Howards End (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) Reprint Edition

by E. M. Forster (Author), David Lodge (Introduction)

1,169 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0141182131

ISBN-10: 014118213X

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E. M. Forster's meticulously observed drama of class warfare exploring the conflict inherent within English society—the inspiration for the award-winning two-part play The Inheritance, now on Broadway

"Only connect..." A chance acquaintance brings together the preposterous bourgeois Wilcox family and the clever, cultured and idealistic Schlegel sisters. As clear-eyed Margaret develops a friendship with Mrs Wilcox, the impetuous Helen brings into their midst a young bank clerk named Leonard Bast, who lives at the edge of poverty and ruin. When Mrs Wilcox dies, her family discovers that she wants to leave her country home, Howards End, to Margaret. Thus as Forster sets in motion a chain of events that will entangle three different families, he brilliantly portrays their aspirations to personal and social harmony. David Lodge's introduction provides an absorbing and eloquent overture to the 1910 novel that established Forster's reputation as an important writer, and that he himself later referred to as "my best novel." This edition also contains a note on the text, suggestions for further reading, and explanatory notes.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

With a new Introduction by James Ivory
Commentary by Virginia Woolf, Lionel Trilling, Malcolm Bradbury, and Joseph Epstein

"Howards End is a classic English novel . . . superb and wholly cherishable . . . one that admirers have no trouble reading over and over again," said Alfred Kazin.

First published in 1910, Howards End is the novel that earned E. M. Forster recognition as a major writer. At its heart lie two families—the wealthy and business-minded Wilcoxes and the cultured and idealistic Schlegels. When the beautiful and independent Helen Schlegel begins an impetuous affair with the ardent Paul Wilcox, a series of events is sparked—some very funny, some very tragic—that results in a dispute over who will inherit Howards End, the Wilcoxes' charming country home. As much about the clash between individual wills as the clash between the sexes and the classes, Howards End is a novel whose central tenet, "Only connect," remains a powerful prescription for modern life.

"Howards End is undoubtedly Forster's masterpiece; it develops to their full the themes and attitudes of [his] early books and throws back upon them a new and enhancing light," wrote the critic Lionel Trilling.

About the Author

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879. He wrote six novels, four of which appeared before the First World War, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), and Howard's End (1910). An interval of fourteen years elapsed before he published A Passage to India. It won both the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Maurice, his novel on a homosexual theme, finished in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. He also published two volumes of short stories; two collections of essays; a critical work, Aspects of the Novel; The Hill of Devi, a fascinating record of two visits Forster made to the Indian State of Dewas Senior; two biographies; two books about Alexandria (where he worked for the Red Cross in the First World War); and, with Eric Crozier, the libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd. He died in June 1970.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Reprint edition (April 1, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014118213X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141182131
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 820L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.57 x 7.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #196,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #43 in Encyclopedias (Books)
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Top reviews from the United States

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Howards End is E.M. Forster's great novel on class and money issues in 1910 England

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2018

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Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879. He was raised in a household of women and matriculated at Cambridge University where he would spend most of his adult life. He served in the British Red Cross in World War I and was a closet homosexual until his death in 1970. His reputation is high in literary circles and Howards End is one of his best books. The novel has been turned into a famous movie with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins and was recently a STARZ network series.
Howards End contains fascinating characters:
Margaret and Helen Schlegel are the daughters of a German born man and an English woman. Their parents are dead; they live in a fashionable area of London. The live on a generous inheritance and they do not work. Instead they enjoy music, art, literature, fine art and cultivated intellectual talk. Forster was a liberal intellectual and the book is filled with chat on socialism, capitalism, suffrage for women and the clashes between rich and poor.

Binny their brother attends Oxford and is a weak cipher of a character.
Henry Wilcox is the wealthy industrialist who marries Margaret. His children by his first wife Ruth (who wills her home Howards End to Margaret Schlegel) are Charles. Paul and Evie. The family is athletic, modern, non-intellectual and very wealthy.
Leonard Bast is the poor bank clerk who conceives a child with Helen Schlagel following a night of passion. His wife is the uncouth Jacky who once had an affair with Henry Schlegel.
The novel is written in a poetic style and evokes England as the nation moved from the Edwardian age into the modern Georgian society of the twentieth century. Forster wrote well and I enjoyed the book which I have read several times. Not everyone's cup of tea but a classic that many of Forster's readers enjoy one hundred plus years after it was written. Enjoy!

