A Room With a View

By: E. M. Forster

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in Italy and England, this is a rich and romantic story of Lucy Honeychurch and the choice she must make between love and convention. Commuters Library presents a wonderful reading of this time-honored classic by Wanda McCaddon.

©2002 Commuter's Library (P)2002 Commuter's Library

More Funny, Beautiful, and Moving than the Movie

E. M. Forester's A Room With a View (1908) opens with the upper-middle class British tourist Lucy Honeychurch and her spinster chaperone Charlotte Bartlett complaining about not having a room with a view in their Florence pension. Mr. Emerson and his son George offer their viewed rooms to the women, but Charlotte is affronted by the crude interference of such "common" men. Isn't Mr. Emerson an atheist-socialist and his son a railroad worker? The novel depicts Lucy's struggle to mature into an independent thinking, living, and loving woman beneath the stifling weight of cultural convention, familial expectation, and fear of passion.

While I really enjoyed watching the 1985 film of the novel, listening to Wanda McCaddon reading the audiobook evoked in me another magnitude of laughter, tears, and ecstasy. She effortlessly switches between male and female voices, expressing their different personalities through slight changes in her tone or manner, and her distinctive, gravelly voice enhances the wit and heart of the novel.

There are many memorable scenes: of beauty and romance (George kissing Lucy amid the foamy field of wild Italian violets), of social comedy (Lucy, her mother, and Cecil Vyse coming upon the nudely frolicking George, Freddy, and Mr. Beebe by the pond in the woods), and of moving insight (Lucy talking with Mr. Emerson in Mr. Bebe's study). Throughout, the lines are witty, the insights into human nature telling, and the philosophies of life stimulating. And the characters are adorable! Mr. Emerson so eccentric, kind, open-minded, and frank. George so passionate and honest. Lucy so "muddled." Freddy so simple and healthy. Mr. Beebe so full of good humor. Even the mean-spirited, priggish snobs like Cecil and Charlotte are sympathetic. And there are many compelling themes in the novel about gender, class, culture, tourism, youth, love, and life. And Forster's Florence is magical and mythical: "fate."

Love and learning in a time

of deep suppression of human emotional needs - it takes Italy to birth the inappropriate love afair and the beauty of the English countryside to nurture it to maturity...beautifully wrtten and narrated.

Incredible

Returned to this book after many years. I kept borrowing and returning various narrators, listening to 10 or 15 minutes each, until I settled on this one. Wanda’s reading here is exquisite.

A DESERVING CLASSIC.

What a treat this mixture of characters. The variety of thoughts expressed and then contradicted by the truth of their motovations for those very same thoughts. The narrator does a superb job as is usual for her.

Makes you remember what matters in life.

What a touching and uplifting story! The characters are so well written with depth and understanding. It brings out all kinds of emotion only a great story can do. And, this version of audio is read wonderfully.

Love Conquers All

On the surface this is a delightful well-written romance, in the audible version beautifully brought off by a lovely reading by Wanda McCaddon. But its real purpose seems to have been to explore the rigid class structure of Victorian England, its hypocrisy (the Honeychurch family's standing in society for example is simply due to the deceased Mr. Honeychurch's foresight in purchasing Windy corner) and the challenge to it (represented by the forward-thinking atheistic Mr. Emerson). Forster's sympathy obviously lies with the removal of the class structure as shown by Lucy's ultimate choice of husband and the title of the final chapter "the End of the Middle Ages" but it is not an unconditional vote; Mr. Emerson's choices lost him his wife and the understanding of his son and in Chapter 19, the author has Lucy thinking "it seemed dreadful that the old man should crawl into such a sanctum [the clergyman's house] when he was unhappy, and be dependent of the bounty of a clergyman" he having said to her "We have pushed our beliefs too far. I fancy we deserve some sorrow."

There are some complaints; Mrs. Honeychurch's failure accept Lucy's choice is out of character and the reader is left tantalizingly to speculate on Charlotte's sudden change from opponent to ally and to wonder what lay in her past.

I gave Bleak House 4 stars, Room with a View is not as good, it's more of a 3.5 but well worth the read/listen.

Great on so many levels

This, like any well-written book, has several levels. I thought the title was referring exclusively to the view of Florence...not so. This was a beautifully written character study. So glad I finally got around to it.

This was great fun to read immediately after returning home from Italy. Reading detailed descriptions of places I had just been was great fun. Who doesn't enjoy thinking, "Oooh, I was standing right there!"?

A classic so it requires patience

What did you like best about A Room With a View? What did you like least?

I found myself looking at an online study guide for this book to explain what is going on. Once I got into it, it's fine but moves at a leisurely pace. It spends a long time on some subjects but the most important parts go by quickly so pay attention or cheat with a study guide.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Good but not great.

Have you listened to any of Wanda McCaddon’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Love Wanda and I have heard her read other books.

Superb Character Story

Love this book and this audio version!
Each of the characters are masterfully developed. Just like real people, they surprise me now and then! This keeps the story from being superficial, and made me hit pause to ponder.
Overall, the humor is delightful, and the story makes me want to visit Florence and Windy Corner.
This novel is much lighter than Forster’s Howards End.

Read for the Words Not for A Plot

I am a strong follower and great appreciator of Romantic literature. I come for the intertwining stories and stay for the gusto of the written word. Forster’s stories I find to be the weakest plots in all of British literature, but his words are luscious. Add in Wanda McCaddon's truly magnificent reading and A Room With a View, by E.M. Foster and narrated by Wanda McCaddon is well worth the read although only for the luscious words and McCaddon speech. Girl meets a boy, and he kisses her (more than once) and she is outwardly humiliated, but is actually in love with the kiss stealer, and somehow they find a way to find each other in love. If I can find a Foster story with no story just a lot of words, well that would be great.