Summary
A Room with a View, E.M. Forster's beloved 1908 novel, is at once a witty critique of Edwardian England’s society and a poignant romance set in Italy. Ranked 79th on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, this classic tale explores themes of love, self-discovery, and the clash between convention and passion. A Room with a View gained a resurgence in popularity with the acclaimed 1985 Merchant Ivory film adaptation, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands, which won three Academy Awards.
Plot
Set in England and Italy in the early 1900s, A Room with a View centers on Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman torn between her desires and standards of propriety. When the novel opens, Lucy is vacationing in Florence with her cousin Charlotte as chaperone. At their pensione, they meet the unconventional Emersons—Mr. Emerson and his son, George. When George impulsively kisses Lucy during a trip to the countryside, Charlotte whisks Lucy away to Rome. There, Lucy becomes engaged to the priggish Cecil Vyse, seemingly fulfilling societal expectations.
Back in England, Lucy is surprised when the Emersons move to a nearby villa. She finds herself drawn to the free-spirited George. Will she flee again? Will she settle for a respectable marriage or face her true feelings? Will she find the courage to reject society’s rigid conventions and choose love?
Themes
Social conventions versus personal freedom
The transformative power of love
Class differences and social expectations
The contrast between English and Italian cultures
Self-discovery and personal growth
The restrictive nature of Edwardian society
Truth and honesty versus repression and pretense
Setting
A Room with a View is set in the early 1900s, during the Edwardian era, a time of social change and cultural transition in England. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a society grappling with shifting norms and values, particularly regarding the role of women and class distinctions.
The novel's setting spans two contrasting locations—Italy and England. The first half of the story is primarily set in Florence, Italy, where the characters are tourists exploring the city's rich cultural heritage. Key locations include the Pensione Bertolini, where the main characters stay, and iconic Florentine sites such as the Basilica of Santa Croce and Piazza della Signoria. The picturesque hills of Fiesole also feature prominently as a day trip destination.
The second half of the novel shifts to Surrey, England, specifically to Lucy's family home, Windy Corner. This rural English setting provides a stark contrast to the passionate and liberated atmosphere of Italy, embodying the more conservative and restrained aspects of Edwardian society. The nearby woods and a local pond also serve as important settings for key events in the story, highlighting the tension between nature and social propriety that runs throughout the novel.
Characters
Lucy Honeychurch: The young female protagonist who struggles between societal expectations and her true desires.
George Emerson: A free-spirited young man who falls in love with Lucy and challenges her conventional worldview.
Cecil Vyse: Lucy's snobbish fiancé, who represents the restrictive Edwardian society from which Lucy is trying to break free.
Charlotte Bartlett: Lucy's older cousin and chaperone, who is overly concerned with propriety and social conventions.
Mr. Emerson: George's father, an outspoken and unconventional older man who encourages Lucy to follow her heart.
Reverend Mr. Beebe: The local vicar, who is more open-minded than most characters and often acts as a mediator.
Mrs. Honeychurch: Lucy's mother, who represents traditional English country life.
Freddy Honeychurch: Lucy's brother, who befriends George and invites him to their home.
Miss Eleanor Lavish: An eccentric novelist Lucy meets in Florence who encourages her to be more adventurous.
The Miss Alans: Two elderly sisters who are fellow tourists in Italy and later potential tenants for a local villa.
Quick facts
A Room with a View was first published in 1908. but E.M. Forster began working on it as early as 1902, calling it his “Lucy novel."
A Room with a View was Forster's third published novel but the first he began writing.
A Room with a View is ranked number 79 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
The 1985 Merchant Ivory film adaptation won three Academy Awards.
Forster wrote an appendix to the novel in 1958 called “A View without a Room,” describing what happened to George and Lucy after the events of the book.
The novel makes numerous literary allusions, including references to works by Byron, Beethoven, and Dante.
The character of Cecil Vyse is believed to be based on Forster's Cambridge friend Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson.
Noël Coward's 1928 song “A Room with a View” was inspired by the title of Forster's novel.
A Room with a View has been adapted into a stage play, multiple films and TV series, radio dramas, and even a musical.
Author Kevin Kwan wrote a contemporary adaptation of the novel called Sex and Vanity, published in 2020.
About the Author
E.M. (Edward Morgan) Forster was an influential English novelist and essayist in the early 20th century. He is best known for novels examining class differences and social hypocrisy in British society, including A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910), and A Passage to India (1924). Along with symbolism and mystical elements, his writing often explores themes of understanding across societal and cultural barriers, reflected in his famous epigraph from Howards End, “Only connect.”
Born in 1879, Forster and his works were shaped by his beliefs as a humanist and his experience as a gay man. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals and served as a conscientious objector during World War I, working for the Red Cross in Egypt. While maintaining a facade of bachelorhood, he was openly gay among his close circle of friends, during a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain. While he explored same-sex relationships in his writing, his novel Maurice, which depicts a gay love story, was only published posthumously in 1971.
As a novelist, A Passage to India is considered his masterpiece for its nuanced exploration of the dynamics between Westerners, particularly members of the British colonial ruling class, and “foreigners” or natives. Beyond his novels, Forster was an accomplished essayist and broadcaster. He wrote extensively on literary criticism, including the well-known work Aspects of the Novel.
Forster was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature an impressive 13 times over a span of more than 20 years, and he refused the honor of knighthood. He died in 1970 at the age of 91.
