Howards End by E. M. Forster

 Croquet on the lawn. Wind-swept, flower-filled hedges. The lady of the house trailing through the garden in her long dress. Enjoyable arguments in which she is persuaded to agree with conservative views. Helen falls in love with quintessentially English Howards End, the Wilcoxes beautiful country home, and even the Wilcox family. However, it all descends into a mess when she also falls for Paul, the young son, and she is rejected by him, and by the family the next day. She has shared a kiss that she remembers for the rest of her life, however. ‘But the poetry of that kiss, the wonder of it, the magic that there was in life for hours after it — who can describe that?’ Helen’s aunt rushes to the house to ‘save’ Helen, but soon after Helen goes back to London, she is horrified to find that the Wilcoxes have become neighbours.

Three families intersect in Howards End — the cultured and sensitive Schlegel sisters, the business-minded, moneyed Wilcoxes, and the lower-middle-class Basts. Helen is the emotional, sensitive Schegel sister, while the older sister Margaret is more sensible, and inclined to compromise. They come across Lionel Bast when he leaves an umbrella at a concert, and concerned for him, they try to become involved in his life, but Lionel, a clerk, who struggles to be cultured, is proud, and difficult to help.

Margaret doesn’t know it, but Mrs Wilcox left her Howards End, to the great annoyance of the Wilcoxes. Things come to a head when Margaret marries Mr Wilcox, and Helen can’t stand his uncaring attitude towards the Wilcoxes, and Margaret’s being prepared to put up with it. (Surprisingly, Margaret and the practical, privileged Henry do seem a good match, and Forster explains this extremely well). 

Throughout all this, the former Mrs Wilcox remains a haunting presence with her love for Howards End, and her steady, stoic personality. Howards End, which represents the disappearing country England with its old-fashioned and perhaps paternalistic values, is almost like another character in the book. ‘It kills what is dreadful, and makes what is beautiful live’. Forster loves this old England, compared with busy, constantly changing London, which ‘stimulates, but does not sustain’. 

This novel very much concerns class distinction just in one class - the middle-class. Lionel lives in a dismal, dark basement flat with his older and rather demanding wife, reading Ruskin. The Schegel sisters are intellectuals with independent means, able to enjoy life’s pleasures without any money concerns, but they’re both liberal and progressive, and they act on it, especially generous Helen. Henry Wilcox, the businessman, is mainly interested in becoming wealthier, and sustaining his privileged lifestyle.

‘Only Connect’ is the great theme of Howards End. It means connecting the ‘prose and the passion’ and ‘not living in fragments’ - connecting the disparate elements of ourselves, and connecting between the practical and the romantic. It is developed better here than in A Room with a View, if I remember correctly, with the connections and misconnections between the different families and characters, but I haven’t read it for a long time.

It’s a lovely book to read, one of the more relaxing classics. Both sisters are so likeable, and their brother Tibby, who remains calm and sensible in spite of his sister’s troubles, is always fun with his little humorous quips, and his practical advice. In fact, he was almost my favourite, but Helen is terrifically generous, and I liked her getting into emotional messes, but finding the resilience to get out of them in the end, although she treats Leonard terribly.