N OVEL S.
A ROOM WITH A VIEW.* Mn. FORSTER'S new novel is not only much the beet of the three he has written, but it clearly admits him to the limited class of writers who stand above and apart from the manu- facturers, conscientious or otherwise, of contemporary fiction. To note improvements first, one finds in A Roam, with a View greater sympathy with and interest in his own dramatis personae. In The Longest .Tourney, for example, Mr. Forster's detachment at times reached the verge of callousness, and personages were suddenly killed off in a manner suggesting that he had got bored with them and wanted to make a fresh start. In the novel before us the Characters are treated more patiently, sympathetically, and with greater consistency, and the author's attitude not only leads to a greater continuity, but is far more effective in seeming and riveting the interest of the reader, Again, the freakish and somewhat cynical humour which disfigured his earlier work is here replaced by a kindlier tolerance. In short? Mr. Forster, while retaining all the freshness and unconven- tionality of his outlook, has come to regard the human comedy with greater respect and sanity. When the story opens, Lucy Honeychureh, an attractive young English girl chaperoned by a middle-aged cousin, Charlotte Bartlett, has just arrived at the Pension Bertolini in Florence. The proposal of two Englishmen, father and son, to exchange their rooms with those allotted to Lucy and her cousin, clumsily offered and reluctantly accepted, forms the "take off" of the ensuing tomenee. The Emersons are looked at somewhat askance on social and other grounds by the other visitors in the pension; including two elderly spinsters of the Mrs. Niokleby type, and a strong-minded novelist ; but Lucy is on her Wanderjahr, temporarily emancipated from the shackles of villadom, and athirst for adventure. George Emerson, the son, happens to be at hand when Lucy is the unwilling witness of a painful street tragedy, his timely
• 4 Room with a View. By E. N. `orator. London Edward Arnold. DM.)
support begets mutual confidence, and in a Moment of expan- sion, though not without provocation, he so far forgets himself as to kiss her at a picnic. Lucy is really angry ; she has no difficulty in persuading herself that she cares nothing for young Emerson, and Charlotte sweeps her away from the danger zone to Rome, where they join forces with their friends the Vyses. Thus when the action is resumed in Surrey Lucy has just become engaged to Cecil Vyse, a highly presentable and altogether blameless prig. But by a coincidence of which Mr. Forster is so far aware that he is at pains to account for it with considerable ingenuity, the Entersons become the tenants of a neighbouring villa, and renewed propinquity forces on Lucy the need of reconsidering her position, with results that may be readily forecasted when the characters of her two suitors are taken into account. The conclusion, how- ever, is not easily arrived at, for Lucy, with all her charm and intelligence, belongs to that not inconsiderable tribe of people who habitually misinterpret their genuine instincts. She is not a femme incomprise so much as a girl who cannot under. stand herself. Periods of rebellion alternate with periods of abject slavery. To make matters worse, she relies, at a critical period in her development, on the judgment of her cousin, who is an excruciatingly conscientious prude. The gradual emanci- pation of Lucy from Charlotte's influence, and that of other representatives of narrow-minded conventionality, is illustrated with great subtlety and humour, and it is much to the credit of Mr. Forster that, while enlisting the sympathies of his readers on the side of Lucy in her struggles towards self-assertion, he by no means fails to render justice to those who thwart and resist her. Charlotte, though exasperating and ridiculous, is not altogether contemptible; indeed, one parts from her with a certain compassion for this angular poor relation, incapable of exciting affection, and always conscious of her obligations. • Excellent. also is the portrait of Cecil Vyse, the blameless and cultured young man who was perfectly at his ease with books and pictures, but incapable of reading the hearts of men and women. With a touch of fantastic humour, more surprisiug than convincing, Mr. Forster discovers in Cecil an element of nobility in the hour of his defeat; while Mr. Beebe, the witty, tolerant, and conciliatory clergyman, develops a vein of inhumanity at the close for which we are not sufficiently prepared.
Mr. Forster's novel lends itself readily to quotation, but we must content ourselves with only a low extracts. Thus Mrs. Honeychurch's crudely practical point of view is happily illus- trated hy.her explanation of her son's hostility to his prospective brother-in-law :—" You are jealous of Cecil because he may stop Lucy knitting you silk ties." On the other hand, Cecil's aesthetic interest in Lucy is defined by the phrase "She was liken woman of Leonardo da Vinci's, whom we love not so much for herself as for the things that she will not tell us" ; while his failure to rise to a great occasion suggests the
comment: "Passion should believe itself irresistible Above all, it should never ask for leave when there is a right of way." We get a vivid picture of Lucy's neigh- bours in Surrey by the reference to "their kindly affluence, their inexpIosive religion, their dislike of paper-hags, orange-peel, and broken bottles." Mrs. Vyse's pretensions to culture are well hit off in the account of her dinner-party "consisting entirely of the grandchildren of famous people.
The food was poor, but the talk had a witty weariness that impressed Lucy." And again : "Mrs. Vyse was a nice woman, but her personality, like many another's, had been swamped by London, for it needs a strong bead to live among many people. The too vast orb of her fate had crushed her; she had seen too many seasons, too many cities, too many men for her abilities, and even with Cecil she was mechanical, and behaved. .ite if he was not one son, but, so to speak, a filial crowd." Lastly, Charlotte's failure in life is almost explained in the exaggerated deference of her appeal : "Dearest Lucia, may I trespass upon you for a pin ?"
There are no remarkable or heroic people in the book, but Mr. Forster has the happy knack of making stupid people interesting and tiresome people amusing. And be has a gift for dialogue which should stand him in excellent stead if be ever turns his attention to the stage.
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