A Forster cover
Sir: I am naturally delighted by Bookbuyer's prediction (July 15) that the Abinger Edition of E. M. Forster will be "impeccably edited." But if anybody has been " prim " over the cover of The Life to Come, I must plead guilty — even though I was fortified in raising the issue by the knowledge that at least one senior member of King's shared my views.
However, it had never occurred to me that the cover conveyed "distinct suggestions of la maladie anglaise "; indeed, I would not have known what to look for. (And who, pray, is being prim?) My objection was simply that this "very striking cover" was remarkable chiefly as a non-likeness. In any case, the tiny affair has been amicably settled, and the new cover will, I am told, be a treat.
May I make one further comment? Of the fourteen stories in The Life to Come, eight (no more) may be said to be " in the Maurice vein" — in the strictly limited sense in which, say, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure and Othello are in the Tempest vein. All these plays, it may be recalled, have heterosexual themes. Oliver Stallybrass 106 Westwood Hill, London SE26
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