23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A remarkable battle of wills; unforgettable ending, March 11, 1999
By A Customer
Forster's gentle, wry wit can be seen developing in this novel, where we follow the tumultuous effects of Lilia Herriton's "unspeakable" marriage to the young Italian - Gino. To save themselves from certain disgrace from the priggish society of English suburbia, the Herriton familys main concern is to put a quick stop to any unsavoury rumours. To this end, Mrs Herriton - the force behind the family - despatches her son on an assignment to save the family name. This however is a vain act; as events soon take an unexpected and tragic turn. The death of Lilia during childbirth is bittersweet news for the pompous Herritons who are now forced by their own convictions to plan further missions to Monteriano, to secure - by bribing the young Gino - the fate of the child.
Although primarily involved with the English and their narrow-minded and reactionary concerns, Forster weaves an underlying love interest throughout the latter part of the novel. He develops each character carefully and we are often surprised by a view or action expressed by the conceited Herriton children - Philip and Harriet, and by the demure Caroline Abbott (Lilias old friend and travelling companion). It is the combination of these three - the English task force abroad - and their own, individual ideals, that causes the novel to evolve into a remarkable battle of wills; and to an unforgettable and poignant ending.
The structure and rhythm of Forsters first novel is both graceful and sensitive. The comedy is perfectly placed and his powers of observation already display his characteristic adroitness for seeing far beyond the predictable. It is a wonderful novel.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forster's first - and his best!, June 27, 2000
By A Customer
This is by far my favorite novel by Forster, and many rereadings have made it one of my favorite novels, period. In his first book, Forster shows a subtlety and lightness of touch which I, at least, feel that he lost as he got more self-consciously "philosophical" in later books like Howard's End and A Passage to India. He makes wonderful use of the Italian settings and of Italian art, bringing them to vivid life, undermining tourist cliches, and weaving them gracefully into his main themes. No other book I know balances romanticism and irony so perfectly.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A passage to Italy, April 3, 2005
Troublesome family scenarios are E.M. Forster's forte. In his debut novel "Where Angels Fear to Tread," a relatively young English widow named Lilia Herriton goes to Italy at the advice of her deceased husband Charles's family, accompanied by her friend Caroline Abbott, and, in a quaint little town called Monteriano, falls in love with an even younger hustler named Gino Carella and plans to marry him. The news mortifies her former in-laws: How could our Lilia marry a man beneath her class, the idle son of a dentist (a profession not highly regarded by the snobs in those days), a Catholic?
Philip Herriton, Lilia's ex-brother-in-law, is immediately dispatched to Monteriano to put a stop to this fiasco, but it's too late; the wedding has already happened, and Philip returns to England with Caroline. Lilia, eager to adjust her life to this poor but picturesque provincial Italian town, finds the social environment completely alien to the one to which she is accustomed in England, and even worse is the fact that Gino, whose friends are impressed that he has been able to score a rich blond Englishwoman, is revealed to be lazy and adulterous. The worst is finally realized when Lilia dies in childbirth delivering a son to Gino.
Back in England, the Herritons' connection to Lilia is not so easily broken; a daughter named Irma from her first husband has been left in their care, even though Lilia had been treated with condescension by her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law Harriet while she was married to Charles. Concerned with scandal, the Herritons recoil in fear when, a few months after Lilia's death, Irma receives postcards from Monteriano signed by her "little brother." Philip, his sister Harriet, and Caroline, all convinced of Gino's unsuitableness as a father, especially of a child of English blood, return to Italy to try to retrieve the baby boy.
The obvious satire of cavalier Edwardian English attitudes toward Catholic Europe is only a backdrop to the more specific issue of whether the Herritons should assume custody of a baby with whom they have no legal familial relations. Caroline, who begins to sympathize with Gino, puts it to Philip most clearly: "Do you want the child to stop [stay] with his father, who loves him and will bring him up badly, or do you want him to come to Sawston [the English town where the Herritons live], where no one loves him, but where he will be brought up well?" Caroline means well, of course, but her presumption that Gino would necessarily bring the boy up "badly" is part of the satire.
Like Oscar Wilde with a social conscience, Forster writes admirable prose and devises witty barbs that are the soul of subtlety, but "Where Angels Fear to Tread" ultimately disappoints as its focus unravels. The dilemma that Forster has been so careful in constructing ends in an avoidable tragedy, the aftermath of which is treated rather sloppily in an unconvincing attempt to rectify the plot into a happy ending. It is frustrating that this sensitive and meticulous author, whose best novels ("Howards End" and "A Passage to India") are masterpieces, could be so frivolous in his early days, but perhaps he needed time to find his proper tone.
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