Editing E. M. Forster (section)

==Work==
===Novels===
[[File:Monument to E. M. Forster.jpg|thumb|left|The monument to Forster in [[Stevenage]], Hertfordshire, near Rooksnest where Forster grew up. He based the setting for his novel ''Howards End'' on this area, now informally known as Forster Country.]]
Forster had five novels published in his lifetime. Although ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' was published shortly after his death, it had been written nearly sixty years earlier. His first novel, ''[[Where Angels Fear to Tread]]'' (1905), tells of Lilia, a young English widow who falls in love with an Italian, and of the efforts of her [[bourgeois]] relatives to get her back from Monteriano (based on [[San Gimignano]]). Philip Herriton's mission to retrieve her from Italy has features in common with that of [[Lambert Strether]] in [[Henry James]]'s ''[[The Ambassadors]].'' Forster discussed James' novel ironically and somewhat disapprovingly in his book ''Aspects of the Novel'' (1927). ''Where Angels Fear to Tread'' was adapted as a 1991 [[Where Angels Fear to Tread (film)|film]] directed by [[Charles Sturridge]], starring [[Helena Bonham Carter]], [[Rupert Graves]], [[Judy Davis]] and [[Helen Mirren]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-back-to-the-future-the-fall-and-rise-of-the-british-film-industry-in-the-1980s.pdf|page=30|title=Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing|website=British Film Institute|date=2005}}</ref>

Next, Forster published ''[[The Longest Journey (novel)|The Longest Journey]]'' (1907), an inverted ''[[Bildungsroman]]'' following the lame Rickie Elliott from Cambridge to a career as a struggling writer and then a post as a schoolmaster, married to an unappealing Agnes Pembroke. In a series of scenes on the Wiltshire hills, which introduce Rickie's wild half-brother Stephen Wonham, Forster attempts a kind of [[sublime (literary)|sublime]] related to those of [[Thomas Hardy]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]].

[[File:III Palazzo Jennings Riccioli, Firenze, Italy (2).jpg|thumb|Forster and his mother stayed at Pensione Simi, which was located in Palazzo Jennings Riccioli, [[Florence]], in 1901. Forster took inspiration from this stay for the Pension Bertolini in ''[[A Room with a View]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aguidetoflorence.com/a-literary-tour.html |title=A Literary Tour of Florence |publisher=Walking Tours of Florence |date=4 April 2017 |access-date=7 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170408083010/http://www.aguidetoflorence.com/a-literary-tour.html |archive-date=8 April 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>]]

Forster's third novel, ''[[A Room with a View]]'' (1908), is his lightest and most optimistic. It was started in 1901, before any of his others, initially under the title ''Lucy''. It explores young Lucy Honeychurch's trip to Italy with a cousin and the choice she must make between the free-thinking George Emerson and the repressed aesthete Cecil Vyse. George's father Mr Emerson quotes thinkers who influenced Forster, including [[Samuel Butler (1835–1902)|Samuel Butler]]. It was adapted as a [[A Room with a View (1986 film)|film of the same name]] in 1985 by the [[Merchant Ivory]] team, starring Helena Bonham Carter and [[Daniel Day-Lewis]], and as a [[A Room with a View (2007 film)|televised adaptation of the same name]] in 2007 by [[Andrew Davies (writer)|Andrew Davies]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Daniel Day-Lewis |url=http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho7/daylewis_d.htm |website=The Oscar Site |access-date=6 June 2024 |archive-date=7 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007180639/http://theoscarsite.com/whoswho7/daylewis_d.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

''Where Angels Fear to Tread'' and ''A Room with a View'' can be seen as Forster's Italian novels. Both include references to the famous [[Baedeker]] guidebooks and concern narrow-minded middle-class English tourists abroad. The books share themes with his short stories collected in ''[[The Celestial Omnibus]]'' and ''[[The Eternal Moment]]''.

