Table Of ContentHOW TO STUDY LITERATURE
General Editors: John Peck and Martin Coyle
HOW TO STUDY AN E. M. FORSTER NOVEL
IN THE SAME SERIES
How to Study a Novel John Peck
Literary Terms and Criticism John Peck and Martin Coyle
How to Study a Shakespeare Play John Peck and Martin Coyle
How to Begin Studying Literature Nicholas Marsh
How to Study a1ane Austen Novel Vivien Jones
How to Study a Thomas Hardy Novel John Peck
How to Study a D. H. Lawrence Novel Nigel Messenger
How to Study a Charles Dickens Novel Keith Selby
How to Study a1oseph Conrad Novel Brian Spittles
How to Study a Renaissance Play Chris Coles
How to Study Modern Drama Kenneth Pickering
How to Study a Poet John Peck
How to Study Chaucer Rob Pope
How to Study Romantic Poetry Paul O'Flinn
How to Study Modern Poetry Tony Curtis
IN PREPARATION
How to Study a 1a mes 1o yce Novel Chris Coles
HOW TO STUDY AN
E. M. FORSTER NOVEL
Nigel Messenger
M
MACMILLAN
©Nigel Messenger 1991
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
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First published 1991
Published by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Filmset by Wearside Tradespools, Fulwell, Sunderland
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Messenger, Nigel
How to study an E. M. Forster novel.
I. Fiction in English. Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan),
1879-1970-Critical studies
I. Title
823.912
ISBN 978-0-333-49155-3 ISBN 978-1-349-10851-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-10851-0
To
jenny, Marcus, Timothy and Abigail
Contents
General Editors' preface vii
Acknowledgements IX
1 Studying Forster: some ideas to get you started 1
2 The Private Forster: an analysis of Maurice 8
3 The First Italian Novel: Where Angels Fear to Tread 24
4 The Second Italian Novel: A Room with a View 53
5 The First English Novel: The Longest journey 80
6 The Second English Novel: Howards End 109
7 The Indian Novel: A Passage to India 139
8 Writing a Forster Essay 173
Further reading 181
General Editors' preface
Everybody who studies literature, either for an examination or
simply for pleasure, experiences the same problem: how to
understand and respond to the text. As every student of
literature knows, it is perfectly possible to read a book over and
over again and yet still feel baffled and at a loss as to what to say
about it. One answer to this problem, of course, is to accept
someone else's view of the text, but how much more rewarding it
would be if you could work out your own critical response to any
book you choose or are required to study.
The aim of this series is to help you develop your critical skills
by offering practical advice about how to read, understand and
analyse literature. Each volume provides you with a clear
method of study so that you can see how to set about tackling
texts on your own. While the authors of each volume approach
the problem in a different way, every book in the series attempts
to provide you with some broad ideas about the kind of texts you
are likely to be studying and some broad ideas about how to
think about literature; each volume then shows you how to apply
these ideas in a way which should help you construct your own
analysis and interpretation. Unlike most critical books, there
fore, the books in this series do not simply convey someone else's
thinking about a text, but encourage you and show you how to
think about a text for yourself.
Each book is written with an awareness that you are likely to
be preparing for an examination, and therefore practical advice
is given not only on how to understand and analyse literature,
but also on how to organise a written response. Our hope is that,
although these books are intended to serve a practical purpose,
they may also enrich your enjoyment of literature by making
you a more confident reader, alert to the interest and pleasure to
be derived from literary texts.
John Peck
Martin Coyle
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank my colleagues in the Humanities Depart
ment at Oxford Polytechnic for helping me in so many ways,
and past students who have shared their readings of Forster
with me. In particular I owe a special debt to Charles Smith at
the Computer Centre who patiently instructed me in the skills of
word-processing. He has made the writing of this book much
less arduous than it would otherwise have been.
I should also like to express. my gratitude to the general
editors of this series. They have been generous with their
encouragement, and have supervised this book at every stage
with tactful vigilance.
1
Studying Forster:
some ideas to get you started
Working on a novelist for a course or exam is not the same as
reading for simple enjoyment although, hopefully, a good deal
of lasting pleasure can be derived from studying fictions as
'literary texts'. Still, whatever other motives a serious author may
have, novels are written with entertainment in mind. Novelists
don't want to be dreary and dull, and don't set out expecting
their work to be put on examination syllabuses, so I think the
best way to start is by reading your text through once, carefully
but not too solemnly, as you would any other novel, and then try
to record your own reading experience as honestly as you can.
Studying a book is a rather different process from reading for
pleasure because you have to keep at it longer in a systematic
way and be prepared to go beyond first impressions - but first
impressions are still important. There will always be critics
around to tell you what they think but, right from the start, try
and get into the argument yourself, however inadequate you
may feel, before becoming too influenced by other people's
ideas. Let us suppose, then, that you have just finished reading
the Forster novel that you have to study; try and make some
assessment of the experience you have had by jotting down your
first impressions. Do this now before you move on to the next
section.
What kind of a novelist is E. M. Forster?
If your experience of reading Forster has been anything like
mine, you may well have finished your chosen text with mixed
feelings. On the one hand, you might feel rather reassured.
Forster doesn't seem that difficult; indeed, you could be wonder-