34 people found this helpful

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Someone is Wrong on the Internet

A lackluster critical supplement (Review of the Norton Critical Edition)

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2020

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The three stars are not for the novel, but solely for the Norton Critical Edition's supplement, which includes a summary of textual edits, letters and notes from the time, excerpts of Forster's writings on liberalism, contemporary reviews, and critical essays.

The critical essays are generally bloviating and not at all helpful if you view Forster as having some degree of insight and character (which I would think is most of the people who would bother to buy this volume). Only a few undertake a charitable reading; most just want to take potshots. Some of the criticism suggests a barely-concealed vein of homophobia. One critic, who has two long essays in this volume, focuses obsessively on Forster's lack of manliness and even utters the phrase "Forster's fictional transvestism" (not a good thing in the critic's eyes, apparently).

One glaring omission is the absence of Lionel Trilling's reading of Howards End in his book on Forster. Several critics here respond at length to that reading, but the editor failed to include it, leaving the reader guessing as to what exactly Trilling said. Another part of Trilling's book is excerpted, but not, so far as I can tell, his reading of Howards End. The omission is particularly inexplicable given that Trilling is one of the few critics from the academic English heyday who is still read today.

The selection of essays is also simply out of date in that it has apparently not been updated since the volume was first printed in 1998. Since then, Howards End has been commented upon by luminaries like Frank Kermode, Zadie Smith, and Adam Kirsch. They are missing here.

These shortcomings are counterbalanced somewhat by excerpts from Forster's writings on liberalism, "personal relations," and other topics that are important in the novel. Even so, I was left wanting. Other Bloombury members also commented on the same topics, and their writings might have provided further insight. It would have been interesting, for example, to read G.E. Moore's influential discussion of "personal relations" in the Principia Ethica, or anything about Keynes's supposed reevaluation of the Bloombury ideology later in his life. But none of that is here.

I'm not sure there's a better collection of secondary material relating to Howard's End. If that's what you're looking for, you may be stuck with this. Even so, the critical essays should generally be skipped. You'd be better off just searching on the internet for commentary by the writers mentioned above (Trilling, Kermode, Kirsch, and Zadie Smith).

4 people found this helpful

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William Walkington

The Human and the Divine

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2016

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Howard's End is a novel that transcends time, space, nation, or setting. It deals with what is most important in life: relationships. How we connect to our fellow human beings is what concerned EM Forster. And he dealt with the issue masterfully. Truly one of the greatest things ever written in the English language. Reading this book, I mean REALLY reading it, so that it gets into the dark crevices of your soul and enlightens it just a little, will make you a better human being to others. And that is the whole point of both being human and of literature.

18 people found this helpful

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Magical Table

great book, bad printing

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2019

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The Dover Thrift editions used to be considered special, but they have bad printers. The text when your eye is reading jumps in size very distractedly. The OCR is bad. No one is proofreading these bad line concatenations. And there are typos in the text. Find a better version of this classic book.

7 people found this helpful

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DSW

Highly Relevant Today ** Wood 5 minute review

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2017

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This book has a symmetry that reminds me of that of All the Light You Cannot See, which makes it inherently satisfying. Sadly, its social commentary is still very relevant today, making it a great reading choice, but a disturbing one. The writing itself falls a little clumsily on the modern ear, and some of it is a little obtuse. All in all, it is a very interesting look at British aristocracy in its waning days of the Empire.

11 people found this helpful

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Deborah L. Jacobs

Excellent edition of a classic

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2020

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I read this to prepare for seeing the Broadway show, “The Inheritance,” which is derived from the E.M. Forster classic. Footnotes in the Penguin Classics edition helped explain literary and contemporary references that I would not have otherwise understood. The introduction, by David Lodge, is best treated as an Afterword.

4 people found this helpful

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Gail MacFarlane

... of free Kindle facsimilie books - the illustrations are poor, but the price is wonderful

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2016

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I get a lot of free Kindle facsimilie books - the illustrations are poor, but the price is wonderful! EM Forster is up my alley and I am re reading almost all his novels. Great escape. In this case, there are photos at the end of the book - worth a look, since the original house that inspired the book is pictured.
Count me as a person who loves literature from the days before there were telegrams, telephones and . . . people communicated more personally and the literature of the time reflects that.

