Rating: 
Summary: A true classic
Review: The characters are rich and compelling, leading the reader to have real compassion for even the more uncompassionate sorts. It is an excellent way to spend rainy afternoons with a cat on one's lap and a cup of English tea by one's side.The primary action focusses upon families ' first the Schlegels, genteel without being titled or particularly monied, but far from poor; second, the Wilcoxes, successful financial class, largely without too much background, and a few additional characters such as Leonard Bast and his wife, struggling working-class characters who, through a misappropriated umbrella, become entangled in and damaged by the affairs of the Schlegels and Wilcoxes. The action throughout much of the novel consists of a study of manners and morals. The elder Schlegel daughter becomes friendly with the dying Mrs. Wilcox, and they become friends of a sort. After the death of Mrs. Wilcox, Margaret remains in contact with the Wilcoxes, eventually being courted by the widower Wilcox. The younger Schlegel daughter, Helen, is much more of a rebel, rejecting the implicit superiority of convention while perfectly happy to revel in the benefits of her station in life. Her sister Margaret lives a bit precariously through Helen (and, indeed, Mrs. Wilcox lives precariously through Margaret). Only the male Wilcoxes seem to be living for themselves, but they are far from attractive characters, more concerned with a subtle greed and propriety that is always ready to assume the worst in anyone beneath their station. Here enters the unfortunate Mr. Bast, a stable if lowly clerk in a bank in the City of London, with dreams of more, but tied to a job and a wife, both of whom will never lead to greater things. Through a minor accident he encounters Helen, and this eventually leads to an affair, which leads to a potential scandal. Bast, unfortunately, has a run-in with the Wilcox son who assumes a gallantry quite out of place, and suffers the consequences thereof. This text explores the dominance of inflexible social structures and moral expectations in the post-Victorian England of the early twentieth century. Friendship, vocation and career, love and marriage, attitudes toward money and property ' all are keenly examined and each, in turn, are found wanting of humanity, until finally the elder Schlegel daughter takes a small but meaningful stand. For those who don't know, Howards End is actually the name of a cottage that features in the book, not prominently, but meaningfully. The text was converted into a film that is quite exquisite, being a well-appointed Merchant/Ivory production a la 'Room with a View' and 'A Passage to India', both also by the same author). Forster is perhaps the quintessential novelist of the English experience in the early part of the last century. His juxtaposition of characters from different social classes and backgrounds, his feeling for his characters (even as they appear to have no feelings themselves, or very repressed feelings by American standards), and his plots that are meandering and uneventful yet interesting and attention-holding make for a style that is very much in keeping with the subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: Forster's Masterpiece
Review: The country home called Howards End IS England...and Forster, through this novel, sets out to determine who shall inherit it. To answer this question, the author examines the merits of the prevailing forces of his time characterized by the doomed, brooding proletariat (Bast), the pensive, soul-searching intellectuals (the Schlegel sisters) and the obtuse but prosperous business tycoons (the Wilcoxes). Infused throughout the entire drama is the phantom of Mrs. Wilcox who, like Ben Kenobi of Star Wars, perishes early in the tale yet maintains an even more powerful presence from beyond the grave. A judicious arbitrator, Forster provides a multidimensional vision of all of his main characters, with their virtues and flaws enjoying equal time in the spotlight. But Forster also takes us one step further, demonstrating through the relationship of Henry Wilcox and Margaret Schlegel that love can bring wholeness and healing to the liberal intellectual and the coarse businessman alike. Though one might presuppose the writer's sympathies to lie with the idealist Margaret, he uses her perspective to appreciate the virtues of Henry the capitalist. "He never bothered over the mysterious or the private. The Thames might run inland from the sea, the chauffeur might conceal all passion...they knew their business and he knew his....Some 20 years her senior, he preserved a gift that she supposed herself to have already lost-not youth's creative power, but its self-confidence and optimism." Although Forster allows Margaret to humanize the Wilcoxes, he refuses to romanticize them. Margaret alone provides the heart and soul of the relationship, picking up the pieces when Henry's material world comes crashing down upon him. The tentative but enduring relationship between Margaret and Henry is encouraging for a politically polarized 21st century America-a timeless reminder that a commitment to love, patience and understanding can still conquer idealogical alienation. And although the proletariat fares tragically, his offspring is perhaps the most triumphant of all. It is through love that all of the diverse inhabitants of Howards End inherit their domain in the end.
Rating: 
Summary: Try Passage to India instead
Review: The epigraph to the novel states "Only connect..." and the story is about how folks from different strata of society seem unable to connect & seem especially unable to make the connection between the morality of their class & that of other classes. That said, it is an excrutiating read. The characters are universally unlikeable, the story drags along and the lesson--about folks not obeying the morality they insist on for others--is obvious & not terribly important. GRADE: D
Rating:
Summary: Gourmet dining.
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A clash between idealism and practicality.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely
Review: You can't get more English than this! Although Forster's novel can be painfully honest in its depiction of the pathetic intricacies of the British class system, it is nevertheless a hugely enjoyable read. I found it a lovely yet immensely cultured and learned book. Forster has amazing descriptive powers. I actually enjoyed this novel more than 'A Passage to India' which I understand is usually considered his masterpiece, but I would recommend both as brilliant evocations of early 20th century British lives. Oh, and 'Howard's End' makes a great film too.
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