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: 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: 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.
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