Howard's End

Two worlds collide in E.M. Forster's Howard's End: the intellectual, highly theoretical world of the Schlegels and the practical, capitalistic world of the Wilcoxes. The two families meet by chance--in fact the very lively opening of the novel finds Helen Schlegel announcing her engagement to Paul Wilcox only to say it is all over the very next day. Helen's older sister, Margaret, befriends Mrs. Wilcox, and when Mrs. Wilcox dies, she leaves Margaret the family's country estate, Howard's End. Outraged, the men in the family say the last whim of their wife and mother cannot be legally binding, and dismiss the claim.

Sexual politics are definitely at work throughout the novel. The Schlegels' parents died when they were young, so Margaret is used to being the head of the family. She and her sister are both highly independent and extremely well-educated, following a very avant-garde set of writers and artists. Both have their foibles, however. In fact, all of the characters have strong foibles, and only a few are endearing enough to get past them. Helen, especially, has an Emma quality to her. She takes on the cause of Leonard Bast, a clerk she meets by chance at a concert. Meaning well, she works to better his place in life. However, she goes about this mission foolishly and causes much pain in the process.

This was a very readable book--after I reached the midway point, it was hard to put down. Written in 1910, it included a lot of the society and marriage drama of the great nineteenth-century English novels, but the scandals were much more scandalous. Forster perfectly blended the theoretical aspects of the novel--the intellectual versus the practical--with an engaging story. This was the first book I've read by Forster, but I look forward to reading more.