Transcription
[Music] Hello everybody. Ready for E.M. Forster? E.M. Forster is a major Edwardian realist. These days, we have been talking about Edwardian realism, remember? And he also had many of the common features of the Edwardian realists, such as: Forster also talked about East-West encounter. Forster talked about class differences. He used symbolism and depicted contemporary society. Some of his novels deal with imperial imperialism and colonialism. And Forster also had a very beautiful poetic language. These are all features of Edwardian realist, mostly like Joseph Conrad.
E.M. Forster talked about a society that is very hypocritical, where class divide is very strong. In novels like *Howard's End*, it is a very important theme, and these class differences are irreconcilable; that means you can't really reconcile or bring the classes together. Now, in his life, he was homosexual. In those days, it was not accepted in society, so homosexuality was a kind of hidden aspect of his character. And E.M. Forster wrote a novel, *Maurice*, about a homosexual plot, and it was published only posthumously. The uh, novels of Forster has a kind of mystic and romantic element. I was telling you that he talked about the irreconcilability of people; they can't just be coming together. You see that in *A Passage to India* and *Howard's End*. A very major novel is beginning with an epigraph: "Only connect." Only connect is an epigraph that shows the actually the impossibility of connection. So, in this London that is connected by telegraph and such modern communications technology, how far are people really connected? How far are human beings in a close-knit human relationship? These are the concerns of these novels of Forster.
Some of the early novels of Forster are set in Italy, partly. These are called Forster's Italian novels. The Italian novels are *Where Angels Fear to Tread* and *A Room with a View*. *Where Angels Fear to Tread* was a novel from 1905, and the title, you might know, is taken from Alexander Pope's *Essay on Criticism*. Lilia is a young English widow. Her family is controlling her. She has a daughter also. She travels to Italy with a cousin, meets an Italian man, falls in love, and she wants to marry him. She marries him. Now, somebody from the family called Philip is going to Italy to find out what Lilia is doing there, to bring her back, and then he gets to know this Italian man; they become friends. It becomes confusing. So, *Where Angels Fear to Tread* is a story that explodes human relationship, the unexpected inhuman relationship, like most of E.M. Forster's novels do. *A Room with a View* is also centering on a woman traveling to Italy. This is actually the third novel of Forster. The second novel was not very important: *The Longest Journey*, that is the title. The novella *A Room with a View* is about Lucy Honeychurch, and she is touring Italy, living in Pension Bertolinia Hotel, where she meets with two men, father and son, and she gets attracted to George, the son, George Emerson, who's living in the same hotel. In the hotel, she was promised a room overlooking the river, no, but she only gets a room overlooking the courtyard. That is the meaning of *A Room with a View*, and it shows a mindset.
Now, back in England, George Emerson becomes her neighbor, and she develops a relationship with him. This also is a novel that shows uh, human relationships from a rather unconventional perspective, and here they live happily together at the end. These novels are movies; for example, *A Room with a View* is a famous Merchant Ivory movie with a screenplay by none other than Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. You know she is a German woman who wrote English novels, and she was married to an Indian. She was the first Indian to Indian citizen to get Booker Prize. She got it for *Heat and Dust* in 1975, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. So, E.M. Forster is writing his early novels on relationships. Now, remember, Forster was a member of the Bloomsbury Group. In the Bloomsbury Group, the members like Virginia Woolf, Forster, and others were interested in looking at human nature and human character from a deeply psychological perspective, from an unconventional anti-Victorian perspective. That is what Forster is doing in his novels. You can see the impact of the Bloomsbury Group, their discussions, their relationship on Forster's novels.
Now, are you ready to talk about the English novels? Tell me, did you like the novel, and did you like the video? The did you like the novels that I talked about? Please remember to like the video and tell me in the comment section what you think. Now, the English novels, starting from *Howard's End*. *Howard's End*, 1910, it's a very major novel. You already know the epigraph is "Only connect," means what matters is connection between human beings. There are three families here: the Wilcoxes, the Schlegels, and the Bast(s). The Basts are poor people. The Schlegels are German siblings. The Wilcoxes are rich people. Their interactions and relationships; Schlegels are like the Bloomsbury Group members; they are very artistic and deep, and the story proceeds to show one of the Schlegel sisters getting married to Henry Wilcox when his wife dies, and another Schlegel sister is having a child by Leonard Bast, the poor man, the working-class man. And Leonard Bast, the working-class man's child becomes the heir of the rich Howard's End house. *Howard's End* is the aristocratic house that once belonged to Mrs. Wilcox. She dies. Then, finally, *Howard's End* is becoming the it's coming into the possession of this working-class baby. That is the main thing in the novel: how the working classes will rule the future. *Howard's End* is a symbol of aristocracy and it's declining fortunes in the early 20th century. Amazing novel. And when then we have the very famous novel from 1924, you should tell me the title: *A Passage to India*.
