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Howards End is the story of the liberal Schlegel sisters and their struggle to come to terms with social class and their German heritage in Edwardian England. Their lives are intertwined with those of the wealthy and pragmatic Wilcox family and their country house, Howards End, as well as the lower-middle-class Basts.
When Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox's brief romance ends badly the Schlegels hope to never see the Wilcoxes again. However, the family moves from their country estate, Howards End, to a flat across the road from them. When Helen befriends Leonard Bast, a man of lower status, the political and cultural differences between the families are exacerbated and brought to a fatal confrontation at Howard's End.
Considered by some to be Forster's masterpiece it is a story about social conventions, codes of conduct, and personal relationships in turn-of-the-century England.
In 1998, Howards End ranked 38th on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Narrator Biography
Actor, writer and artist Edward Petherbridge has long been praised for his tragic and comic roles throughout his long career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. He has won the Olivier and London Theatre Critic's Awards and has twice been nominated for a Tony Award. His major roles on stage have included his memorable performance of Newman Noggs in Nicholas Nickleby and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. He has also performed in stage musicals such as The Woman in White and the musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest. His onscreen career has included roles on television in The Brief (2004), Midsomer Murders (2007), Land Girls (2011), Doctors (2012) and The Borgias (2011) and in films such as The Statement (2003) and Pope Joan (2009). He has narrated E. M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray audiobooks.
Public Domain (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
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Like Jane Austen's [b:Mansfield Park|45032|Mansfield Park|Jane Austen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397063295l/45032._SY75_.jpg|2722329] and Charles Dickens' [b:Bleak House|31242|Bleak House|Charles Dickens|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1280113147l/31242._SY75_.jpg|2960365], Howards End can be read as a novel about the condition of England. Its context is England during the uneasy pre-World War 1 years and the growing antagonism between England and Germany, which was a critical period of tensions and dislocations in society marked by the collapse of traditional values and the rise of modernity. The topography and landscape, architecture and making of gardens and houses, as well as family relationships mirror the state of the nation at a time of crisis and change.Modernity, as depicted in the novel, is characterized by the dangerous alienation of the urban working-classes from those privileged with economic prosperity, a chasm between those who own and control business like the Wilcoxes and those who feel for their fellow human beings like the Schlegels, an erosion of humane values in favor of brash and brittle manners, the rise of socialist ideas, and a gender crisis caused by the Woman question. The concept of the New Woman is present in the novel through the Schlegel sisters, who are characterized by independence and progressive ideas.Tibby Schlegel, on the other hand, represents an erosion of the robust and manly Englishman. The British Empire was built upon the efforts of patriarchal men like the Wilcoxes. The novel communicates the idea that this ideal of manly vigor was threatened by aesthetes and what [a:Rudyard Kipling|6989|Rudyard Kipling|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1550677494p2/6989.jpg] had described as degenerates who were physically weak and at best half-educated. Tibby stands, thus, as the result of the increasing feminization of culture, and a loss of discipline and masculinity in the nation. The romantic dreams of Leonard Bast endear him to the Schlegel sisters. To the Wilcoxes, however, he is nothing but an insult of their manly patriarchal ideal. Margaret's marriage to Henry Wilcox can be read as an attempt to bridge the gap between a male-dominated family, concerned entirely with the material world of money, and a feminine household that cherishes personal relationships, progressive ideas, and art. This is the moral of the novel, for neither family could stand by itself in its radical ideals. In the novel, hay is used as a symbol of the Wilcoxes inability to live in harmony with nature. The Wilcoxes mirror a whole class of people whose sole interest was modernization and the acquisition of money. At the beginning of the story, the hay fever attaining all the Wilcox family at the exception of Ruth, signifies their incapacity to understand and live in harmony with nature. It was only when he agreed to live with Margaret, Helen and her child that the fever seemed to leave Henry. In other words, he had at last reached that state of balance between his patriarchal ideals and the feminine components so necessary to a healthy life. The novel communicates the ideas of gender inequality and the patriarchal hypocrisy. Henry, by means of illustration, condemned Helen for having a pre-marital sexual intercourse while he himself had had extramarital experiences with Jacky Bast.