co. is on the verge of collapse, Helen and Margaret persuade Leonard Bast, a young clerk they have befriended, to resign his position there, only to have him later "downsized" out of his subsequent bank job. Henry refuses to accept any responsibility whatsoever and refuses his wife's entreaties to give the destitute Leonard a job.

Immensely sympathetic to the economic position of the poor and women, Forster illustrates their financial dependence on those over whom they have little control. Margaret, who secures the reader's total sympathy, must try to educate a close-minded dolt like Henry to be kinder and more empathetic towards the people he considers below him, but she achieves only limited success. When Helen returns from Germany, where she has been living, and Henry and his family discover she is pregnant, Henry's belief that her condition reflects negatively upon himself and his family inspires a disaster with far-reaching consequences.

Filled with incisive observations and great wit, the novel follows the narrative pattern of a melodrama, but Forster's sensitivity to both sides--the practical and conservative values of Henry vs. the emotional and idealistic sides of Margaret and Helen--elevates the novel above the tawdry. Henry is a product of his time and his class, but though times are changing, he is too dense to realize it. With the action centered around the Wilcox home at Howard's End, the reader realizes that the estate is a microcosm of the country and that its conflicts are those of the nation. Thoughtful and entertaining, Howard's End still draws in readers after almost a hundred years. Mary Whipple