12 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Philip C.

A metaphor for the value of understated continuity?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2017

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It was written a while back but features disputes that continue in different forms today: business/markets Vs ethical being, authenticity Vs lack of self awareness, male presumption and failing Vs female emancipation and equality .. The hand of fate unites one character with the apparent whim of another. Both are women though of different generations and the whim is the gift of property but a property that reflects a continuity of intention and purpose. The narrative requires acceptance of somewhat implausible coincidences, but Forster's prose and the pantheon of his characters entertain and enliven. Someone made a film based on the book, and the BBC recently offered a TV adaptation, but if you have time, try the original.

14 people found this helpful

hero_of_canton

A lovely tale with a strong female presence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2019

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“Howards End” tells of the intertwining lives of three families, the Schlegels, the Wilcoxes and the Basts at the beginning of the twentieth century.

I read this after having watched the TV adaptation with Hayley Atwell last year. I enjoyed the TV version and was keen to read the book too.

I liked Forster’s writing style. The book isn’t particularly long but covers a lot of ground with some time jumps at parts. It was easy to follow and the writing kept me constantly hooked in and wanting more.

I love Margaret Schlegel. She’s a very modern woman, considering when the book was set, and is such an independent character. Helen was a bit flighty for my liking and needed to think things through a bit more but this obviously worked for the storyline. Their brother, Tibby, felt a bit pointless, he didn’t really seem to serve much purpose in the story and wasn’t very well fleshed out.

It’s easy to see the hypocrisy in the different reactions to Henry Wilcox’s behaviour and Helen’s. Even when Margaret pointed out to Henry the similarities between Helen’s situation and his past behaviour he couldn’t see it. Women were very much treated as being beneath men and Margaret was scorned for her independence and some of her interests.

Charles Wilcox is very typical of wealthy young men in England at that time. Desperate to protect what he sees as “his” though he has little more claim on it than anyone else and treats his wife like a simpleton; just there to look nice and raise the children. I really wanted Dolly to grow a pair and shout at him!

I would have liked to know more about the Basts. I felt that their story was the weaker of the three and they mainly existed as plot points.

I’d definitely read this again and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in period tales with a strong female character.

3 people found this helpful

OleH

Glimpses of Britain before the world wars - many of which are valid still

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2018

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I first read Howards End more than 20 years ago, when the film came out. Having now watched the new mini series, I wanted to re-read it, for the same reason as then: to see what was left out and find out if that was important.

Of course there are details that are not there, but nothing essential I don’t think. I find that the mini series - as did the film - gets all the main points of the book across very well.

The book includes more of the fine points of class distinction and the deeper life of the characters than the films, of course, and it has been worth re-reading it just for those details. Many of which are, of course, a little baffling to a modern reader, but still give worthwhile glimpses into Britain before the world wars.

3 people found this helpful

L.W

Bitting satire (spoilers)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2018

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For a title called Howard's End it surprising how little of the story actually takes place there, much of the first part taking place in London. Howard's end is portrayed as a charming house with beautiful grounds, home of the Willcoxes, a wealthy family, featuring two parents and their three rather spoilt children one of whom is recently married. The family comes into contact with the Schlegels, a well to do family made up of two sisters and a brother. In contrast the Schlegels are more liberal minded and take a real interest in art, music and more radical kinds of politics. At it's heart the book can been seen as a satire on Edwardian society with it's double standards as well as a comedy with tragic elements also woven in. Many of the issues feel very contemporary, the clash often occurring when two different families are brought together by marriage, the place of women in society and also issues surrounding houses and home. The Schlegels are to loose their home as the lease expires on it and developers want to knock it down and build new flats instead. Lack of housing security is an all too modern problem for many people living in London. The real tragedy of the story though is focused on the hapless Leonard Bast, a poor clerk with an interest in culture, especially the arts and sciences. An accidental encounter leading to a friendship with the Schlegels ought to be the beginning of his ascent to greater things. Tragically though the contact with the sisters who want to help him leads to utter disaster for Leonard.

3 people found this helpful

Garden Guy

Don't read any more reviews - just buy it and enjoy it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2017

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A winner. Worth every moment of your reading time. Worth savouring and reading slowly.

10 people found this helpful