Howards End (1910)

A quintessential novel of manners. So sad it did not enter my life til now. There's a part where E.M. Forster throws down sexist hypocrisy and it is AWESOME. ( )

Y-4

Howards End by E.M. Forster I don't know what you would make of this if you weren't English.
 
In some ways it would be like watching an English film with subtitles that were written by someone who doesn't have English as a first language. Almost everything is hidden. Hidden behind class, social protocol and innuendo. It is in code. But it's a code that you have to know from birth.
 
It is a very slow book that you know will end badly but have a good finish.
 
I haven't seen the film so had no preconceptions. After I read the book I watched the trailer for the film on YouTube. My version was a bit seedier than the movie.
 
About half way through I didn't know if I liked it or not so I checked out the reviews on Amazon. I saw that I was not alone but persevered anyway.
 
I imagine that Mr Forster had no idea that his novel would still be read in a much faster age even though he predicted that age in this novel. And so it reads slowly, surely, reliably to the action packed ending. If you are planning to read this I'd recommend treating it as if you were listening to your nana telling a story.
 
Towards the end I started to see the parallels with England today and on one level how so very little has changed in Pomgolia. Today I read how a multinational company in England with a terrible history of industrial relations wants unions to be liable for unlimited amounts of cash to cover losses of profit in the event of strikes. Here is rich Henry, still with us, still unable to see his own hypocrisy. The said multinational recently moved it's head office from England to Switzerland to avoid paying round 150,000,000 pounds in tax. Poor Henry, poor England.
 
What surprises me about the English is how the inequality of class is so enshrined in their culture. Like someone that has had cancer for so long that they confuse their sickness with normality.
 
It was pointed out that of the two mayoral candidates Ken Livingston and Boris Johnson, that the England that Ken Livingston grew up in, one of free education, trade unions and quality health care had all but disappeared whereas Boris Johnson 's England of privilege and wealth had only got better. Given that no one chooses which family they are born into this is not a statement about those two individuals. Rather a statement about the power of wealth and privilege. As Pink Floyd say, "But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're giving none away." ( )

I'll have to reread this this summer. I couldn't give it enough attention during this past busy week, but I could tell it was good and beautifully written. ( )