A Room With a View
Unabridged Original Classic Edition
by E. M. Forster
One of Forster’s earlier works, A Room with a View (1908) has demonstrated enduring popularity arising from the vivid cast of characters, humorous dialogue, and comedic commentary on the restrained culture of Edwardian-era England and fixation on “propriety” among the minor gentry. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century.
The novel opens in Florence with Miss Lucy Honeychurch, touring Italy with her spinster cousin and chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett complaining about their rooms at the Pensione Bertolini, where they were promised rooms with a view of the River Arno but are instead given rooms overlooking a drab courtyard. Another guest, Mr. Emerson, offers to swap rooms, as he and his son, George, have rooms with views of the river. Charlotte rejects the offer, offended by Mr. Emerson’s lack of tact and propriety and fearing they would be placed under an “unseemly obligation”. Another guest, Mr. Beebe, an Anglican clergyman, persuades Charlotte to accept the offer.
As the characters paths cross and intersect both in Italy and back home in England, Lucy gradually emerges as her own woman, her sheltered eyes opening to ideas unlike those she has known growing up in the English countryside. Unexpectedly, she realizes that the social rules she has always regarded as natural and absolute are actually arbitrary and that “propriety” can be a somewhat flexible mindset.
This unabridged Edition is not an electronic scan or reproduction. The text has been formatted and edited by human editors, based on the classic original edition, and is printed on heavyweight bright white paper with a fully laminated cover.
We have used a non-serif font, spacing between paragraphs, and no justification on the right margin in keeping with the current guidelines for readability in print books, along with a 12-point font size, making this edition much easier on the eyes than most commonly available paperbacks. Additionally, we have not inserted blank pages or large whitespaces before chapter headings to reduce the consumption of resources.
About the Author
E. M. Forster, (1879-1970) was born into an upper-middle-class family. Educated at Cambridge, he was a long-standing member of the Bloomsbury group of British literary figures. His first major novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), proved extremely popular, but his first major financial and critical success was Howards End (1910). Forster’s novels dealt with themes of middle-class life and its values and class distinctions and hypocrisy in British society. His final novel, A Passage to India (1924), examined the lack of understanding between ethnic and social groups in the British Empire.
In the 1930s and 1940s Forster became a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio, and an active advocate for individual liberty, penal reform and opposition to censorship. He continued to make public and television appearances through the 1950s and into the 1960s, passing away at 91 in 1970.
Product details
Publisher: S. M. Holden, Independently published (September 23, 2024)
Language: English
Paperback: 207 pages
ISBN: 979-8340064288
Item Weight: 13.3 ounces
Dimensions: 6 x 0.47 x 9 inches
List Price: $10.97