''[[Howards End]]'' (1910) is an ambitious [[Condition of England novel|"condition-of-England" novel]] about various groups among the [[Edwardian]] middle classes, represented by the Schlegels (bohemian intellectuals), the Wilcoxes (thoughtless plutocrats) and the Basts (struggling lower-middle-class aspirants). ''Howards End'' was adapted as a [[Howards End (film)|film]] in 1992 by the Merchant-Ivory team, starring [[Vanessa Redgrave]], [[Emma Thompson]], [[Anthony Hopkins]], and Helena Bonham-Carter. Thompson won the [[Academy Award for Best Actress]] for her performance as Margaret Schlegel.<ref>{{cite news |title=Simply Put, It's Chemistry: Two actors, two Oscars, two tart tongues—Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins do the Tracy and Hepburn thing |url=https://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-31/entertainment/ca-51533_1_emma-thompson-and-anthony-hopkins |last=De Vries |first=Hilary |newspaper=The New York Times |date=31 October 1993 |access-date=24 October 2013 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029221032/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-31/entertainment/ca-51533_1_emma-thompson-and-anthony-hopkins |url-status=live }}</ref> It was also adapted as a [[Howards End (miniseries)|miniseries]] in 2017. An opera libretto ''Howards End, America'' was created in 2016 by [[Claudia Stevens]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-howards-end-opera-20190221-story.html|title=In the new 'Howards End' opera, Edwardian London is 1950s Boston, and Leonard Bast is black|date=21 February 2019|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>

Forster's greatest success, ''[[A Passage to India]]'' (1924) takes as its subject the relations between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the [[British Raj]]. Forster connects personal relations with the politics of colonialism through the story of the Englishwoman Adela Quested, the Indian Dr. Aziz, and the question of what did or did not happen between them in the [[Marabar Caves]]. Forster makes special mention of the author [[Ahmed Ali (writer)|Ahmed Ali]] and his ''[[Twilight in Delhi]]'' in a preface to its Everyman's Library Edition. The novel was awarded the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction. ''A Passage to India'' was adapted as a [[A Passage to India (play)|play]] in 1960, directed by [[Frank Hauser (director)|Frank Hauser]], and as a [[A Passage to India (film)|film]] in 1984, directed by [[David Lean]], starring [[Alec Guinness]], Judy Davis and [[Peggy Ashcroft]], with the latter winning the 1985 Oscar for [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/oldest-oscar-winner-for-best-supporting-actress|title=Oldest Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress|website=Guinness World Records|date=25 March 1985 }}</ref>

''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' (1971), published posthumously, is a homosexual love story that also returns to matters familiar from Forster's first three novels, such as the suburbs of London in the English [[home counties]], the experience of attending Cambridge, and the wild landscape of [[Wiltshire]].<ref>[[Joseph Epstein (writer)|Epstein, Joseph]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/10/archives/maurice-by-e-m-forster-256-pp-new-york-w-w-norton-co-695-maurice.html "E. M. Forster's posthumous novel—more important to the man than to literature"], ''The New York Times'', 10 October 1971.</ref> The novel was controversial, given that Forster's homosexuality had not been publicly known or widely acknowledged. Today's critics continue to debate over the extent to which Forster's sexuality and personal activities influenced his writing.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1470492.stm |title=BBC News Website |date=2 August 2001 |access-date=21 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914212852/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1470492.stm |archive-date=14 September 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> ''Maurice'' was adapted [[Maurice (1987 film)|as a film]] in 1987 by the Merchant Ivory team. It starred [[James Wilby]] and [[Hugh Grant]] who played lovers (for which both gained acclaim) and Rupert Graves, with [[Denholm Elliott]], [[Simon Callow]] and [[Ben Kingsley]] in the supporting cast.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Maurice'' |url=https://www.merchantivory.com/film/maurice |website=MerchantIvory.com |access-date=30 June 2024}}</ref>

Early in his career, Forster attempted a historical novel about the Byzantine scholar [[Gemistus Pletho]] and the Italian [[condottiero]] [[Sigismondo de Malatesta]], but was dissatisfied with the result and never published it, though he kept the manuscript and later showed it to [[Naomi Mitchison]].<ref>Mentioned in a 1925 letter to Mitchison, quoted in her autobiography ''You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920–1940''. {{Cite book |last1=Mitchison |first1=Naomi |title=You May Well Ask: A Memoir 1920-1940 |year=1986 |orig-year=1979 |publisher=Fontana Paperbacks |location=London |isbn=978-0-00654-193-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nas5AAAACAAJ |chapter=11: Morgan Comes to Tea}}</ref>

