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:''This article is about the book. For the film, see A Room with a View (film).''
:''For the upcoming TV series, see A Room with a View (TV series).''
'''A Room with a View''' is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the repressed culture of Edwardian England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century. Merchant-Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985.

Contents

Plot summary

Part one

Part two

Major themes

Allusions/references to other works

Allusions/references in other works

Film, Radio, TV or theatrical adaptations

External links

Plot summary

Part one

Lucy Honeychurch is a young Englishwoman visiting Florence, Italy with her older cousin, Charlotte Bartlett. Dining at their hotel, they complain that their rooms lack the views that they were promised. A fellow pensioner, Mr. Emerson, offers them his and his son George's rooms, which have views of the Arno. Charlotte ungraciously refuses, thinking it would place them under an unseemly "obligation". Another guest, an Anglican clergyman named Mr. Beebe, persuades her to accept the Emersons' offer.
Although a bright and talented girl, Lucy is young and not very inquisitive. Her inner passion shows itself only when she plays Beethoven on the piano, impressing Mr. Beebe. He fancies himself less strait-laced than his fellow clergymen, and is intrigued by the contrast between Lucy's emotional piano playing and her mundane life.
Lucy continues to bump into the eccentric Emersons in Florence. Although their manners are awkward and they are deemed socially unacceptable by the other pensioners, Lucy likes them. One afternoon, as Lucy tours Florence on her own, she witnesses a murder. George Emerson happens to be nearby and catches her when she faints. As the two make their way back along the river they have an oddly intimate conversation. She is puzzled by her new feelings toward George and decides to avoid him. However, on a group picnic to Fiesole, Lucy accidentally stumbles into George on a hillside. He kisses her, but they are abruptly interrupted by Charlotte. Lucy makes Charlotte promise that she will never tell anyone, even her mother, of what happened, and the two women leave for Rome the next day.

Part two

In Rome Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England. Cecil proposes to Lucy twice prior to Italy; she rejects him both times. As Part Two begins, Lucy has returned to Surrey, England to her family home, Windy Corner. Cecil proposed yet again in Italy, and this time she accepted; returning home to Windy Corner engaged. Cecil is a sophisticated and "superior" Londoner who is eligible in terms of rank and class, even though he despises country society.
The local vicar, Mr. Beebe, announces that new tenants have leased a local cottage; the new arrivals turn out to be the Emersons. Fate takes an ironic turn as Lucy's brother Freddy befriends George and invites him to play tennis one Sunday at Windy Corner. Although Lucy is initially mortified at the thought of facing both George and Cecil (who is also visiting Windy Corner that Sunday), she resolves to be gracious. Cecil annoys everyone by reading aloud from a cheap romance novel that contains a scene suspiciously reminiscent of when George kissed Lucy in Florence. George catches Lucy alone in the garden and kisses her again. Lucy realizes that the novel is by Miss Lavish (a writer-acquaintance from Florence) and that Charlotte must thus have told her about the kiss.
Furious with Charlotte for betraying her secret, Lucy forces her cousin to watch as she tells George to leave and never return. George argues with her, saying that Cecil only sees her as an "object for the shelf" and will never love her enough to grant her independence, while George loves her for who she is. Lucy is moved but remains firm. Later that evening, after Cecil again rudely declines to play tennis, Lucy sours on Cecil and immediately breaks off her engagement. She decides to flee to Greece with friends, but shortly before her departure she accidentally encounters Mr. Emerson. He is not aware that Lucy has broken her engagement with Cecil, and Lucy cannot lie to the old man. Mr. Emerson forces Lucy to admit out loud that she has been in love with his son George all along.
The novel ends in Florence, where George and Lucy have eloped without her mother's consent. Although Lucy "had alienated Windy Corner, perhaps for ever", the story ends romantically with the promise of lifelong love for both her and George.

