Hmmm, I’d like to read a paper comparing and contrasting “Howard’s End” and “Jude the Obscure” in terms of social class. For me as a reader, Sue Bridehead in Jude was an exasperating, hard-to-like idealist and i never felt that way about the Schlegel sisters. I can see where points of comparison could also be drawn between Leonard Bast and Jude. I hope you received high marks for your paper. The topic has just shaken some cobwebs from my brain and given me cause to recall some memories of the plot lines of the two stories.
I feel like I made lots of comparisons between Leonard Bast and Jude, can't remember how much I wrote about the Schlegel sisters. Feels like a long time ago I wrote that essay!
Howard's End is the only Forster book I've read so far. I absolutely adored it. The best part was that I managed to read it without the plot being spoiled and that was just so special, discovering it by myself. :)
I have this movie on DVD, I remember it being in the theatres back in 1992 I was in highschool in the 9th grade. It was a movie everyone talks about lol I found it second hand at a book sale got 12 DVDs there of different DVDs titles. Thanks for the video and sharing. 👍🙂🎞️
So much enjoying this week. Looking forward to tomorrow’s too. I love Howard’s End but have yet to read the book I feel you will be talking about next ...
howards endis one of my favourite books of all time!! and i adore the opening so much, it's brilliant. i also personally think meg is in love with ruth wilcox which is why she behaves as she does anyway! :) glad you love this book too!
Great series of videos, Katie. Howards End is my favorite of the 3 Forster novels I've read. I also appreciated how Forster looks at the arts and books in Howards End, and how that plays into class. There's an excellent BBC TV adaptation that came out a few years ago starring Matthew Macfadyen and Hayley Atwell. I think it captures the essence of the book better than the 1992 film with Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham-Carter, although that is a beautiful film in its own right.
I loved the movie but I agree about the BBC adaptation, Atwell is wonderful as Margaret as much as I adore Emma Thompson. I also thought that the casting overall was better frankly.
I love this book. Leonard Bast and his attitude toward his wife are, I think, another way in which Forester delineates class and the attitudes of those above toward those below.
It's very interesting. Forster is such a great writer. Also, thanks for shouting down that rude person on that other video. I really appreciate it, you have no idea how much.
I liked it too, it reads very easily and lucidly. I have read some critics don't think the Basts are terriblly well written. For me all the characters and how they relate or don't relate works really well.
I randomly found this book buried in my bedroom closet at my parent's house, don't even remember having it--but it was so worth the read! It was my first Forster book and I'm definitely looking to read more. It's cool 'cause I tried Jane Austen earlier this year and really wasn't into it, so glad I know I can like parlour dramas if there's enough subtextual angst going on, haha. Thanks for the review! :)
Love it. I think that any thinking woman can relate to the sisters---> the pull between the practicality of Margret, and the Idealistic passion of Helen. Despite being written over a 100 years ago, I find the novel deeply modern with themes that are still in play today, who will inherit England? the old guard Wilcox's who "break" things/people and shrug their shoulders because that is how the system has always worked or, the "foreigners" (1st generation British, but still "Germans" thus interlopers in people like the Wilcox's eyes) the Schlegels, or something blended (which seems to be Forster's viewpoint.) To be honest although I understand why Forster stopped wanting to write about his social themes within the context of heterosexuality, and spent the rest of his life grappling with Maurice which obviously spoke to him more intimately, I haven't often read intelligent, complicated female characters as sympathetically realized as the Shlegels. I am also interested in social issues, class, and the influence of how random good fortune (which the sisters give voice to in the novel) or lack thereof, affects an individual's life, my sympathy for Leonard Bast and his aspiration to something better is deep, of course the inevitably of his fate was both shocking and not unexpected. Also there are just so many quotable lines, and some funny bits too. Forster is a wonderful writer, and I think that I will reread it starting this week.
Thomas Hardy: "Less than 500 views, therefore there's no hope for humanity" E.M. Forster: "500 people are upper class and artistic, 16k - 500 are upper class and materialistic, 7 billions - 16k - 500 are lower class"
