In his introduction, Guido Almansi mentions that Forster's overt symbolism (not least the various "views" in this novel) has been criticised. "Forster seems incapable of describing insignificant actions" but when he manages to balance symbolism with a comedy of manners, all's ok. He's at his best when an apparently innocent phrase has extra meanings. "Forster tries to say important things worthy of an orchestra, but the instruments that he uses are a piccolo or a triangle; and it's extraordinary the harmony he manages to evoke with such modest means"
Critics have said that his treatment of deaths is rather evasive, timid or even (according to Trilling) donnish. His characters have an outsider view of Italy. Some critics think that Forster (or the narrator) has a touristy view too. The novel came out in 1908, when modernism was happening elsewhere.
Chapter headings range from the bland "Capitolo Quarto" to 8-line summaries.
Part I
The first scene shows the English abroad - the upper class and clergy. Lucy Honeychurch and Charlotte Bartlett are on a holiday paid by Lucy's mother. The hotel they're staying at has a cockney owner and many English guests. Lucy's room doesn't have the promised view of the Arno. But they do meet the Rev Beebe, who they've briefly met before. We're privy to some of his thoughts.
They both like Beebe who will be their rev back in Tunbridge Wells. After the meal, Beebe joins the men in the smoking room. He returns having negotiated a room exchange with the Emersons. Charlotte accepts the offer on Lucy's behalf so Lucy would feel under no obligation (George, the Emerson son, is an eligible bachelor).
Next day Lucy is taken for a walk around Florence by Miss Lavish. They realise they have mutual acquaintances. She told Lucy not to bring her guidebook. They get lost. Miss Lavish doesn't like many of the English that come to Italy - she thinks that they wander around like cows.
Miss Lavish (who is "so original") abandons Lucy, who meets the Emersons by chance in a church. She realises that the son is embarrassed by her easily angered old father. The father takes her aside and asks her to befriend his son, who's troubled.
Lucy plays the piano with passion. Though she's been told that a woman can only progress if she finds a man, she has bouts of rebellion, especially after playing beethoven
Back at the Pensione Bartolini they gossip, and talk about Ireland. Miss Lavish lost her first novel-in-progress, which made her start smoking. They sum up the Italians - superficial. Beebe's the only one to be friendly with the Emersons. The others dislike (some of) the Emersons for various reasons.
Lucy goes out alone at twilight to la piazza della Signoria, where she witnesses a murder and faints. George helps her home. She doesn't want people to know what happened.
As in "Passage to India", an organised touristy trip brings dissimilar people close together, and reveals their different views of other cultures. Some of the English are happy for the carriage driver to have his girlfriend beside him. Some are interested in views/places only because they appear in painting/poems. There are allusions to Pan and Persefone. The carriage driver sees more than he should. He's given money by one of the girls.
To Lucy, the shared moment by the Arno after the murder is less excusable than her initial reaction. On the way back to their rooms she admits to Charlotte that she's sinned. There's a storm. Lucy's scared - "Sometimes the need for a sympathetic gesture is so great in us that it doesn't matter what it really means, or how much we'll need to pay for it after." The two women decide to leave for Rome the next morning.
Part II
In Tunbridge Wells a boy and his mother are indoors. We learn that they are Freddy, 19, Lucy's brother, and the mother. Cecil Vyse has asked to marry Lucy.
6 pages later - "Making his appearance rather late in the story, Cecil will be immediately described". Then we learn that Lucy's outside. She's just agreed to marry Cecil. They've known each other for a while. They got to know each other better in Rome. Rev Beebe arrives. He thinks presumptiously that Lucy should merge her music and non-music personalities.
We learn that Cecil dislikes the society events that Lucy's mother wants to put on. Indeed, Cecil doesn't seem to like anyone much. He and Lucy haven't kissed. Cecil finds some tenants (they'd been in Italy - the Emersons!) to irritate snob Sir Henry.
Lucy has come back from Italy changed - aware that class differences can be breached. The old Alan sisters and the Emersons arrive. Freddy, George and Beebe frolic in a muddy pond. They're seen by Lucy and her mother.
The 4th wall is breaking down. Near the start of Ch 14 it says something like "It's rather obvious to the reader to conclude that she loves the young Emerson. To a reader in Lucy's position however it might not be so obvious ... George makes her nervous".
Lucy's worried that news of her secret kiss will emerge. Charlotte visits. Will she tell? Who else knows? Cecil tests Lucy on culture. She doesn't do well. Lucy notices George's un-masculine shyness in her presence.
Things fall apart. Successive chapter headings report on Lucy's battles with George, Cecil, Beebe, her mother, Freddy, the servants and old Mr Emerson.
Cecil's reading a new novel by Joseph Emery Prank, set in Florence. Lucy realises it's written by Miss Lavish. Charlotte provided her with some details.
George tells Lucy that Cecil's not right for her because he prefers things to people. She tells George to leave, then breaks off the engagement with Cecil. Cecil's unexpectedly understanding. She repeats to him George's criticism as if it were her own. Then she tells Beebe that Cecil wouldn't let her be who she wanted to be. The old Misses Alan are thinking of going to Athens or even Constantinople. Lucy wonders if she might go too.
Beebe enjoys knowing what's going on. He tries to guide conversations helpfully. We get inside his mind quite often. He helps Lucy's mother to realise that she should help Lucy. Lucy want to keep news of her broken engagement from George until she's abroad. Her mother dislikes Lucy wanting to leave home and preferring the old Alan sisters to her. George's father tries to talk Lucy out of her decision. He provides some background info about George's mother etc.
Male/Female standard roles and Heroic/Courtly influences are challenged. In the final chapter we learn that the Alan sisters go to Greeece alone. Lucy and George are back in the same Florence pensione as before. It's a spring evening. They look out of the window. They talk about the other characters, how if it wasn't for George's father they'd never have got together. They begin to agree that Charlotte's behaviour could only be explained if she'd wanted (subconsciously maybe) the two of them to get together from the start.
Other reviews
- Penguin reeaders guide (he spent his youth and young adulthood, as Lucy Honeychurch nearly did, repressing his sexual desires to adhere to the expectations of society. ... He was a respected writer, but not yet a famous one, and the themes touched on in his earlier novels—passion and convention, truth and pretense—were now given complexity and eloquence, with the maturity of a more experienced voice, in his third novel. ... While Lucy embodied Forster’s internal strife, Mr. Emerson was created in the image of a man Forster admired, ... The “bright and merry” surface of the novel owes much to the social comedies of Jane Austen and Henry James.)
- Janine Ballard (The values of self-knowledge over self-denial, of clear communication over muddled thinking, of the love and light that we can only express if we are true to ourselves, are at the center of A Room with a View)
- Elizabeth Baines' reading group
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