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

Beautiful

What else can I say about this marvellous thing, possibly E.M. Forester's best work? The love story is perfect, and the characters are alive - too alive almost, as you can't help getting a tad aggravated with Lucy at moments and love her nonetheless. Much of the story is set in Italy - where Forster spent such a long time himself - and perfectly so, hilarious at times and sad; and also so wise you'll barely notice, and when you do it hits you in the gut like you'd just stumbled over a treasure. Although the story is set decades ago, if you are an experienced creature, you will relate, trust me.

Ok, but not my favorite book

I ordered this audiobook because I am planning to go to Italy this summer for two months to study. I wanted to get a feel for Italy and get myself more pumped to go. I didn't really know much about the book and I think I didn't like it that much because it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a super romantic book. It is somewhat romantic but it talks a whole lot more about convention and that kind of thing than I wanted to hear. I wasn't really looking for a deep novel or anything like that. I just finished listening to "A Walk to Remember" so I guess I was expecting this book to be a lot like it (light and sweet, more focused on the relationship between the guy and girl than about social customs and that kind of thing).

I like the narrator Wanda McCaddon a lot. I really liked how she narrated "A Secret Garden." But for this book I didn't like the voice she used for Lucy Honeychurch that much. It sounded a little too childish and whiny for how I would imagine Lucy Honeychurch's voice to sound. But other than that she did fine for this book.

Wonderful performance of an outstanding novel

I'm not sure how a voracious reader like me missed this classic novel, but luckily, my book club picked it and I promptly downloaded the audio (narrator: Wanda McCaddon). I found myself immediately transported to Florence, Italy, and completely captivated by the travails of young Lucy Honeychurch. Everything about this book is perfect: the descriptions of Florence and the muddy Arno (where I visited long ago and toured with my then-future husband); the stinging digs at tourists who go abroad only to stay clumped together with others of their same nationality (in my experience, tourists have not improved at all since Forster's time); the characters with their personal foibles, dreams and fears. Even the titles of the chapters are wonderful: "In Santa Croce with no Baedeker," "Lucy as a Work of Art," "Lying to Mr. Beebe, Mrs. Honeychurch, Freddy, and The Servants." Many times I laughed out loud, often caught my breath at the beauty of particularly beautifully written passages, and constantly ached with longing to be young and in love again. The narrator was wonderful and I found myself wishing the book would never end.

Hated the movie - love the book

This is a charming listen. Forster is a great observer of English middle classness (which has changed less than it should). The reading is easy on the ear and the book is a great pleasure. I was nearly put off by the fact that I disliked the movie but am glad that I took the chance.

Good book, curiously poor recording

The story isn't fast paced, but it is lively and witty enough to keep me engaged. I feel let down by the quality of the recording though. It isn't even the fault of the narrator, simply that the recording has a tin-like echo to it even though I downloaded Audio 4. It doesn't feel like a professionally produced work.

A Room With a View

A Room With a View
By: E.M. Forster
Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Charming book, charmingly read

Forster is always readable, has an assortment of interesting (if non-varying) characters, and a dependable story arc. This is one of his best. And yet, there always seems to be something a little lacking in his writing. I wish I could put my finger on it. Maybe it has to do with Lucy's piano playing. Lacking polish but filled with passion. I wish Forster had a little more of that passion, even with less polish. Still, Forster is better than 80% of everything else that's out there so who am I to complain.

tireless observer

After I listened to the book, Hubby and I streamed the movie. Afterwards:
Hubby: When was the book written?
Me: About a hundred years ago.
Hubby: It seems so modern!
That's Forster for you. He watches people, and understands their prejudices and passions, and gets it down in writing. And though society changes, and the nature of the pressures it exerts on people changes, human nature is just the same as it was 100 years ago. As a man with secret passions, Forster knew his material inside and out.
Wanda McCaddon is an excellent narrator. Sometimes women's voices are too brassy for male characters, and I was concerned that McCaddon's voice would be distracting, but her inflections are so convincing that this was not an issue. I would definitely choose her again.

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.