What makes this masterpiece a pure delight for contemporary readers is its vibrant portrait of life in Edwardian England, and the wonderful characters who inhabit the charming old country house in Hertfordshire called Howards End. This cozy house becomes the object of an inheritance dispute between the upright conservative Wilcox family and the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, sensitive and intuitive women loved by men willing to leap wide social barriers to fulfill their ardor. Through romantic entanglements, disappearing wills, and sudden tragedy, the conflict over the house emerges as a symbolic struggle for England's future. Rich with the tradition, spirit, and wit distinctively English, Howards End is a remarkable novel of rare insight and understanding. As in his celebrated A Passage to India, E. M. Forster brings to vivid life a country and an era through the destinies of his unforgettable characters.
Sounds interesting. After reading the back of the book I expected there to be a lot of drama surrounding Howards End throughout the whole book. The truth: there isn't much of an inheritance dispute, there aren't very many social barriers for the Schlegel sisters and they weren't really loved by very many men, the "will" that "disappeared" had no legal bearing so it wasn't really a will at all and because of that truth there isn't really any conflict over the house to create any symbolism anyway.
The back of the book makes Howards End seem a lot more dramatic that it really was. In fact, most of the drama is created by Margaret and Helen anyway and even then it is mostly in their heads - as drama in the lives of rich, female, bored characters from Edwardian England usually is. Don't get me wrong, there is some drama, even some juicy drama, but overall it is a pretty tame story.
One thing that really bothered me was the wordiness. There were a few places were E. M. Forster seemed to use the same sentence three or so times in a row but just rewrote them - like he needed is book to be a certain number of words for a homework assignment.
It also felt like the author was trying too hard to create a female character that wasn't typical. He seemed to try to make Margaret a progressive thinker but really, to me, she came off as being confusing. She'd go on and on about her ideals but they really didn't make any sense making her feel less like a progressive thinker and more like a dumb woman who was trying to pretend to be a progressive thinker.
I know I haven't said a lot of good things about Howards End so far but I did think it was worth a read. After getting past the wordiness and Margaret being confusing, the story line was solid and interesting with a few unexpected twists and few more expected twists. If you like reading stories from this era of England then you'd probably enjoy it.
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