===Critical reception===
[[File:EMForsterLeiden1954.jpg|thumb|upright|Forster receiving an honorary doctorate from [[Leiden University]] (1954)]]
Forster's first novel, ''[[Where Angels Fear to Tread]]'', was described by reviewers as "astonishing" and "brilliantly original".<ref>P. Gardner, ed. (1973). ''E. M. Forster: the critical heritage''.</ref> ''[[The Guardian|The Manchester Guardian]]'' (forerunner of ''The Guardian'') noted "a persistent vein of cynicism which is apt to repel," though "the cynicism is not deep-seated." The novel is labelled "a sordid comedy culminating, unexpectedly and with a real dramatic force, in a grotesque tragedy."<ref>''The Manchester Guardian'', 30 August 1905.</ref> [[Lionel Trilling]] remarked on this first novel as "a whole and mature work dominated by a fresh and commanding intelligence".<ref name="Trilling">{{Cite book |author-last=Trilling |author-first=Lionel |author-link=Lionel Trilling |title=E. M. Forster |series=Columbia essays on modern writers, vol. 189 (first ed. 1943) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AESTWbfW8G8C |publisher=[[New Directions Publishing]] |year=1965 |issue=10 |isbn=978-0811202107 |page=57 |access-date=26 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022030902/https://books.google.com/books?id=AESTWbfW8G8C&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=22 October 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Subsequent books were similarly received on publication. ''The Manchester Guardian'' commented on ''[[Howards End]]'', describing it as "a novel of high quality written with what appears to be a feminine brilliance of perception... witty and penetrating."<ref>''The Manchester Guardian'', 26 February 1910.</ref> An essay by [[Lord David Cecil|David Cecil]] in ''Poets and Storytellers'' (1949) describes Forster as "pulsing with intelligence and sensibility", but primarily concerned with an original moral vision: "He tells a story as well as anyone who ever lived".<ref name=Cecil>David Cecil (1949). ''Poets and Storytellers: A Book of Critical Essays''. Macmillan.</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2017}}

The beginning of technological [[dystopian fiction]] is traced to Forster's "[[The Machine Stops]]", a 1909 short story where most people live underground in isolation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zimmermann |first1=Ana Cristina |last2=Morgan |first2=W. John |date=1 March 2019 |title=E. M. Forster's 'The Machine Stops': humans, technology and dialogue |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0698-3 |journal=AI & Society |language=en |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=37–45 |doi=10.1007/s00146-017-0698-3 |s2cid=25560513 |issn=1435-5655}}</ref><ref>Caporaletti, Silvana. "Science as Nightmare: ''The Machine Stops'' by E. M. Forster." ''Utopian studies'' 8.2 (1997): 32-47.</ref> M. Keith Booker states that "The Machine Stops," ''[[We (novel)|We]]'' and ''[[Brave New World]]'' are "the great defining texts of the genre of dystopian fiction, both in [the] vividness of their engagement with real-world social and political issues and in the scope of their critique of the societies on which they focus."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Booker|first1=M Keith|title=The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature: Fiction as Social Criticism|date=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press}}</ref> [[Will Gompertz]] for the [[BBC]] writes, "The Machine Stops is not simply prescient; it is a jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly, breath-takingly accurate literary description of lockdown life in 2020."<ref>{{cite news |title=The Machine Stops: Will Gompertz reviews EM Forster's work ★★★★★ |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52821993 |access-date=2 January 2025 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

American interest in Forster was spurred by [[Lionel Trilling]]'s ''E. M. Forster: A Study'', which called him "the only living novelist who can be read again and again and who, after each reading, gives me what few writers can give us after our first days of novel-reading, the sensation of having learned something." {{Harv |Trilling |1943}}

