Scandal hits and misses in Howards End

My third E.M. Forster novel so far was Howards End. This was written earlier in Forster’s career, and is more like the earlier Where Angels Fear to Tread than the later A Passage to India. Beautifully written, it is a fun and thoughtful read.

The novel mostly follows the Schlegel sisters in early 20^th century London, younger Helen and older Margaret. Raised by their Aunt Juley after their parents’ untimely deaths, they are intellectual and refined young women, not extremely wealthy but able to live comfortably on their inheritance. They cross paths with the Wilcox family, father Henry and wife Ruth, and their adult children. Helen stays with the Wilcox family at their country home of Howards End for a weekend, where she and son Paul Wilcox briefly become engaged. Before a big scandal can erupt, the engagement is called off and Helen retreats back to London in shame. All is quiet until the Wilcox family takes up a residence across the street from the Schlegels. Margaret and Ruth become unlikely friends, only shortly before Ruth’s death. She starts to see more and more of Henry, until talk of marriage starts to circulate. Henry loves his family but has a hard time showing it, focusing only on building wealth. He hates Howards End and the country, only wanting to stay in the city where his businesses are run, and he likes a meek and docile woman, which Margaret pretends to be.

In the meantime, the Schlegels come across a poor but self-educated and philosophy-thinking Leonard Bast. As socialists, they want to raise his situation, but don’t want to just give him money, finding that beneath them. Leonard longs to rise in status, but seems to be held down by his rather dumb and plain wife, Jacky. Acting on advice of Henry’s through Margaret, Leonard quits his job to take another which may help him advance. However, he ends up fired from that new job when cuts come.

Helen feels for Leonard’s struggle, and brings him and Jacky to Howards End where Margaret and Henry are overseeing Henry’s daughter Evie’s wedding. Here, we find that Henry recognizes Jacky as a woman he had an affair with 10 years previous, while married to Ruth. Margaret almost leaves him, but decides to leave the past where it is, and helps Henry keep his secret concealed so as to not put scandal on the family. She goes through with the marriage. However, Helen seems to not be able to let this go, and leaves the country immediately to travel abroad, and sends only cryptic letters back to Margaret over the next few months.

Margaret does finally lure Helen back home, and when she goes to confront her, she finds that Helen has become pregnant, by Leonard Bast of all people. Shortly thereafter, Leonard comes forward to assuage his guilt, but collapses when attacked by son Charles Wilcox, who is trying to protect Margaret and what is left of Helen’s honor. Leonard dies, and Charles is charged with manslaughter. Henry realizes the error of his ways after Margaret asserts herself to him, becoming the true “head of the house,” and Helen decides to stay home with this intertwined family. The epilogue, a year later, shows the families living together in Howards End, finally all happy together.

Like his other novels, the writing style is very descriptive and mostly dialogue-driven. There are a lot of similarities, both in style and in story, between this book and Where Angels Fear to Tread, but it is different enough to still enjoy both. I find it a little hard to really believe an older man like Henry would change his ways so much at the end of the novel, but that can be forgiven. A very enjoyable book, more so if you can transport yourself in time and take it in as a reader would at the time it was written, when scandals could destroy a family socially and politically.