Howards End by EM Forster ??????? BOOK REVIEW [CC]
So, today we’re going to talk about one
of my favorite books: Howards End, which is
a great novel written by the English writer
E.M. Forster.
Howards End was first published in 1910 and
it is possibly the best novel by E.M. Forster.
And today, I will do my best to tell you why
I think Howards End is so great and why it
is one of my all-time favorite novels.
And if you are new to my channel, welcome,
my name is Juan and I post a new book review
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Okay, before I go into the novel itself, let
me tell you about its author and the context
in which he wrote Howards End.
I think that sometimes knowing about the author
and the world he or she would have lived in
can be helpful to understand and appreciate
the work.
Of course, this is not always the case, but
I think that when it comes to classics or
books written by members of previous generations
to ours, knowing at least a few facts about
them can be illuminating.
And I think that’s the case with E.M. Forster
So, let’s talk E.M. Forster, whose full
name was Edward Morgan Forster.
He was born in London in 1879, so he would
have been about 30 when Howards End was published.
E.M. Forster was practically raised by his
mother and a great aunt because his father
had died when he was incredibly young.
That would explain, at least partially, why
he is so good at creating female characters
– and female characters are central to Howards
End.
E.M. Forster was a brilliant student.
He went to Cambridge University and graduated
in 1901.
He then spent about 19 years traveling around
and living abroad.
He visited Greece, Germany, India, Egypt,
and other countries.
And these experiences make their way into
Forster’s fiction.
I am thinking mostly of A Room with a View
and A Passage to India, but even in Howards
End, we can see some of this.
Although the novel is set in England, some
of the main characters are of mixed German
origin and we know that Forster had spent
some time in Germany trying to learn the language.
In case you are wondering, Forster inherited
a considerable amount of money from his great
aunt and that’s why he was able to travel
so much and focus as a writer.
Although Howards End wasn’t his first book,
I’ve read that it was his first major success.
One thing is for sure, this novel earned him
a reputation as a great writer and, as far
as I am concerned, he more than deserved it.
However, after Howards End, he only wrote
two novels: Maurice, which was actually published
posthumously in 1971, and A Passage to India
in 1924.
So, Forster stopped writing fiction in 1924
when he was only 45 years old, and he lived
for another 46 years (he died in 1970).
Forster worked as an academic at King’s
College and wrote literary criticism, essays,
and journalistic pieces but never wrote fiction
again.
And it is a bit of a mystery why he stopped.
Luckily, Forster wrote great books.
I haven’t read all his novels yet, even
though he only wrote 6, but I think I’m
going to correct that soon.
I have read Howards End, and I think it is
one of the greatest novels I’ve read, so
let’s talk about it, without making any
spoilers.
By the way, if you look at the description
box for this video, you will find a link where
you can buy Howards End and support my channel.
Okay, so one of the things I love about Howards
End, and there are many things I love about
this novel, is getting to chance to glimpse
at what the world was like – at least, what
Britain was like, only a few years before
World War I.
Those few early years of the 20th century
before Europe was ravished by two wars.
A world in transition if you like.
It still reminds us of the Victorian era,
but it is no longer Victorian England.
Strictly speaking, the novel is set during
the Edwardian era.
The Edwardian era was short because Kind Edward
VII, Queen Victoria’s heir, only reigned
between 1901 and 1910.
I think it is widely agreed that the Edwardian
era spanned between King Edward’s coronation
in 1901 until the advent of the Great War
in 1914.
And E.M. Forster does not only present this
world to us, but he explores it for us.
He explores the questions of the time in England.
He goes into the social changes, the economic
forces at play, and even the most abstract
ideas that would have been discussed back
then.
So, how does he do this?
In Howards End, there are three groups of
characters, each of which belongs to a specific
social class with a different outlook on life.
So, we have the Schlegel family: they are
English but of mixed German origin.
They represent the upper-class intellectuals
of the time.
The Schlegels are idealists, in contrast with
the second group of characters: the Wilcox
family.
Now, the Wilcoxes represent the up-and-coming
materialism and pragmatism that I think over
time has won over and now dominates not only
England but many countries around the world.
Also, the third group is one that we can also
still recognize.
They are the Bast family, representing the
working poor.
People who work hard but remain poor and don’t
seem to have any possibility of ever moving
up.
So, the three families are The Schlegels,
The Wilcoxes, and The Basts.
And throughout the novel, the lives of the
members of all three families will become
entangled in the same plot.
I think the Schlegels and the Basts are the
ones who have more in common.
