Philip Gardner

EM Forster (1901-1970) was a prominent British author of the 20th Century, especially remembered today for his novels Howard’s End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). His reputation has fluctuated considerably over the decades; while viewed early in his career as a writer of promising (if light) entertainments, by the 1970s many regarded him as a truly “great” novelist of the century.

Like other books in the Critical Heritage series, this one is a collection of contemporary reviews of the authors’ literary output. The reviews originally appeared in 1905- through 1971 in prominent publications in England (e.g., the Times Literary Supplement, Manchester Guardian, Athenaeum, Cambridge Review) and the US (New York Times, New Yorker, and the Atlantic Monthly). The reviewers include notable literary figures of the day (Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Rebecca West, Arnold Bennet, TE Lawrence, Leonard Woolf, Cyril Connolly, and CP Snow) as well as many anonymous reviewers. Other entries include excerpts of letters written to Forster (e.g., from Lytton Strachey and DH Lawrence) and comments on Forster’s work written to others (DH Lawrence to Bertrand Russell).

As a result, this collection reveals how EM Forster’s novels and non-fictional works were received at the time of their publication, with a particular focus on his fiction. The collection is not a fully objective portrayal of the range of literary opinion, especially late in the authors’ life. Editor Philip Gardner notes in the introduction that he sought reviews “which counteract the widespread worship which was made to him [Forster] as a man in his later years…. a species of critical imbalance that is peculiar to Forster’s reputation.” Accordingly, he includes a 1965 essay by Pete Hamill titled “The Totemization of E.M. Forster” that advances the following perspective: “A writer of light entertainments in the distant past, he is increasingly being put forth as the greatest living novelist, apparently on the peculiar grounds that he had the courage to abandon the novel in 1924 after publication of “A Passage to India”…. If E.M. Forster is a great novelist, Cardinal Spellman is Thomas Aquinas.” Such a truculent assessment is countered by essays and reviews that found considerable merit in Forster’s novels at the time of their publication.

A wide range of opinion is expressed via the chosen reviews. For example, A Passage to India (usually considered as Forster’s best work) is criticized by one reviewer as an inaccurate portrayal of Indians and Anglo-Indian society, whereas another reviewer (self- identified as “An Indian”) speaks of this same portrayal with deep admiration in an essay titled “Hommage a M. Forster.” Still another review of this novel praises Forster’s “delicacy of touch and perfection of detail.” A reviewer of Forster’s first novel, A Room with a View (1905), called it “one of the most entertaining novels we have read for some time. The Longest Journey primarily receives equivocal to negative reviews; one reviewer speaks of its “deliberatively obscure verbiage”, describing it as “the most impossible book we have read for many years.”. In contrast, Howard’s End, and A Passage to India are represented chiefly by positive reviews, with most reviewers agreeing that the latter is Forster’s best novel.

Having read and enjoyed all five of Forster’s novels (as well as three collections of his short stories), I was interested to understand what others saw as their flaws. One is that much of the crucial action occurs off stage, as it were, with no lead-up or description. As one reviewer put it, Forster “deals out death to any one of his characters at the slightest provocation.” Another is that the male- female interactions are not credible, a fact that biographers have attributed to Forster’s lack of sexual experience and his own sexuality (he was homosexual as well as a virgin, and did not have a satisfying sexual relationship until late in life). This criticism is leveled in particular towards the novel Howard’s End. A 1910 review observes that Leonard Bast’s seduction of Helen Schlegel (which is never actually described, even peripherally) “is an unlikely incident… it strikes a false note” and that the death of Leonard is “grotesquely contrived.” On reflection, this is a view with which I must concur. In this negative vein, Katherine Mansfield wrote in her journal an amusing (if biting) passage that deserves to be quoted in entirety (and often is): “Putting my weakest books to the wall last night I came across a copy ofHoward’s End and had a look into it. But it’s not good enough. E.M. Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot. He’s a rare, fine hand at that. Feel this teapot. Is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain’t gonna be no tea….” “And I can never be perfectly certain whether Helen was got with child by Leonard Bast or by his fatal forgotten umbrella. All things considered, I think it must have been the umbrella.”

I was pleased to find that reviews of Forster’s posthumously published “gay” novel Maurice (1971) were included. Although this book was written in 1913-1914, Forster dared not publish it at a time when homosexuality was highly illegal and prosecuted; he revised the work in 1959-1960 and opted to have it publish only after his death. As various reviewers have noted, Maurice was a highly unrealistic work, one through which Forster sought a happy outcome for his homosexual protagonist that was less than possible in real life. Thus, reviewer Colin Wilson opined that Forster “was blinded by sentimentality.. too involved in his own wish fulfillment fantasy…” In contrast, Philip Toynbee observed that “Maurice is… a defiant declaration that ‘the love that does not speak its name ought to dare to speak both frankly and proudly,” and David Craig called it “a faulty but brave attempt at candor…”

While I may be the only person extant to have read this volume cover to cover, I am glad to have done so. It gave me a fuller appreciation of both the merits and flaws of EM Forster’s works. Granted, having been published in 1973, it does not include reviews of the posthumous short story collection The Life to Come (one that I especially liked). Likewise, of course, it does not reflect literary criticism of the past several decades. Nevertheless, the collection of critical reviews offers an invaluable perspective on how Forster’s works were received during his own lifetime.… (plus d'informations)