*A Passage to India* is often prescribed in our universities. I'm sure you have heard about it, probably studied it. *A Passage to India* is set in the city of Chandrapur. Dr. Aziz is the main character. He is a young man, but a widower; his wife died recently. And Dr. Aziz is a liberal man; he wants to be friends with the English. This is the British Raj. It is not easy to be friends with the English. And Dr. Aziz is meeting Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested, two white women. They are visiting Ronny Heaslop. Ronny Heaslop is the magistrate. Throughout the novel, you see the very complicated relationship of the British with the Indians. The Indians are also divided between Hindus and Muslims; their cultures are very different. The English people living in India are very intolerant and racist also. E.M. Forster is definitely critiquing that, but he is also depicting Indians in a stereotypical manner. The main issue in *A Passage to India* is that Adela accuses Dr. Aziz of having tried to sexually assault her while they were on a trip to the Marabar Caves. The Marabar Caves is a very mysterious cave in Chandrapur. Dr. Aziz had planned the visit there with the Westerners, with the English women, and something happened in the caves that makes Adela misunderstand that Dr. Aziz tried to assault her. There is a very painful trial for Aziz, but at the end of the trial, Adela realizes that probably this is a mistake, that she has no proof against Aziz, but the harm is done. Aziz undergoes a lot of trauma. Aziz has been insulted; his possibility of having a friendship with the English people, especially several, failing is destroyed forever. Aziz cannot forgive Adela Quested for a long, long time. So, the first part of the novel, "The Mosque," is about Aziz trying to for the friendships with Mrs. Moore, Cyril Fielding, Adela Quested, etc. "The Caves," the second part, is about how all these expectations do not turn out well. "The Caves" is about the confusions that result, the misunderstandings, the trauma, the pain of trying to be friends; they are irreconcilable. And the last part, "Temple," is set a few years later in another city called Mau. Once again, Aziz is meeting Cyril Fielding, straightening up some of the misunderstandings that he had. He understood that Cyril Fielding was not in love with that or anything, that he is not even that he's not married to her, that he was actually misinterpreting some of the things, but the harm is done. But Adela has repented, and Fielding also forgives Adela. But the end, the message of the novel is that East is East and West is West, never the twain shall meet. It is not perhaps possible during the British Raj for the British and the Indians to be friends. So, this is a novel based on the theme of racism and colonialism. This is a novel that explores the model of India, India as a model or confusion. So that is a colonial theme. India is not a model, but E.M. Forster represents India as a model.
Now, you all probably know that E.M. Forster was not only a novelist, he was also a non-fiction writer and a critic. Forster has written *Aspects of the Novel*, a series of lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge, and that is where he famously talked about flat and round characters. Flat and round characters. He illustrated Becky Sharp is an example for a round character, for example. He also talked about seven aspects of the novel. Do you want to know what they are? Story, character, plot, [Music] fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. These are the seven aspects of the novel. *Abinger Harvest*, *Two Cheers for Democracy*, these are other essay collections by for uh, Forster. As I already mentioned, there is a novel, *Maurice*, which was published posthumously, and it has homosexual content, and it became controversial at first and then famous. So that is about E.M. Forster, a very important early modernist and Edwardian realist, and uh, he's important also for his depiction of the colonial theme and the British Raj. I hope you will read *A Passage to India* as well as, if possible, *Howard's End*. They are very major novels. It would do you good if you know them in detail. So that is the Edwardian period. But before I wind up, I want to tell you that there are a couple of writers in the Edwardian period that I won't be dealing with in detail: Saki or H. Munro. Saki is the author of a very famous short so, he's a short story writer. He is the author of a very famous short story, "The Open Window," which is prescribed in many universities. A girl is making up a story and frightening a visitor to her house. Frampton Nuttel is the visitor. She is making up a story of how her uncle and her cousins are dead and they come back as ghosts, which is a lie; they are not dead. So, what is reality? What are the multiple versions of reality? How a narrative can create a new reality? These are the interesting issues that the story throws up. It's important; that's why I'm mentioning it. Then there's another writer, G.K. Chesterton, who is also very important. You probably already know that he coined the term "Victorian compromise." Many of his works have a Christian team. G.K. Chesterton has also written thrillers, *Father Brown Stories*, detective stories. He was a very uh, simple writer, very popular writer, essayist also. Interesting are his spiritual autobiography, *Orthodoxy*, *The Everlasting Man*, which is a spiritual account of the Western civilization. Those are his interesting works.
So that brings us to the end of this video. Uh, I hope you enjoyed. I have been using the points from my contemporary encyclopedia of British literature. So, thank you all for watching. Please like and share the video with your friends. Also, use it as the basis for your research, and please follow me on Instagram and watch the reels and YouTube shorts. We are going to put more and more interesting stuff there, so you will be benefited. Thank you everybody for your love and support. Bye-bye. Best wishes.