James Baquet

    Though E. M. Forster’s books were big hits back in the first quarter of the 20th century, it wasn’t until the sumptuous film productions by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory (specifically “A Room With a View” and “Howard’s End” — and less notably, “Maurice”) that he became a big name with the American public.

    It’s not for lack of trying. Forster’s first novel was published when he was just over 30, and it’s said that he was nominated for the august Nobel Prize in Literature in 13 different years.

    But his biggest hit, by all accounts, was “A Passage to India,” published in 1924, and number 25 on our list of “The 100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century.” (The film version of this one wasn’t produced by Merchant/Ivory, but by director David Lean, who was nominated for an Oscar.)

    The story is filled with racial and social tension. A young English woman visiting India is anxious to meet the local people. She is surprised at the prejudices of her English compatriots, but rises above them to associate freely with the local people.

    A Muslim doctor offers to take her and her party to visit the Marabar Caves. While there, she experiences an episode of confusion brought on by the caves’ echoes, and imagines that the doctor has assaulted her.

    Her accusations lead to a trial which brings out the best and the worst on both sides of the racial question, as well as the class systems of both the British and the Indians.

    This is Forster’s specialty. His other novels apply the same keen eye to the same themes. “Howard’s End,” for example, examines the social conventions and codes of conduct between nationalities and classes in turn-of-the-century England. “A Room With a View” critiques Edwardian English society by contrasting it with that of Italy.

    The epigraph to “Howard’s End” reads, “Only connect …” Many have taken this as Forster’s plea to society to transcend its differences and come together as one. As seen in the book itself, Forster had a deeper intention: he was suggesting that the fragmentation we suffer from is not seen just in society, but has its roots in our own inner divisions.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. eager; excited but nervous

    2. expensive and splendid

    3. honored, respected

    4. quote at the start of a book

    5. analyzes

    6. emotional request

    7. act of falling apart

    8. group of friends

    9. attacked

    10. negative attitudes toward a group