Because some members of both families, despite
their huge socio-economic differences, are
idealistic.
For instance, Leonard Bast believes that reading
books can change his life and save him from
almost destitution.
His economic situation is so desperate, but
he still believes that he will find a better
life if he only read the right books.
And it is that belief that puts him in touch
with the Schelgels and thus kickstart the
symbolic class mixture that was also beginning
to happen in England at the time.
The rigid social class structure of England
was beginning to change beyond all recognition
and Howards End is a brilliant portrayal of
that.
But Howards End is also a fun novel to read
with a compelling, propelling plot.
I mean, if you read for plot, and do not care
about any of these social questions, you will
still have a great time with Howards End.
The novel has many layers, but I am not here
to tell you how to read it.
I just want to convey why I think it is so
great and worth reading.
But now I would like to go talk about the
plot and go a little bit deeper so I am going
to have to say goodbye to those viewers who
haven’t read Howards End or those who don’t
want to hear any spoilers.
Because between now and the end of this video
I am going to talk about the plot of the novel,
its characters, and some of its themes in
a lot more detail and there will be some spoilers.
So, if you don’t want any spoilers, you
have been warned: you should stop watching
now and I’ll see you again soon, I hope,
for another book review.
Okay, for those of you who are still here,
I am going to summarize the plot of Howards
End now.
So here we go.
The two main families are the Schlegels whose
members are, as I said earlier, highly idealistic;
and the Wilcoxes, which are materialistic.
Both families seemed destined to be joined
because two of their younger members: Helen
Schlegel and Paul Wilcox have a relationship.
Helen and Paul have a brief romance that happens
largely off the text.
Their brief romance doesn’t end well, anyway.
And there’s also a misunderstanding about
their romance that is both stressful and hilarious
at the beginning of the novel.
However, once the romance is over, life goes
on for the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes as if
they had never met.
Then enters the scene the third group of main
characters, the Basts.
We first get introduced to Leonard Bast, who
is a young office clerk who, although formally
uneducated engages in intellectual pursuits.
So, one day Leonard Bast and Helen Wilcox
attend a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth
Symphony.
Helen accidentally steals Leonard’s umbrella,
so he follows her in the rain and ends at
the Schlegel’s home where he meets the rest
of the family, which is made up of Helen’s
siblings: her elder sister Margaret and their
younger brother Tibby.
Just when the Schlegels think they will never
have to deal with the Wilcox family again,
they learn that the Wilcoxes have moved from
their country estate of Howards End to a flat
just opposite the Schlegel home in London.
The good news is that there is no chance for
anything unpleasant happening because Paul
is now living in Nigeria, and Helen is visiting
her cousin Frieda in Germany.
However, Margaret and Paul’s mother Mrs.
Wilcox become friends.
But not long after that, Mrs. Wilcox dies.
She leaves a note in which she states her
wish that Howards End be given to Margaret.
However, her husband, Henry, and her son,
Charles, who are both businessmen, decide
to keep Howards End to themselves and never
tell Margaret about it.
One evening, Margaret and Helen bump into
Henry.
They tell him about Leonard Bast, the poor
insurance clerk they had met on that rainy
afternoon when Helen accidentally stole the
guy’s umbrella.
Well, Henry decides he must tell them that
he knows for a fact that the insurance company
where Leonard works is doomed to failure.
Henry tells the Schlegel sisters that they
should advise Leonard to find a new job.
Leonard is desperate to improve himself.
He reads all the time.
He also looks up to the Schlegels because
they are so cultured and idealistic.
However, he sees their advice to quit his
job as an intrusion and gets mad at them.
Then, Margaret and Henry become friends, very
gradually.
But they do get close.
At that time, the trend to turn big houses
into apartment buildings was beginning in
London.
So, when the Schlegels’ lease expires, they
begin looking for another house because their
landlord wants to turn their house at Wickham
Place into flats so he can make a bigger profit.
Margaret’s new friend, Henry, has the solution:
he owns a house in London that the Schlegels
could rent.
But just as he is showing Margaret around
the place, he proposes to her, and she accepts.
Before Margaret and Henry get married, however,
there’s another wedding: that of his daughter
Evie with Percy Cahill.
After that wedding, Helen arrives with Leonard
and his wife Jacky.
Helen is mad because Leonard had left his
job at the insurance company following their
advice to do so, which was based on Henry’s
opinion.
Leonard had found another job but had then
been fired.
So, now the Basts have no income.
Helen blames her sister’s husband-to-be
Henry for this.
