E.M.Forster: v. 1 & 2 in 1v.: A Life (Oxford Paperbacks) [Paperback]

P. N. Furbank (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 1979 | Series: Oxford Paperbacks

(It is) impossible to over-praise Furbank's style and sympathy as a biographer ... He seems even more successfully and effortlessly en rapport with his subject than was Quentin Bell in his biography of Virginia Woolf.' The Listener .

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Thanks to the success of the recent film version of his Howards End, Forster is experiencing a resurgence of popularity. Furbank's 1978 two-volume portrait, which is here combined into one, is generally considered the definitive biography. As LJ's reviewer stated, Furbank's "chief virtue as a biographer lies in his thoroughness, clarity, and attention to detail" (LJ 9/15/78).
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

In 1933, with all his novels written but nearly 40 years of life ahead, E. M. Forster mused on his future biography: "I should want everything told, everything, and there's so far so little." P. N. Furbank, a friend of Forster in his eighties, has indeed told everything, sharply but sympathetically, and there is enormous sadness and strangeness in the "so little" that there is to tell. Coddled, fatherless child in an all - female Victorian household, Morgan grew up to be the "freakish and demure" ineffectual stereotype, but wrote a handful of surprisingly vigorous and influential novels that brought him fame - fame that increased with "every book he didn't write." Terribly timid and thoroughly homosexual, he lived an idle "life of mild human contacts and awakened imagination": some travel, some speechmaking and conference-sitting, less and less writing, many intense friendships, a few brief love affairs (an Egyptian bus conductor, a palace barber in India, a sailor), but a sex life lived mostly in fantasies, some of them written into unpublishable "indecencies" and the posthumous Maurice. Though Furbank remains admirably restrained and non-sensationalizing, Forster's preoccupation with his thwarted sexuality - in letters, diaries, and conversation - becomes the dark major chord. "However gross my desires, I find I shall never satisfy them for fear of annoying others. . . . If I could get one solid night it would be something." A literary lion, a social mouse; the contrast is both pathetic and funny, and Furbank quietly allows both sides to emerge - in Forster's hopeless weekends with impatient D. H. Lawrence ("Why can't he [Forster] take a woman and fight clean to his own basic, primal being?"), in his passive drift from the lost family manse to rooms at Cambridge or friends' homes ("I see my furniture everywhere, my home nowhere"), in his decades of buddyship - confessing his passion only near the end - with a married policeman. This is not a biography-with-criticism, and Furbank steers clear of the books except for obvious parallels with the life and descriptions of unpublished work. It therefore hasn't the impact of an Edel or Bate life-and-works. But it is hard to imagine a fairer, shrewder, more gracefully compassionate evocation of such a long, pinched, intensely inactive life. (Kirkus Reviews )

Thanks to the success of the recent film version of his Howards End, Forster is experiencing a resurgence of popularity. Furbank's 1978 two-volume portrait, which is here combined into one, is generally considered the definitive biography. As LJ's reviewer stated, Furbank's "chief virtue as a biographer lies in his thoroughness, clarity, and attention to detail" (LJ 9/15/78).
(Library Journal ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 648 pages
• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks (June 21, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192812637
• ISBN-13: 978-0192812636
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,615,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An authority in its field, January 4, 2000

By 

Mermaid (Northern Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: E. M. Forster: A Life (A Harvest Book) (Paperback)

The must-have biography that almost every researcher of E.M. Forster uses among her/his basic material. Furbank was appointed by E.M. Forster himself as his biographer. The book contains photographs and it covers a lot of detail. Although the extensive detail sometimes gives an impression of digression it in fact enhances the 'scientific' value of the book, since it provides information about E.M. Forster for research from many angles (ranging from Bloomsbury Group to liberalism &c &c). Moreover, the detailed descriptions at times almost read like a novel (for instance the section on E.M. Forster's travels to Italy). Many letters are included - some by E.M. Forster, some to E.M. Forster, some about E.M. Forster - and make for an enchanting account. Very informative.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Resource, October 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: E. M. Forster: A Life (A Harvest Book) (Paperback)

Without a doubt, Furbank's work is a great resource for any student of Forster. While working on my thesis , his book was always close at hand. Forster readers will appreciate the attention to detail that helps enliven any reading of one of Forster's novels.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Probably Definitive, February 19, 2009

By 

Helen Bed (Florida USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: E. M. Forster: A Life (Paperback)

My comments apply to the 2000 edition, although I suppose the newer edition is practically the same. This may well remain the definitive bio of the indisputably important English writer. Mr. Furbank became acquainted with Forster when the latter was elderly, and it is to some extent an 'authorized' biography. The book (first published in two volumes) is meticulous and thoughtful, though at times a tad dull. Forster had a sheltered youth, and did not engage in any sexual activity besides m*st*rb*t**n until at least age 30, if this book is to be believed, and it probably is. He published his last novel at age 45, but continued writing short stories and nonfiction for many years. He lived with his mother (described by one of his friends as 'mouldy') until her death in her 90s. Nevertheless, he travelled extensively, and his writings on Italy and India are of considerable interest. One hesitates to compare apples and oranges, but I would like to put in a plug here for Edmund White's bio of Jean Genet, which I also read recently (but didn't buy from Amazon) and like very much. Genet, of course, was a wilder thing.