A Room with a View: 100% Complete

I did it! I finished A Room with a View.  For whatever reason, I really enjoyed the second half, after finding the first half really dull.  I'm glad I suffered through it, though, because the characters, the settings, everything seemed to come alive in the second half.  It suddenly seemed like things were happening when before, it seemed like nothing was.  I would be curious to know if anyone else has had this same experience with this book or if it's just me. 

 

Now that I'm finished, I wanted to go back and start over, because I started to notice that Forster peppered the story with a few choice words that seem to hold a lot of symbolism, most notably the words "room" and "view."  I think he meant "room" to represent convention and proper place in society: the place of Lucy's fiance Cecil.  She says at one point that she always pictures him in a room.  The view, which first comes into play when George Emerson and his father give up their rooms (which have views) for Lucy and her cousin at the Italian hotel where they are all staying, is representative of passion, of breaking out of the rules of society.  I didn't notice these reoccurring themes until I was three quarters of the way done with the book, but once I did, I wanted to go back and start over.

 

I don't have a vocabulary word today, but I do have a couple of quotes which were funny and made me laugh and one which I found very insightful.

 

First, the problem of Cecil, who is conventional, but annoying:

 

"He had been rather a nuisance all through the tennis, for the novel that he was reading was so bad that he was obliged to read it aloud to others.  He would stroll round the precincts of the court and call out: 'I say, listen to this, Lucy.  Three split infinitives.'"

 

And the traveling Miss Alans:

 

"They always perched there [in Bloomsbury, England] before crossing the great seas, and for a week or two they would fidget gently over clothes, guide-books, mackintosh squares, digestive bread and other Continental necessities.  That there are shops abroad, even in Athens, never occurred to them, for they regarded travel as a species of welfare, only to be undertaken by those who have been fully armed at the Haymarket Stores."

 

And finally, a quote in which I found a great deal of truth:

 

"It is obvious enough for the reader to conclude, 'She loves young Emerson.'  A reader in Lucy's place would not find it obvious.  Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice, and we welcome 'nerves' or any other shibboleth that will cloak our personal desire."

 

I especially like the line: "Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice."  How true.

 

So up next? On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.

A Room with a View: 64% Complete

I got quite a bit of reading done this weekend, so I'm past the halfway point in A Room with a View.  I must say, I'm enjoying the second half of the book quite a bit.  The book, for those of you who have not read it, is divided into two parts, the first part taking place in Italy, and the second part back in England.  In the first part it felt like the characters did lots of things but nothing really happened, if that makes any sense.  But the second part, so far, is much more engaging.  So I'm enjoying it a lot more.

 

The word I have for you today is "pourboire" which means a tip.  Literally it's French for "money for drinking" which I suppose is what a tip usually is anyway, right?

 

One thing I enjoy about this book is how E. M. Forster is constantly poking fun at British sensibilities, particularly their feelings about class and proper social positions.  I have two quotes for you today that illustrate that, I think.  First:

 

"Miss Bartlett had asked Mr. George Emerson what his profession was, and he had answered 'the railway.'  She was very sorry that she had asked him.  She had no idea that it would be such a dreadful answer, or she would not have asked him." 

 

And secondly:

 

"'You ought to find a tenant at once,' he said maliciously.  'It would be perfect paradise for a bank clerk.'

'Exactly! said Sir Harry excitedly. 'That is exactly what I fear, Mr Vyse.  It will attract the wrong type of people.  The train service has improved--a fatal improvement, to my mind.  And what are five miles from a station in these days of bicycles?'

'Rather a strenuous clerk it would be,' said Lucy.  Cecil, who had his full share of medieval mischievousness, replied that the physique of the lower middle classes was improving at a most appalling rate."

 

(On an unrelated side note, I always get a twinge of pride when I spell check my entry and the day's vocabulary word comes up as misspelled when I know it's not.  It just proves that it's a word most people don't use.)

A Room with a View: 27% Complete

I fear my apologies for lack of updates are beginning to sound a little hollow, so I will forgo.

 

I haven't done a lot of reading lately for whatever reason, but I have done a little as you can see.  I'm still liking A Room with a View although I'm over a quarter of the way through the book and it still seems like not a lot has happened.  She witnessed a murder, but that's about it.

 

Anyway, the word of the day is "desideratum" which means "something that is needed or wanted." (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary)

 

E.M. Forster's writing is often perceptive and poetic, something I'm enjoying.  I love those moments in a book when you read something and say to yourself, "Ah, I am incredibly familiar with that concept, only I have never thought it through in so many words."  I have had several of those moments in this book.  One I liked was this quote, in which Lucy and George Emerson end up spending a few moments (scandalously!) alone together in Italy.  Forster writes,

 

"She stopped and leant her elbows against the parapet of the embankment.  He did likewise.  There is at times a magic in identity of position; it is one of the things that have suggested to us eternal comradeship."

A Room with a View: 22% Complete

Yes, I know, I am woefully overdue for an update.  Many apologies, but it's been a rather hectic couple of weeks.  I had to attend a memorial service on Saturday for my dear aunt, I applied to nursing school on Friday, I had a big math test on Wednesday, and *drum roll, please* I got ENGAGED to my boyfriend of three years on the 25th!    But I'm back, and I'll try to do better from here on out. 

 

I'm enjoying A Room with a View so far.  It's rather funny to me to think of a British person going to Italy for the summer and then spending virtually the entire time in the company of other Brits who are also on vacation.  I mean, god forbid you actually have to talk to an Italian person!

 

The vocabulary word I have for you is "incommode" meaning "to inconvenience someone" (definition from The New Oxford American Dictionary).

 

I have two humorous quotes for you.  In the first, Lucy's guardian is rather concerned about her safety in going outside alone but the proprietor of the hotel they are staying at reassures her,

 

"Being English, Miss Honeychurch will be perfectly safe.  Italians understand.  A dear friend of mine, Contessa Baroncelli, has two daughters, and when she cannot send a maid to school with them, she lets them go in sailor-hats instead.  Everyone takes them for English, you see, especially if their hair is strained tightly behind."

 

And the second will ring true with anyone who has children or who has ever had to deal with a child who is having a meltdown:

 

"The child's legs had become as melting wax.  Each time that old Mr. Emerson and Lucy set it erect it collapsed with a roar.  Fortunately an Italian lady, who ought to have been saying her prayers, came to the rescue.  By some mysterious virtue, which mothers alone possess, she stiffened the little boy's back-bone and imparted strength to his knees."

A Room with a View: Beginning

The next book I'm reading is A Room with a View by E. M. Forster.  This book was published in 1908 in England. 

 

The book is about a young woman, Lucy Honeychurch, and her struggle between convention and passion in the repressive society of Edwardian England.  The story is split in two parts, the first part taking place during a summer holiday in Italy, and the second at Lucy's home in England.  The themes of the book include love, resistance against religion and coming of age.

 

A Room with a View has been adapted many times both for stage and film.  Of some interest to me, is the references to this book in the episode of TV show: The Office.  In one episode the characters create a "Finer Things Club" where they discuss cultured things such as art, music and literature and at one point they are reading this book.

 

This piece has long been considered a classic by many, and in 1998, the Modern Library included it on their list of 100 Best English-Language Novels of the 20th Century. 

 

My Kindle copy is 215 pages long and can be found here.