Howards End

Rating:
Summary: Clear thoughts and colourful characters
Review: I really liked this book, and I'm not surprised. I think there is something about the author, E.M Forster that I like. I think it is the way he expresses his thoughts, very clear and once you have read them and understood they are so obvious. "How come I never thought of that" entered my mind a few hundred times while I was reading this book. A lot about England and the English men and women is written in "Howards End" and the beautiful landscape is closely described. It is easy to get to know the characters and once you have done that it does not take long before you either love them or dislike them. The family that this book is about, has different opinions than the rest of the English people during these times. People consider them strange, but they are really just ahead of their time

Rating:
Summary: "Connect the prose and the passion...both will be exalted."
Review: 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


Rating:
Summary: the tale of two sisters
Review: Is it my obsession with Jane Austen or do the sisters in Howards End really have many things in common with those in Sense and Sensibility? We have the eldest, governing in the family and also carrying the burden of her unshared knowledge -derived from a mixture of wisdom, fairness and compassion-; and we have the youngest, whose actions are ruled by impulse and who therefore is wrong although she means well. There is also symbolism, so dear to the modernist fiction, which doesn`t prevent the author from building round, absolute characters that sound like real life. I was very amused by E.M.Foster's worry with globalization -which he calls "cosmopolitanism"- as a tendency opposed to those who want to keep England as close to its origins as possible -i.e. the author himself; actually, the whole novel and its symbolism revolve around this worry.In short, the two sisters sound very much like those in Sense and Sensibility, but E.M.Foster's intention is more intellectual, less social or ethical than that of Jane Austen's

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Summary: Follow Up to Howards End... Hilton Junction
Review: James Prater, a new young writer comes a provactive follow up to E. M. Forster's Howard's End. Hilton Junction continues the lives of the Shlagel sisters 3 years after the affairs in Howards End. If you have read Howards End yo umust not miss Hilton Junction. Coming soon

Rating:
Summary: Not the best
Review: Merchant/Ivory made a good film out of a mediocre novel. As usual with Forster, there are no characters I can really identify with or like too well. At least in "A Passage to India" the portrayal of the vagueries of life in India was masterful. Here it's just a competent comment on class. And has anyone noticed?: The final sentence is lousy.

Rating:
Summary: Cuture Clash
Review: More than a piece of England, Howards End -- the place-- can be seen as a metaphor of the world, and all the people who somehow are related to it, are examples of real human beings. Even though the novel was written almost a hundred years ago, it is still very suitable for this XXI Century. It seems to me that the story is all about the different moral and background that every class of the society had by that time, and the consequences of it during their lives.

The main characters are the two Schlegel Sisters, Margaret and Helen, who are keen on arts, books, philosophy, feminism and other things that have a relation with the soul and the thought. After a misfortunated love affair between Helen and the Paul Wilcox, whose parents they met in a trip to German, their lives change forever. Magaret becomes a close friend to Mrs Wilcox, and her sister starts to despise the family. When Ruth Wilcox dies, she leaves Howads End to her friend, but the Wilcoxes feel betrayed and don't follow up the lady's last will. Years later, Mr Wilcox marries Margaret, and in the very end of the book, after a serie of extremely unpleasant events he tells her that Howards End belongs to her.

This brief summary I've just done misses a lot in details and the feeling that anyone only gets reading the novel. There are so many brilliant and subtle nuances in Forster's work. His works bounces from comedy to tragedy in a turn of page. I burst out laughing the first time Helen meets Mrs Bast -- a.k.a.Mrs Lanoline. Sometimes, many things are just left between the lines. For instance, I doubt whether Henry Wilcox feels anything for Margaret but guilt for not telling her about his wife's last will. Personaly speaking, I think he likes and respects her but does not love her until when Charles is arrested, that is when he falls apart, and she is there helping him.

As I was saying, I see the whole story as clash between the different cultures that each character have . The Schlegels may feel very confortable in the XX Century. They are very open minded, enjoy discussing, and were not afraid of showing what they think or fell. On the other hand, the Wilcoxes are very worried about social position and not used to letting women express themselves. And to represent the lowest classes are the Bast : Leonard and Jackie. He likes arts and books, but his older wife prefers the joys of the world - and Mr Wilcox used to know it years ago.

The prose is so alive that sometimes I felt extremely agry with some characters, mainly Charles- the oldes Wilcox boy. He is so snobbish, self-centred and xenophibic. For instance, he doesn't face up the fact to that he's killed Mr Bast and after telling the event to his father , they both go and have coffe, as if nothing had happened. Mr Wilcox is the character who goes though the most drastic transformantion, and in the end he is a vey different man, in many senses.

