“This odd title suggests a story rather out of the common, and it does not prove in the least misleading. The book is both original and delightful, presenting scenes of everyday life almost commonplace sometimes in their fidelity to nature, but chronicled in such a happy vein of quiet humour and with such penetrating observation as makes each little incident and dialogue a source of sheer joy to the reader. The characters are admirably drawn.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
“We have originality and observation, and a book as clever as the other books that Mr. Forster has written already.”—Times.
“Mr. Forster has earned the right to serious criticism. His work has revealed individuality, distinction, and a power of suggestion which opens large issues. ‘A Room with a View’ might stand for a title of all his work. There is a spirit of high comedy in it. Mr. Forster can describe with sure touch the queer satisfactions and still queerer repugnances which make up the strange region of modern things. Had this element been there alone, the book would have been merely an excellent satirical judgment of manners and conventions. Had the other elements stood alone—the revelation of the hidden life—it would have been mystical, intangible, illusory. By the fusion of the one with the other, he is able to present work humorous and arresting, with a curious element in it of compelling strength and emotion.”—Nation.
HOWARDS END
“‘Howards End’ is packed full of good things. It stands out head and shoulders above the great mass of fiction now claiming a hearing. The autumn season has brought us some good novels, but this is, so far, the best of them. ‘Howards End’ raises its author to a place among contemporary novelists which few even of those whose earlier work shows promise succeed in attaining.”—Daily Mail.
“There is no doubt about it whatever. Mr. E. M. Forster is one of the great novelists. His stories are not about life. They are life. His plots are absorbing because his characters are real. All will agree as to the value of the book, as to its absorbing interest, the art and power with which it is put together, and they will feel with us that it is a book quite out of the common by a writer who is one of our assets, and is likely to be one of our glories.”—Daily Telegraph.
“Mr. E. M. Forster has now done what critical admirers of his foregoing novels have confidently looked for—he has written a book in which his highly original talent has found full and ripe expression. A very remarkable and original book.”—The Times.
“The clash of modern culture and modern materialism has seldom found a more vivid interpreter.”—Spectator.
“There is life, imagination, and the very flame of action giving quality to this novel over and above the technique with which it is built up and the wisdom with which it is informed.”—Daily News.
“With this book Mr. Forster seems to us to have arrived, and if he never writes another line, his niche should be secure.”—Standard.