Major themes

The main themes of this novel include repressed sexuality, freedom from institutional religion, growing up and true love. It is written in the third person omniscient, though particular passages are often seen "through the eyes" of a specific character.
''A Room with a View'' is Forster's most romantic and optimistic book. He utilizes many of his trademark techniques, including contrasts between "round" and "flat" characters. "Round" characters are those whose ideas and inner-self develop or change in the plot, whereas "flat" characters remain constant, offering familiarity and often being a source of humour.
Published in 1908, the novel touches upon many issues surrounding society and politics in early-20th-century Edwardian culture. Stark differences between conservative and radical thinking are observed, as well as Forster's own labelled differentiation between Medieval (Mr. Beebe, Miss Bartlett, Cecil Vyse) and Renaissance characters (Lucy, the Emersons).
Lucy personifies the young and impressionable generation emerging during that era, during which women's suffrage would gain strong ground. Forster, manifesting his own hopes for society, ends the book with Lucy having chosen her own path — a free life with the man she loves as opposed to marriage to a man considered more "suitable". The novel could even be called a ''Bildungsroman'', as it follows the development of the protagonist.
Binary opposites are played throughout the novel, and often there are mentions of "rooms" and "views". Characters and places associated with "rooms" are, more often than not, conservative and uncreative — Mrs Honeychurch is often pictured in a room, as is Cecil. Characters like Freddy and the Emersons, on the other hand, are often described as being "outside" — representing their forward-thinking and modern character types.
Also, Forster contrasts the symbolic differences between Italy and England. Forster idealized Italy as a place of freedom and sexual expression. Italy promised raw, natural passion that inspired many Britons at the time who wished to escape the constrictions of English society. While Lucy is in Italy her views of the world change dramatically, and scenes such as the murder in the piazza open her eyes to a world beyond her "protected life in Windy Corner".

Allusions/references to other works

★ While visiting the Emersons Mr. Beebe contemplates the numerous books strewn around.
:"I fancy they know how to read — a rare accomplishment. What have they got? Byron. Exactly. ''A Shropshire Lad''. Never heard of it. ''The Way of All Flesh''. Never heard of it. Gibbon. Hullo! Dear George reads German. Um — um — Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and so we go on. Well, I suppose your generation knows its own business, Honeychurch." [1]

★ Towards the end, Cecil quotes a few unidentified stanzas ("Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height", etc.). They are from Tennyson's narrative poem "The Princess".

Allusions/references in other works

★ In the Dream Theater song "Space-Dye Vest" (from the album "Awake"), a recording of the words spoken by George about Cecil not loving Lucy for who she is as she is telling him never to return (from "He's the sort who can't know anyone intimately" to "It's our last chance.") is used after the first verse.

★ Forster's title was borrowed by Noel Coward for a song, "A Room with a View," in his 1928 musical revue, ''This Year of Grace''.

Film, Radio, TV or theatrical adaptations

Merchant-Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985 directed by James Ivory and starring Dame Maggie Smith as "Charlotte Bartlett", Helena Bonham-Carter as "Lucy Honeychurch", Dame Judi Dench as "Eleanor Lavish", Denholm Elliott as "Mr. Emerson", Julian Sands as "George Emerson" and Simon Callow as "The Reverend Mr. Beebe".
BBC Radio 4 produced a four-part radio adaptation written by David Wade and directed by Glyn Dearman (released commercially as part of the BBC Radio Collection in 1995) starring Sheila Hancock as "Charlotte Bartlett", Cathy Sara as "Lucy Honeychurch", John Moffat as "Mr. Emerson", Gary Cady as "George Emerson" and Stephen Moore as "The Reverend Mr. Beebe". The production was rebroadcast on BBC7 in June 2007.
In 2006, Andrew Davies announced that he was to adapt ''A Room with a View'' for ITV. [2] It is believed that this new version will be shown sometime in 2007. [3] It will be filmed in the summer of that year. [4]

External links

★

★ The text

★ Plot summary and links