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E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel is an innovative and effusive treatise on a literary form that, at the time of publication, had only recently begun to enjoy serious academic consideration. This Penguin Classics edition is edited with an introduction by Oliver Stallybrass, and features a new preface by Frank Kermode. First given as a series of lectures at Cambridge University, Aspects of the Novel is Forster's analysis of this great literary form. Here he rejects the 'pseudoscholarship' of historical criticism - 'that great demon of chronology' - that considers writers in terms of the period in which they wrote and instead asks us to imagine the great novelists working together in a single room. He discusses aspects of people, plot, fantasy and rhythm, making illuminating comparisons between novelists such as Proust and James, Dickens and Thackeray, Eliot and Dostoyevsky - the features shared by their books and the ways in which they differ. Written in a wonderfully engaging and conversational manner, this penetrating work of criticism is full of Forster's habitual irreverence, wit and wisdom. In his new introduction, Frank Kermode discusses the ways in which Forster's perspective as a novelist inspired his lectures. This edition also includes the original introduction by Oliver Stallybrass, a chronology, further reading and appendices. E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was a noted English author and critic and a member of the Bloomsbury group. His first novel, Where Angels Fear To Tread appeared in 1905. The Longest Journey appeared in 1907, followed by A Room With A View (1908), based partly on the material from extended holidays in Italy with his mother. Howards End (1910) was a story that centered on an English country house and dealt with the clash between two families, one interested in art and literature, the other only in business. Maurice was revised several times during his life, and finally published posthumously in 1971. If you enjoyed Aspects of the Novel, you might like Forster's A Room with a View, also available in Penguin Classics.

Freethinker's Classics, #3. E M Forster took an active part in the growing humanist movement in Britain after the Second World War. From 1946 he was a leading member of the Cambridge Humanist group, becoming its President in 1959 (his inaugural address is included in this collection). He was a member of the Ethical Union in the 1950s, and of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association in the 1960s, taking a particular interest in broadcasting. Forster often defended Humanism in the press and on radio, and never avoided awkward issues in this area. This collection of his essays illustrates E M Forster's vital Humanism. It provides an insight into Forster's beliefs for students and readers of his novels. It will also appeal both to self-declared humanists, and to readers who are seeking an alternative to religious faith. Contains "What I Believe", "An Alternative in Humanism", and "How I Lost My Faith", plus an introduction and notes by Nicolas Walter.

The author's experiences as private secretary to a brilliant young Maharajah. Forster creates a complex portrait of a true ruler. Photographs.

The Abinger Edition of Marianne Thornton, based upon E. M. Forster's own annotated copy, presents the text of one of his two full-length biographies. This truly was a 'domestic' biography, documenting the life of Forster's great aunt. Marianne died in 1887, when Forster was aged eight, but his decision to focus upon her rather than one of his more publicly famous ancestors enabled him to emphasise the private implications of public life and give pride of place to the inner life. He was intrigued by the personality that emerged from the wealth of family archives he plundered during his research, and Marianne's longevity enabled him to draw a rounded portrait of public and private life from the Georgian England of unreformed parliaments to the year of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

British Literature & Studies, Biography, Literary Studies

In the autumn of 1915, in a "slightly heroic mood", E.M. Forster arrived in Alexandria, full of lofty ideals as a volunteer for the Red Cross. Yet most of his time was spent exploring "the magic, antiquity and complexity" of the place in order to cope with living in what he saw as a "funk-hole". With a novelist's pen, he brings to life the fabled, romantic city of Alexander the Great, capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, beacon of light and culture symbolised by the Pharos, where the doomed love affair of Antony and Cleopatra was played out and the greatest library the world has ever known was built. Threading 3,000 years of history with vibrant strands of literature and punctuating the narrative with his own experiences, Forster immortalised Alexandria, painting an incomparable portrait of the great city and, inadvertently, himself. Back in print for the first time in over 30 years, E.M. Forster narrates his unique journey through the mesmerizing city of Alexandria

The letters of the last half of E. M. Forster's life are as engaging as those of his earlier years. Imbued with the same wit, warmth, and vitality, they reveal the breadth of his interests and the great range and enduring quality of his friendships. After a second trip to India in 1921, Forster finally finished the Indian novel he had begun years before. A Passage to India (1924) capped his career as a novelist; he then turned his energies to essays and other nonfictional prose. In the 1930s he emerged as an active journalist, writing and broadcasting on social and political issues. He fought for civil liberties and led a successful campaign against the BBC's political blacklisting of performers. His correspondents during these years included T. S. Eliot, Siegfried Sassoon, Lennard and Virginia Woolf, Christopher Isherwood, and Stephen Spender. At seventy Forster began along, happy, and productive new period in his life with his work on the libretto for Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd . In 1960 he was a leading defense witness in the Lady Chatterley trial. By then he was a revered figure among literati and enjoyed advising younger writers. In these last decades he divided his time between his rooms at King's College, Cambridge, and the home of his friends the Buckinghams in Coventry, where he died at age ninety--one.