A Room with a View by E.M. Forster.

2/5 rating. 224 pages.

Book #24 of 2021. Read March 21, 2021.

I couldn’t stand the characters in this book, though the last third or so of the book was just enough of a sappy happy ending to save it from being a 1.

I realize that this is likely a caricature of the Victorian attitudes (even if it’s set just a little after this era), but if people really acted like this towards one another and about the most trivial of things, it’s an absolute travesty.

The Honeychurch’s are a bunch of spoiled, holier-than-thou, petulant people whose lives are unfortunately followed throughout this book. The sheer thought of any impropriety is so great to them that they behave as absolute assholes to not only any person of a lower caste than them, but just about everyone in general.

Thankfully, the Emerson’s were actually not horrible human beings and rescued Lucy from joining with her family and their friends in being such.

There are a few good quotes that I got from this book, but it was certainly not worth the hours of my life to find those!

Quotes:

“The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected.”

“Like every true performer, she was intoxicated by the mere feel of the notes: they were fingers caressing her own; and by touch, not by sound alone, did she come to her desire.”

“If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting both for us and for her.”

“At times our need for a sympathetic gesture is so great that we care not what exactly it signifies or how much we may have to pay for it afterwards.”

“My attitude – quite an indefensible one – is that so long as I am no trouble to any one I have a right to do as I like. I know I ought to be getting money out of people, or devoting myself to things I don’t care a straw about, but somehow, I’ve not been able to begin.”

“It is a wonderful opportunity, the possession of leisure.”

“He felt, as all who have regular occupation must feel, that others should have it also.”

“[S]he has learnt what it is to love: the greatest lesson, some people will tell you, that our earthly life provides.”

“‘The Garden of Eden,’ pursued Mr. Emerson, still descending, ‘which you place in the past, is really yet to come. We shall enter it when we no longer despise our bodies.’”

“To-day, I believe that  we must discover Nature. After many conquests we shall attain simplicity.”

“[S]he reflected that it is impossible to foretell the future with any degree of accuracy, that it is impossible to rehearse life.”

“No one is here, and surely it is wiser to discover the imperfections before wedlock.”

“Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice, and we welcome ‘nerves’ or any other shibboleth that will cloak our personal desires.”

“You said – oh, don’t go in for accuracy at this house. We all exaggerate, and we get very angry with people who don’t.”

“[L]ove which is the most real thing that we shall ever meet…”

“Though life is very glorious, it is difficult.”

“‘Life‘ wrote a friend of mine,  is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.’”

“When I think what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love – Marry him; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

#aroomwithaview #emforster #classics #butwhy #thisbooksucks

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