Where Angels Fear to Tread (Penguin Classics)
by E. M. Forster
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Book Summary Information
Author: E. M. ForsterEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-26
ISBN: 0141441453
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of Where Angels Fear to Tread (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: Fundamental human clashes
Summary: 5 Stars
E.M. Forster's novel has the same theme as `Daisy Miller' by H. James (the cultural clash between the vitality of Italy and Western upper-class morals). But what a difference a book makes! James's book doesn't reach the ankles of Forster's one, which is a profound meditation on society and man.
Parents/children clash
`For a wonderful physical tie binds the parents to the children. (But) it doesn't bind us children to our parents. For if we could answer their love with equal love, life would lose much of its pathos and much of its squalor.'
Culture-vitality clash
The English family morals are based on `having' and `appearing', not on `being': `If Lilia was determined to disgrace us, she might have found a less repulsive way. A boy of medium height with a pretty face, the son of a dentist at Monteriano. May I surmise that he has not got a penny? May I surmise that his social position is nil?'
The Italian family morals are based on `this one desire to become the father of a man like himself ... his son should have sons like him, to people the earth. Falling in love was a mere physical triviality, like warm sun or cool water.'
The most attractive (`for all her goodness') English protagonist, Caroline, cannot even understand this desire, `though such a thing is more within the comprehension of women.'(!)
In this sense, the English upper-class is doomed.
A devastating portrait
This book is a devastating portrait of the English upper-class and, concomitantly of England's ruling elite.
The male protagonist, Philip, is the personification of the perfect dilettante: `No one save himself had been trivial.' In a murder attempt, stealing children and death by accident, he sees only `wonderful things that happened'.
The female protagonist, Harriet, is a staunch defender of English family `morals'. She steals and kills (the future) in an arrogant, defiant and unrepentant manner.
But the novel contains
A stiff warning
`The passion they (the dead) have aroused lives after them, well-nigh impossible to destroy.'
E.M. Forster wrote an unforgettable masterpiece.
Summary of Where Angels Fear to Tread (Penguin Classics)
A clever, engrossing portrait of class and prejudiceWhen attractive, impulsive English widow Lidia takes a holiday in Italy, she causes a scandal by marrying Gino, a dashing and highly unsuitable Italian twelve years her junior. Prim and snobbish, her in-laws make no attempt to hide their disapproval, and when Lidia's decision eventually brings disaster, her English relatives embark on an expedition to face the uncouth foreigner. But their mission yields results that are unexpected, to say the least. Confronted by the beauty of Italy and the charm and vitality of the disreputable Gino, their own narrow lives are shattered by emotion, upheaval, and violence.
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