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Where Angels Fear to Tread (Penguin Classics) by: E.M. Forster List Price: £8.99 City Travel Guides Price: £6.29 You Save: £2.70 (30%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813 EAN: 9780141441450 ISBN: 0141441453 Label: Penguin Classics Manufacturer: Penguin Classics Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 192 Publication Date: May 31, 2007 Publisher: Penguin Classics Studio: Penguin Classics Sales Rank: 74850 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Synopsis: When attractive, impulsive English widow Lidia takes a holiday in Italy, she causes a scandal by marrying Gino, a dashing and highly unsuitable Italian twelve years her junior. Her prim, snobbish in-laws make no attempts to hide their disapproval, and when Lidia's decision eventually brings disaster, her English relatives embark on an expedition to face the uncouth foreigner. But when they are confronted by the beauty of Italy and the charm and vitality of the disreputable Gino, they are forced to examine their own narrow lives, and their reactions are emotional, violent and unexpected. Customer Reviews
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 Rating:  - Angels fearing to treadI first read this as a 6th form text in New Zealand in 1963 when texts were not prescribed. It was the choice of an inspired teacher who introduced us also to Janet Frame & Sylvia Ashton Warner. She ( & the novel) have remained with me for ever - we were allowed no references, had to respond only to what we read. Since then I have discovered much, including Italy, met the middle class values, etc. To revisit the novel is wonderful. Rating: - The First Step in the Right DirectionThe first novel written by E. M. Forster is a perfect introduction to his fiction. He is not yet a master so he will not frighten you off with his form and style but he will gently let you see the world the way he saw it. This relatively small and slight book can make a charming read if you are sensitive enough to detect delicate mood changes, notice off-hand remarks which reveal the true meaning of the story. The style and language alone make it worth your time. And yet there is more to it. It is a book about "us" and "the other". Philosophers have pondered on the issue for years and brought hefty volumes of studies but Forster can make it without unnecessary ado. This history of an English widow who did not fit in affluent suburb and, ... Read More: Rating:  - Everybody loves GinoI first read this book ten or twelve years ago and didn't remember it particularly fondly. I picked it up again last week, and to start with was quite impressed. However, as it went on, I found it more and more tiresome. The blurb on the back of the copy I have praises Forster's talent for dialogue and characterization - and this holds while he sticks with the English social comedy world of Sawston. Once he gets to Italy, things go awry. He seems to have very little idea how people really behave, and as the novel approaches its climax, the implausibilities come thick and fast. I didn't believe in the conversations the characters have about how `great' and `wonderful' and `splendid' life and their own behaviour could be. This novel is fundamentally ... Read More: Rating: - Fools rush in....If you have ever felt frustrated by the petty vagaries of human behaviour, or the idiocy of certain societal taboos or customs, then you will warm to Forster's theme at once. In a mere 142 pages, he deftly exposes the class-ridden snobbery of the English society of his time, and the racism with which it appears to be inevitably coupled - a product, no doubt of the colonialism and imperialism from which we have yet, still, to recover. That this stains the beauty of quintessential Englishness is perhaps one reason for Forster's love-hate relationship for England and the fact that he spent so much of his time abroad (the taboo which he struggled with, and felt persecuted for, being his homosexuality). The novel is a wonderful evocation of the ... Read More: Rating:  - Forster's first novel reviewedForster's first novel is a tragicomedy that has parallels to 'A Room with a View', with the conventional, 'stuffy' English family and the rebellious nature of his main characters. Whilst reading the book, I discovered that the 'events' or actions were not the main focus of Forster; there is an intricate subplot concerning Philip, whose character develops, just as Lucy Honeychurch's does in the 'A Room with a View'. Not one of Forster's best novels, and in comparison with 'Howards End', where Forster's voice and opinion are strong throughout, he does not write with confidence of his narratorship. However, 'Where Angels Fear to Tread' is an enjoyable read whilst it is captivating, and raises our anticipation for the development in the writing ... Read More: |
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