E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist, and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. Forster's humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel, Howards End: Only connect... . His 1908 novel, A Room with a View, is his most optimistic work, while A Passage to India (1924) brought him his greatest success.

First published in 1909, Forster's short science fiction work, The Machine...

A Room with a View is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the repressed culture of Edwardian England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century. Merchant-Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985. A Room with a View is Forster's most romantic and optimistic book. He utilizes many of his trademark techniques, including contrasts between "dynamic" and "static" characters. "Dynamic" characters are those whose ideas and inner-self develop or change in the plot, whereas...

The Longest Journey can be difficult to get into, but is worth the effort. Set at the end of the Victorian period in England, it follows the character of Rickie Elliot from his Cambridge days through various attempts to find happiness and fulfillment in life. It helps to know a little about British society to fully understand each character's actions. The fascinating thing about the novel is that there isn't a single character that you can pinpoint as good or bad -- like real people, the characters lie and put on false fronts. It's fun to discover just who Rickie's friends and relatives...