A Room with a View.
Lucy and her cousin Charlotte meet the unconventional Emersons in Florence over a discussion about the lack of view from their rooms. After a couple of questionable encounters between Lucy and George Emerson including a kiss amidst a sea of violets, the two ladies flee to Rome. Upon returning to England, Lucy announces her engagement to the prudish but handsome and suitable Cecil Vyse. Thanks to him, the Emersons soon move into town and Lucy is forced to decide what it is she really wants.
I am really undecided about this one. It’s a pleasant novel and I especially enjoyed the characters. Lucy develops immensely throughout. In Italy she is quite naïve and for the first time encounters ideas different from the prim upper-class she is so accustomed to. You watch her grow up and learn to believe in herself and her opinions which in the beginning she needed confirmed by others. Charlotte, the old maid, hinders everyone else’s happiness and is a constant burden. Vyse is so awkward and controlling, wanting to decide how Lucy should behave and think. The Emersons are free spirits, not afraid of the truth and disregarding common courtesy to stay faithful to it.
My favourite part was the appendix, A View without a Room, written 50 years later. You instantly notice the change in style – more refined through the years. Forster reflects on the characters and what has happened since he wrote the novel in 1908. He starts off reinforcing the fact that it is fiction, deciding that the Emersons live in “Hampsted. No – in Highgate”, changing his mind as he goes. As he progresses, however, they turn into real people, a true story he is recounting about friends he once knew.
My problem with it is that I feel like the most important parts were vaguely written. I’d finish a chapter and wonder what exactly had just happened. Reading on, all would reveal itself. I wonder if Forster meant it that way or if I just wasn’t paying close enough attention.
It’s also a very nice story. Too nice. They always bother me and leave me unsatisfied. Like Hollywood teenybopper films I despise so much but can’t help watching at times (great hangover movies). Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, difficulties arise, all seems lost, wonderful turn of events, boy gets girl, boy and girl live happily ever after. Blech.
It’s not bad. It’s not great. Merely something in between. Definitely noteworthy for its characters and themes, but unexciting plot.
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