E. M. Forster

E. M. Forster (1879-1970), English novelist and essayist, whose novels, written in a style notable for its conciseness and fluidity, explore the attitudes that create barriers between people.

Forster was born in London on January 1, 1879 and educated at King’s College, Cambridge University. There he was elected to a discussion group, The Apostles, through which he met members of what was to become the Bloomsbury Group. After a short residence in Italy, he turned to writing full time. His first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), appeared when Forster was 26 years old and displays a remarkably mature style. This was followed by The Longest Journey (1907) and A Room with a View (1908). The construction of these three novels was a reaction to lengthy, formally plotted Victorian fiction. Somewhat autobiographical, they also sounded a theme prevalent in Forster’s essays: the need to temper middle-class materialism with due consideration of things of the mind and imagination, in order to achieve harmony and understanding. This theme is treated more fully in Forster’s masterpieces, Howards End (1910), with its message of “only connect”, and A Passage to India (1924). The latter, the last novel Forster wrote, deals with the conflict of cultures in terms of the ambiguous personal relationship between an English visitor and an Indian during British rule and displays Forster’s own dislike of imperialism.

Two volumes of short stories were published by Forster during his lifetime, The Celestial Omnibus (1914) and The Eternal Moment (1924). Maurice (1971; written 1913-1914), a novel, and The Life to Come (1972; written throughout his life), a collection of short stories, were not published until after Forster’s death because of their homosexual content. Forster’s own homosexuality is not overtly expressed in the work he published during his lifetime, but his sympathy for Indians under British rule, for women in a male-dominated society, or for lower-class characters can be seen as sympathy for other marginalized people arising from his own marginalized sexuality. Many of his novels contain pleas for tolerance, and an awareness of its absence: the final lines of A Passage To India symbolize this very anguish, as Aziz, an Indian, is pleaded with by Fielding, an Englishman:

Forster’s convictions and outlook were clearly expressed in his essay collections, Abinger Harvest (1936) and Two Cheers for Democracy (1951), as well as in his travel books, The Hill of Devi (1953), an account of his sojourn in India and the real basis for A Passage to India, and Alexandria: A History and a Guide (1922; revised 1961). The latter was based on Forster’s civilian duties there during World War I. A variety of other literary endeavours included editorship, for a brief period after World War I, of the Daily Herald, a Labour Party newspaper; the libretto for the opera Billy Budd (1951), by the English composer Benjamin Britten; and an important piece of literary criticism, Aspects of the Novel, based on lectures he gave at Cambridge University in 1927. He also argued against the suppression of The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall in 1928 and later, in 1960, spoke out in defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence.

Forster, an honorary fellow of King’s College, Cambridge University, resided there from 1946 until his death in Coventry, England, on June 7, 1970. Forster’s critical reputation has remained high, and popular interest in his novels has been fuelled by the recent films made from his works: A Passage to India (1984); A Room with a View (1985); Maurice (1987); Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991); and Howards End (1992).