Criticism of his works has included comments on unlikely pairings of characters who marry or get engaged and the lack of realistic depiction of sexual attraction.<ref name=Cecil />{{page needed|date=August 2017}}

===Key themes===
Forster was President of the Cambridge Humanists from 1959 until his death and a member of the Advisory Council of the [[British Humanist Association]] from 1963 until his death. His views as a [[humanism|humanist]] are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections despite the restrictions of contemporary society. His humanist attitude is expressed in the 1938 essay ''[[What I Believe (E. M. Forster essay)|What I Believe]]'' (reprinted with two other humanist essays – and an introduction and notes by [[Nicolas Walter]]). When Forster's cousin [[Philip Whichelo]] donated a portrait of Forster to the [[Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association]] (GLHA), [[Jim Herrick]], the founder, quoted Forster's words: "The humanist has four leading characteristics – curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race."<ref>{{cite news |title=E. M. Forster (1879-1970) |url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/e-m-forster/ |access-date=30 June 2024 |publisher=Heritage Humanists}}</ref>

[[File:Portrait of E.M. Forster by Roger Fry, 1911s..jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Portrait of Forster in 1911 by [[Roger Fry]], painted a year after receiving critical acclaim for his fourth novel ''Howards End''. Both members of the [[Bloomsbury Group]], Fry was an influence on Forster's aesthetics.<ref>{{cite news |title=Roger Fry (British, 1866-1934) |url=https://www.bonhams.com/auction/25852/lot/5/roger-fry-british-1866-1934-portrait-of-em-forster-73-x-60-cm-28-14-x-23-58-in-painted-in-1911/ |access-date=1 July 2024 |work=Bonhams}}</ref>]]
Two of Forster's best-known works, ''A Passage to India'' and ''Howards End'', explore the irreconcilability of class differences. ''[[A Room with a View]]'' also shows how questions of propriety and class can make human connection difficult. ''A Room with a View'' is his most widely read and accessible work, remaining popular long after its original publication. His posthumous novel ''[[Maurice (novel)|Maurice]]'' explores the possibility of class reconciliation as one facet of a homosexual relationship.

Sexuality is another key theme in Forster's works. Some critics have argued that a general shift from heterosexual to homosexual love can be observed throughout the course of his writing career. The foreword to ''Maurice'' describes his struggle with his homosexuality, while he explored similar issues in several volumes of short stories. Forster's explicitly homosexual writings, the novel ''Maurice'' and the short story collection ''[[The Life to Come (and Other Stories)|The Life to Come]],'' were published shortly after his death. Beyond his literary explorations of sexuality, Forster also expressed his views publicly; in 1953, Forster openly advocated in ''[[The New Statesman and Nation]]'' for a change in the law in regard to homosexuality (which would be [[Sexual Offences Act 1967|legalised in England and Wales in 1967]], three years prior to his death), arguing that homosexuality between adults should be treated without bias and on the same grounds as heterosexuality.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Homosexuality rise is troubling Britons |pages=28 |work=[[The New York Times]] |publication-date=3 November 1953 |url=https://nyti.ms/3McGKgw}}</ref>

Forster is noted for his use of [[symbol]]ism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised (as by his friend [[Roger Fry]]) for his attachment to [[mysticism]]. One example of his symbolism is the [[wych elm]] tree in ''Howards End.''<ref>{{cite news |title=The Wych Elm by Tana French — reminiscent of Donna Tartt's The Secret History |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/article/review-the-wych-elm-by-tana-french-reminiscent-of-donna-tartts-the-secret-history-zxzzbtv30 |access-date=30 June 2024 |work=[[The Times]]}}</ref> The characters of Mrs Wilcox in that novel and Mrs Moore in ''A Passage to India'' have a mystical link with the past, and a striking ability to connect with people from beyond their own circles. Forster, Henry James, and [[W. Somerset Maugham]] were the earliest writers in English to portray characters from diverse countries – France, Germany, Italy and India. Their work explores cultural conflict, but arguably the motifs of humanism and cosmopolitanism are dominant. In a way, this is anticipation of the concept of human beings shedding national identities and becoming more and more liberal and tolerant.