Howards End

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CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Apr 15, 2011 - Fiction - 372 pages
When Howards End was published in 1910, critics generally agreed it surpassed E. M. Forster's earlier novels. Forster had arrived as an important author of his generation. Forster's novels are all now considered classics, with Howards End and A Passage to India regarded as his best works. Howards End tells a superbly crafted story of social class tensions between three families in turn-of-the-century England. "We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable, and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet. This story deals with gentlefolk, or with those who are obliged to pretend that they are gentlefolk."-p. 49."By all means subscribe to charities-subscribe to them largely-but don't get carried away by absurd schemes of Social Reform. I see a good deal behind the scenes and you can take it from me that there is no Social Question-except for a few journalists who try to get a living out of the phrase. There are just rich and poor, as there always has been and always will be."-p. 203.Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was born in London. He attended the Tonbridge School in Kent, then went on to study history, philosophy, and literature at King's College, Cambridge. He wrote six novels, short stories, essays, and other nonfiction. In 1953 he was made a Companion of Honour and in 1969 was appointed to the Order of Merit. At the age of ninety, on 7 June 1970, Forster died at the home of Robert Buckingham, his friend and long-time companion.Dr. Craig Paterson, Series Editor, Viewforth Classics.

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About the author (2011)

Edward Morgan Forster was born on January 1, 1879, in London, England. He never knew his father, who died when Forster was an infant. Forster graduated from King's College, Cambridge, with B.A. degrees in classics (1900) and history (1901), as well as an M.A. (1910). In the mid-1940s he returned to Cambridge as a professor, living quietly there until his death in 1970. Forster was named to the Order of Companions of Honor to the Queen in 1953. Forster's writing was extensively influenced by the traveling he did in the earlier part of his life. After graduating from Cambridge, he lived in both Greece and Italy, and used the latter as the setting for the novels Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and A Room with a View (1908). The Longest Journey was published in 1907. Howard's End was modeled on the house he lived in with his mother during his childhood. During World War I, he worked as a Red Cross Volunteer in Alexandria, aiding in the search for missing soldiers; he later wrote about these experiences in the nonfiction works Alexandria: A History and Guide and Pharos and Pharillon. His two journeys to India, in 1912 and 1922, resulted in A Passage to India (1924), which many consider to be Forster's best work; this title earned the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Forster wrote only six novels, all prior to 1925 (although Maurice was not published until 1971, a year after Forster's death, probably because of its homosexual theme). For much of the rest of his life, he wrote literary criticism (Aspects of the Novel) and nonfiction, including biographies (Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson), histories, political pieces, and radio broadcasts. Howard's End, A Room with a View, and A Passage to India have all been made into successful films.

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