Howards End

Description

When a brief romance between Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox ends badly, their two very different families are brought into collision. The liberal, intellectual Schlegels, who had hoped never to see the capitalist, pragmatic Wilcoxes again, learn that Paul's family are moving from their country estate - Howards End - to a flat just across the road. As the lives of the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes become increasingly entangled, Helen befriends Leonard Bast, a man of lower social status. His presence further inflames the families political and cultural differences, which are brought to a head in a fatal confrontation at Howards End.

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879, attended Tonbridge School and went on to King's College, Cambridge in 1897, where he retained a lifelong connection and was elected to an Honorary Fellowship in 1946. Forster wrote six novels. Where Angels Fear to Tread '1905' The Longest Journey '1907', A Room with a View '1908' and Howards End '1910' were all published before the First World War. Fourteen years passed before the publication of Forster's most famous work, A Passage to India, in 1924. Maurice, his novel on a homosexual theme, which he competed in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. His other works include essays, biographies, short stories, plays and a critical work, Aspects of the Novel, as the libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd. E.M. Forster died in June 1970.