Editing E. M. Forster (section)

===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}}