Where Angels Fear to Tread

What I remembered from this novel was the opera scene (still glorious) and the tragic climax (still brutal so that I slowed down coming up to it in hopes of preventing its appearance). What I forgot was how witty it was, how warm, how accomplished for such an early novel in a writer's career. In short, it was actually better than I remembered, a rare accomplishment for an author I love so much. Not as magnificent as Proust nor as fine a writer as James, but equally as wise as both and much more welcoming than either.

In E. M. Forster's first novel, an effete English family and their acquaintances encounter an authentic and vital society in the hills of Italy. Vacuous Lilia visits Monteriano in Tuscany and impulsively marries. She realizes her mistake too late to save herself but her English in-laws attempt to rescue the issue of her marriage. Upon arriving in Monteriano, they find that their wealth and education count for less than they thought. Rigid Harriett breaks herself against the local culture and provokes a tragedy, but the more sensitive members of the rescue party, Philip and Miss Abbott, profit in ways that they did not expect. Forster uses a quiet, simple style that lets the reader be moved by his rather sudden plot revelations. While this is a short novel, Forster finds room for a sincere appreciation of the charms of fictional Monteriano and some gentle humor. I imagine that this very approachable novel would appeal to many different types of readers.

If one wishes to learn how Britain's rich entertained, lived and acted during the turn of the century, E.M. Forster and Evelyn Waugh deliver depictions as well as anyone of their generation. This book delves little with interpersonal thoughts. Instead, it deals with dialogue. Rich, gooey, luscious dialogue where the characters reveal their characters, their thoughts, their inner beings by what words they choose to deliver to others. In the staid world of turn-of-the-century Britain, the dialogue must be masterfully written as the people did not directly say what they felt. They were polite, but in a cold British manner. And, Forster's ability to write that type of British dialogue is unrivaled. Additionally, this book - which is amid the wonderfully warm Italy - delivers a great ethical question: what to do with a baby born of a British mother (who dies in child birth) related to very impudent and snobby persons residing in the outskirts of London. Who does he belong to? His wealthy British relatives where he will be brought up well but little loved? Or with his loving Italian stallion 23-year-old father who has little money, knows nothing of rearing children and probably would fail (at least in a British perspective) in raising the child? Forster delivered a similar ethical issue in "Howards End" where the last wish of a dying wife to her husband of many years (through oral bequest and written - but unwitnessed note - which contradicts her written will) is not followed by her husband and family who wish to keep their inheritance in exchange for dishonoring the matriarch's last wishes. But, each issue is not finished with the sudden first response. In each book, more events occur which gloss the issue. Read this book soon in time to "A Room With A View." Italy obviously touched Forster - this book and "Room With A View" are its derivatives. Thank you Italy for being you to Forster, who wrote that Italy ". . . sent me going as novelist."

This is by far my favorite novel by Forster, and many rereadings have made it one of my favorite novels, period. In his first book, Forster shows a subtlety and lightness of touch which I, at least, feel that he lost as he got more self-consciously "philosophical" in later books like Howard's End and A Passage to India. He makes wonderful use of the Italian settings and of Italian art, bringing them to vivid life, undermining tourist cliches, and weaving them gracefully into his main themes. No other book I know balances romanticism and irony so perfectly.