Monday, October 6, 2008

Reading Howard's End

Quotes From Howards End, by E.M. Forster:

"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die."

"I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, there would be no more wars."

"Death destroys a man: the idea of Death saves him."

I remember reading A Passage to India in high school, and finding it transformative. Now I'm reading Howard's End, and loving every page.

12 comments:

Robin said...

How interesting! My husband and I rented the DVD of Howard's End this weekend and loved it, and I thought that this is one I must read. Now you've confirmed it!

Gentle Reader said...

robin--I love the movie version, too! And I think your instinct was right--the book is well worth reading :)

Jen said...

hi! i read it again while we read the zadie smith and really loved it. lovely to see you all saturday! xo

Gentle Reader said...

jen--I remember you had read it recently. My friend Jessica also read it over the summer, so I had to catch up to both of you :) Thanks again for a wonderful evening!!

Anonymous said...

I loved Howard's End, and A Room With a View. You remind me I really should read some more Forster; he has such a delicious style.

Gentle Reader said...

litlove--I read A Passage to India as a teenager and loved it, and I read Maurice and enjoyed that too. I've never read A Room With a View, but I loved the Merchant Ivory movie version (I think I even own the DVD...). I'm sure it's time to actually read it :) I love Forster's style, too.

Bookfool said...

I loved A Passage to India, but I still haven't gotten around to Howard's End. "Transformative" is a word I'd never have thought to use! :)

Gentle Reader said...

bookfool--well, it was transformative for me because it was one of the first books I ever really studied in depth, with a really good teacher, and everything, even the way the teacher took us through Forster's use of imagery, was eye-opening for me!

Anonymous said...

I don't know why I have never read Howard's End. My favorites have been Maurice and Passage to India.

Gentle Reader said...

matt--I know, I read both Passage to India and Maurice many years ago--it's taken me far too long to get to Howard's End!

Anonymous said...

The post reminds me of Passage to India, in which there is a great quote about a viola. I cannot remember the exact words but the mother is asking the son about where he has put the viola. I need to go back and re-read the book! :)

Howard's End is brand new to me.

Gentle Reader said...

matt--you remind me I really need to re-read A Passage to India, too!