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Howards End

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Howards End

By: EM Forster
Narrated by: Susannah Harker
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First published in 1910 Howards End is considered by many to be Forster's greatest novel. Set at the beginning of the twentieth century it follows the fortunes and inter-relations between three family groups of differing backgrounds and outlooks.

At the top of the money tree are the Wilcoxes who represent broadly materialism and an upper-class English archetype. The family has made money in the colonies and also have a property - Howards End - owned by the terminally-ill mother, Ruth Wilcox, who must decide how best to pass on the estate.

A decision that triggers much of the novel's ensuing conflict, scandal and tragedy. . .

Ruth is great friends with the half-german Schlegel sisters; Margaret, our generous-spirited heroine, and the younger Helen - inquisitive, dramatic and egalitarian by nature. Intellectually curious and cultured they marry into the Wilcox clan whilst also being connected to Jacky and Leonard Bast - a couple from the lower-middle classes. But the Bast's already precarious financial situation and livelihood is thrown into even greater jeopardy as their history and relations with their better-off friends comes to light.

Is reconciliation possible? And how?

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The full version of this book is as well written as any Forster, but the author does digress into lengthy and rather repetitive philosophising, so unusually for me, I prefer the abridged version. Susannah Harker has a pleasant voice and excellent pronunciation, but an unfortunate habit of putting the wrong inflection into a sentence that she hasn’t fully understood. It’s not as frequent here as it is in her Sense & Sensibility, where she drives me potty! I wonder where the director is, when this happens. An excellent and unusual story, and this telling is a good companion to the Merchant Ivory film of 1992.

Abridged version but worth a listen

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I studied Howard's End for A levels in 1978. How wonderful to rediscover it. Only connect the past and the present.

A level memories

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