Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Don't be mysterious; there isn't the time.”
I enjoyed this short novel. It is definitely a story where "fools rush in," but it is also a meditation on why people make the choices they do and how the relationships within a family dictate some of those choices. The story is about a young widow, but the focus is on four people who are compelled to rush in and "fix" the mistakes they think she has made. The consequences are tragic.
This was Forster's first novel and there are definitely themes and ideas here that are expanded on in A Room with a View (published 3 years later).
“You told me once that we shall be judged by our intentions, not by our accomplishments. I thought it a grand remark. But we must intend to accomplish—not sit intending on a chair.”“The advance of regret can be so gradual that it is impossible to say "yesterday I was happy, today I am not.”
This book is on my Classics Club list; it counts toward the Back to the Classics Challenge (as a 20th century classic); and it is on my TBR Pile Challenge list.
I read all the Forster’s back in my 20’s - when I didn’t think about chronology at all. But it does make a difference doesn’t it, knowing where the book you’re reading fits within the authors career?
ReplyDeleteSometimes the order of writing can really make a difference! I haven't read all of Forester (and I dnf'd Maurice) but I am close.
DeleteI absolutely need to read this one, for one thing it is short. I've had it with classics that break the back! Here is my Classics Club Spin THE SECRET GARDEN
ReplyDeleteE.M. Forester is a favorite author of mine. I enjoyed this novel of his, too. :)
ReplyDelete