A woman finds her own independence in A Room With a View

A Room With a View is the fourth E.M. Forster book I’ve read on this journey, and probably my 2nd favorite to A Passage to India. It is a short novel and written in a very floral, bourgeois style, but is easy to follow. Released in 1908, it follows a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, who lives at a time when women are starting to become more independent, and Lucy dreams of doing more than just marrying a man to whom she will be a decoration.

The book starts with Lucy and her older cousin Charlotte (who’s advancing age is nearing spinster status) taking a holiday in Italy. Lucy is expected by her family to get this adventurous nature out of her character, but instead she falls for a young man in Italy named George Emerson. The Emersons have money, but because they are from a working class, they are looked down upon by the other members of Lucy’s clique (though Lucy’s father himself was a working man, and the family was only accepted into society because he moved to a desirable neighborhood before it was desirable. The high society families that came later just accepted the Honeychurch’s, thinking they were always there.). Lucy’s mother especially wants to cement the family’s status by getting Lucy to “marry up.” When George and Lucy share a kiss, Charlotte immediately whisks Lucy off to keep them apart, something Lucy agrees to because she wants to keep her family happy.

The second half of the book brings Lucy back to her home in England. She is now engaged to Cecil, who definitely fits the mold of what her mother wants, but Cecil wants a wife who will laugh at his jokes, agree with everything he says, and not put forth her own opinions. Lucy seems consigned to this, but her emotions are thrown out of whack when the Emersons amazingly rent a house nearby. Lucy struggles to cling to Cecil despite his flaws, but ultimately has to admit (to herself as well as everyone else) that she does truly love George. She breaks her engagement to Cecil, and the book ends with Lucy and George together in Italy again. Her mother has not accepted her decision, and the two are alone, though seemingly happy.

This is a very well written novel, though like a lot of books from this era, the ending is rather abrupt and everything falls into place very quickly once the characters make up their mind. Forster does a great job of getting in Lucy’s head and showing her internal struggle between her family and her own desire, even though she refuses to admit that desire to herself for most of the novel.