Saturday, June 5, 2010

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

A great Edwardian romantic comedy exploring the different steps of the social ladder. Taking place, first, in a pension in Italy and later in Surrey, England.

Lucy Honeychurch is on vacation in Florence with her cousin. Staying in an Italian pension, they come across a row of interesting characters. She finds herself drawn to a young man, George Emerson, who is definitely not suited for a girl like her and his father is entirely too odd.

The story is Lucy's fight within herself: does she go against society's convention or does she do what is appropriate to her class and marry a nice, well off, gentleman who she didn't really love?

Intertwined within this convoluted love story are some hilarious scenes with unforgettable characters, such as Lucy's brother Freddy. He had me rolling. Also, as I love a good satire, the characters that were just 'too much' and were very much stereotypes of the snobbery of the upper class were just perfect.

It was nice to read a quick, light Edwardian novel after reading some thick, stuffy Victorian ones. A Room With a View, although, not a long novel, still gave one much to think about.

3 comments:

Keri said...

I really liked A Room with a View. I found it really picked up as it went along and I got into it the more I read.♥

Zane Carpathia said...

You know I never really thought about reading Edwardian novels but it does sound rather appealing.

I find that an author who makes great characters makes moving books sometimes regardless of the plots and subplots within them. This makes me want to branch out and try a little Victorian and Edwardian classics.

Thank you for the review!

Lisa said...

I thought I had read this but I don't seem to have the book so maybe I'm just remembering the movie, which was lovely.