Finally, I love the film version of this book. I only regret I hadn't read the book before watching the movie. I think I would have had much more surprises. But, anyway, both book and film are worth reading or/and watching.

Rating:
Summary: Almost the best English novel ever
Review: None of the characters is perfect, but you can't dislike any of them. I have read this book many times - I studied it at school, which has coloured all subsequet readings. Every time I gasp at what I missed all those years ago. Our teacher skated right over the philosophy and feminism and fashionable ideas about economics and so on that are the backbone of the book. However we studied closely the book's texture and atmosphere: the English countryside, London's railway stations, Christmas crowds in Oxford street on a winter's afternoon. We even (convent school girls as we were) understood more about the difficult "facts of life" portrayed than the references to Nietzsche.
I used to see it as a black and white morality. The Schlegels were spiritual, artistic and nature-loving. The Wilcoxes were obtuse, money-grubbing and morally dishonest - and upheld the British empire, something else our teacher never mentioned. Somewhere around the 25th reading I realised that the Schlegels weren't particularly clever (apart perhaps from Tibby, but his learning and intelligence are presented as sterile), and none of them is creative. Their discussions about politics with their arty friends are quite ineffective. No wonder, perhaps, that confronted by Leonard they see an opportunity to actually DO something at last.
Eventually, though, Margaret finds she has a job - as Henry's wife. She succeeds not by her attempts to change him, or her direct and clumsy attempts to get him to see the consequences of his actions, but by her warmth, gentleness, sympathy and affection: qualities the first Mrs Wilcox also had in spades.
Henry may represent Colonialism and Patriarchy, but he's also a human being and we can see why she is attracted to him.
The end of the story is left rather in confusion: after minutely detailing where everybody spent the night and how they got there, after the inquest this is left blank. Did Margaret and Helen stay on at Howards End (presumably required to stay in England as witnesses in Charles's trial)? Did Henry eventually join them there?
Like the best books, you want to know what happened to the characters next. Edward Petherbridge's audio version is wonderful, but he brings out the poetry rather than the comedy. As a completist I may have to listen to Emma Thompson's...
If you liked this book, try J B Priestley's Angel Pavement. For background (and the lowdown on Nietzsche) read John Carey's The Intellectuals and the Masses.

Rating:
Summary: Howard's End - My favourite!
Review: On reading the book reviews already on-line, I just had to reply. I have recently read Howard's End for the second time and I have watched the film numerously. It is absolutely fabulous! I have read other novels by E.M. Forster but for me Howard's End is simply the best. Forster's characterization is second to none, describing the Schlegels, Wilcoxes and the Basts with such heart-breaking realism and affinity with human nature. The British countryside is described lovingly yet realistically by highlighting the creeping industrialization. I do not think it is 'dull and cold' or that the characters are 'unlikeable and irritating.'In my opinion they are realistic and likeable if you accept them to be human beings, having both their good and bad points, but I would hope that the good points shine through. Yes, Charles Wilcox is incredibly arrogant and irritating, but these characters all combine to make an excellent plot and a heart -renchingly sad but not a 'happy' ending. Ofcourse we all have our favourites and Margaret Schlegel is mine. Rather predictibly so, but I admire her strength, ability to compromise, tenderness, spiritual connectedness, clear sightedness and individuality. Over-all I think Howard's End is a wonderful read every time!

Rating:
Summary: a pretty, often dull, stale little tragedy
Review: Perhaps that is too harsh, for Howard's End truly is a beautiful book. It is sharp and cunning and written with craft and texture in unearthing the suppressed emotions of its characters. Gorgeously written, simmering throughout with a subtle and witty prose, sometimes briefly alit with the whoosh of a roaring epiphiny. The grace of the character study is a worthwhile experience . . .

But the story . . . So have ya heard this one before? Some guy wants to get married but he's already married or he's engaged to another he's fallen out of love with. The details just don't matter and the constant refrain of the character's endless longing is quiet acceptence complicated by questioning questioning guestioning. The interactions are trivial and often uninteresting, propelled by the unspoken commentary, subdued by the spoken words amounting mostly to rejections. This premise is at times intriguing, coaxed into narrative by the awareness of each of the speakers, but then dims out as they try to change the subject, leaving forever buried that one shimmering moment of light.

This is the refrain of this novel, for better or for worse--

Rating:
Summary: Better Than the Movie
Review: Surprise--better than the movie. I don't like this sort of movie much, but the book is fabulous.