Margaret asks Henry to give Leonard a job.
And he probably would’ve given him work
except for the fact that Henry had had an
affair with Leonard’s wife Jacky about 10
years ago in Cyprus where she worked as a
prostitute.
To Henry’s credit, he tells Margaret all
of this.
She decides to forgive him (after all, they
didn’t know each other 10 years ago), but
there will be no job for poor Leonard.
Helen and the Basts are staying in a hotel
in town waiting to hear back from Margaret
about the job.
In the evening, Jacky goes to bed, but Helen
and Leonard stay up talking when they get
a note from Margaret telling them that there
will be no job.
One thing leads to another, and Helen and
Leonard have sex.
The aftermath is that they both regret it,
Leonard feels guilty about it… and, oh,
Helen gets pregnant.
Helen goes to Germany and doesn’t tell anybody
she is pregnant.
Margaret and Henry get married and start a
new life together.
However, months later, Margaret begins to
get worried about Helen.
So, she comes up with a plan to surprise her.
It so happens that after they left their London
home, the Schlegel family’s belongings were
stored at Howards End.
So, Margaret gets Helen to go there to get
some books.
Margaret arrives as a surprise and finds out
that Helen is pregnant because it is showing.
Margaret has a positive reaction to her younger
sister’s pregnancy, but her husband’s
reaction is not so positive.
He even refuses to let Helen spend the night
at Howards End because she is unwed and pregnant.
Margaret thinks her husband is a hypocrite
because wasn’t he the one who had an extramarital
affair with a prostitute?
Anyway, Margaret and Henry argue, and she
decides to leave him and go to Germany with
Helen.
But before the sisters move to Germany, Leonard
comes to Howards End to talk to Margaret.
When he gets there, Henry’s oldest son,
Charles, beats him up and a bookcase falls
on Leonard causing him to die from a heart
attack.
The symbology of Leonard’s death is ironic.
He, who was someone who thought that reading
books would better him as a person, dies after
being crushed by a bookcase.
Charged with manslaughter, Charles is sentenced
to three years in prison.
After this, Henry, Margaret, and Helen move
into Howards End.
Helen and Henry learn to get along and Helen’s
son is born.
And they live there happily ever after!
And that is the plot of Howards End.
The estate of Howards End is central to the
plot.
The narrative both starts and concludes at
Howards End.
And in the end, the country estate is the
place where the idealists and the materialists
must live together in harmony.
The losers in this story are the Basts.
The Schlegels and the Wilcoxes will, despite,
their differences learn to live together eventually.
But the Basts are not only excluded from this;
they are also victims: Leonard loses his job
and then dies because of that marriage (symbolic
and real) between the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes.
However, something of the Basts lives on because
Helen’s child is also Leonard’s son.
Although of course, the child will never be
able to meet his father.
Now, I think Forster’s novel is highly symbolic
of the social changes that were happening
in the early 20th century.
But he also manages to write a novel that
works as a story, the plot of Howards End
is compelling.
And I am not the only one who thinks so.
English writer Zadie Smith based her novel
On Beauty on Howards End, adapting its plot
to early 21st-century life and throwing race
into the mix of socio-economic differences
between the characters.
Smith borrows part of the plot and, from memory
(I read On Beauty when it first came out in
2005), she does it successfully.
But, going back to Howards End, through its
plot, which seems plausible and not as contrived
as that of Victorian novels, Forster manages
to intertwine the lives of two families, each
representing two sides of the same coin.
That coin being the English upper class.
Howards End is full of philosophical ideas,
mostly expressed through dialogue between
the different characters.
Almost any scene where Margaret is present
will contain some philosophical ideas.
And it is fascinating to see what ideas were
being discussed in Britain only years before
World War One.
But I also want to highlight that Howards
End is a lot of fun to read.
The novel has a compelling plot, and interesting
characters (not only the Schlegels).
Its author, EM Forster shifts with ease from
comedy to tragedy while also managing to move
the reader.
Of course, some of the language might seem
a bit old fashioned to us now, but I would
ask you to try and get over what may seem
to us like language affectation.
I think this novel deserves to be read and
re-read.
And, although I haven’t read everything
that EM Forster wrote, from what I have read
I can say that Howards End is the best.
Hands down.
And, well, if you have made it to the end
of the video, thank you.
Now, please let me know what you think about
all this or any of this in the comments section
below.
I would love to hear from you!
I’m signing off now.
This is all from me.
I hope that you are all doing very well and
hope to see you again very soon for another
book review.
Bye for now!
