The novelist E. M. Forster opens the door on life in a remote Maharajah's court in the early twentieth century, a "record of a vanished civilization." Through letters from his time visiting and working there, he introduces us to a 14th century political system in "the oddest corner of the world outside Alice in Wonderland" where the young Maharajah of Devas, "certainly a genius and possibly a saint," led a state centered on spiritual aspirations. The Hill of Devi chronicles Forster's infatuation and exasperation, fascination, and amusement at this idiosyncratic court, leading us with him to its heart and the eight-day festival of Gokul Ashtami, marking the birth of Krishna, where we see His Highness Maharajah Sir Tukoji Rao III dancing before the altar "like David before the Ark."

Young Lucy Honeychurch leaves Edwardian England for a tour of Italy, where she becomes immersed in an exotic new environment full of unexpected possibilities. A Room With a View by E.M. Forster is an influential classic that follows Lucy as she encounters characters and events far outside her previous experience and must see through the clash of cultures and personalities to recognize both herself and whom she loves.

A tour of Italy takes young Lucy Honeychurch out of her predictable life in Edwardian England and places her into a new world that even her chaperoning spinster aunt cannot control. Encountering everything from unlikely traveling companions to street violence, Lucy faces the greatest challenge in understanding her own shifting emotions toward a most unsuitable suitor. Since it first appeared in 1908 A Room With a View has been recognized as a masterful depiction of character and conflict. Known to many through Merchant Ivory's lush 1985 film adaptation, which won multiple awards including the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, the novel provides an even richer experience. Lucy's journey toward a fresh, true understanding of herself and her passions make a compelling story, leavened by both an unexpected dry humor and a belief in the power of love.With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of A Room With a View is both modern and readable.

'His great book ... masterly in its prescience and its lucidity' ANITA DESAI A compelling portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India depicts the fate of individuals caught in the great political and cultural conflicts of their age. It begins when Adela and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, and feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced British community. Determined to explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal. Edited by OLIVER STALLYBRASS with an Introduction by PANKAJ MISHRA

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. The work was Forster's first novel, and its success helped launch his lengthy and critically acclaimed career as a writer of literary fiction. Where Angels Fear to Tread-the title is drawn from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711)-is a moving meditation on class, gender, social convention, and the grieving process. Following the death of her husband, a widow named Lilia Herriton travels to Tuscany with her friend Caroline Abbott. In Italy, Lilia falls in love with a young Italian named Gino, with whom she decides to remain. This prompts a fierce backlash among members of her deceased husband's family, who privilege their honor and name over Lilia's happiness. Although they send Philip, her brother-in-law, to Italy in order to retrieve her, Lilia has already married Gino, and is pregnant with their child. When she dies in childbirth, however, a fight ensues over the care of the boy, whom the Herritons want to be raised as an Englishman in their midst. Philip returns to Italy with his sister Harriet, meeting Caroline and devising a plan to wrest control of the boy from Gino, a loving and caring father. Where Angels Fear to Tread is a novel that traces the consequences of selfish decisions, the politics of family life, and the social conventions which hold women prisoner to those who claim to support them. The novel was an immensely successful debut for Forster, who would go on to become one of England's most popular and critically acclaimed novelists of the twentieth century. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster's Where Angels Fear to Tread is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Howards End (1910) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Inspired by his interactions with the famous Bloomsbury Group of writers and intellectuals, as well as by his personal experience growing up with a large inheritance on the family estate of Rooks Nest, Howards End has been recognized as one of the finest novels ever written in English. The story loosely follows the lives of three families: the Wilcoxes, whose wealth derives from the exploitation of British colonies; the Basts, an impoverished couple; and the Schlegels, half-German sisters who find themselves set between the vastly opposing classes of their peers. Much of the novel is set on the Wilcox estate, known as Howards End, a symbol of fortune and a reminder of the generational implications of hoarded wealth. When Ruth Wilcox moves to London, she befriends her neighbor Margaret Schlegel. On her deathbed, and in secret, Ruth leaves a note instructing that Howards End be left to Margaret in her will, bypassing her family entirely. When her son Henry, a widower, finds out, he destroys the note, ensuring that the estate remains within the family. Years later, when the two meet again, Henry proposes to Margaret, bringing the Wilcox and Schlegel families closer together. But when her sister Helen brings the struggling Leonard and Jacky Bast to a party at Howards End, Henry, who recognizes Jacky as a former mistress, believes he is being set up, and breaks off the engagement. Although they reconcile, Margaret is driven apart from her sisters, who resent the Wilcoxes and distrust Henry. But when Helen becomes pregnant by Leonard, and a tragic event destroys several lives, the families are brought together once more, and both Margaret and Henry are forced to choose between the fortune they stand to gain and the love they stand to lose. E.M. Forster's Howards End is a masterpiece, a brilliant study of family, wealth, romance, and secrecy that captures the depravity of the English aristocracy without losing what sets it apart-an undeterred sense of humanity. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster's Howards End is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

A tour of Italy takes young Lucy Honeychurch out of her predictable life in Edwardian England and places her into a new world that even her chaperoning spinster aunt cannot control. Encountering everything from unlikely traveling companions to street violence, Lucy faces the greatest challenge in understanding her own shifting emotions toward a most unsuitable suitor. Since it first appeared in 1908 A Room With a View has been recognized as a masterful depiction of character and conflict. Known to many through Merchant Ivory's lush 1985 film adaptation, which won multiple awards including the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, the novel provides an even richer experience. Lucy's journey toward a fresh, true understanding of herself and her passions make a compelling story, leavened by both an unexpected dry humor and a belief in the power of love.With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of A Room With a View is both modern and readable.

Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and on into his father's firm, Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way, "stepping into the niche that England had prepared for him": except that his is homosexual. Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after "Howards End," and not published until 1971, " Maurice" was ahead of its time in its theme and in its affirmation that love between men can be happy. "Happiness," Forster wrote, "is its keynote. In "Maurice" I tried to create a character who was completely unlike myself or what I supposed myself to be: someone handsome, healthy, bodily attractive, mentally torpid, not a bad businessman and rather a snob. Into this mixture I dropped an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him."

A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Written during the rise of the Indian independence movement against the British Raj, A Passage to India is considered one of the greatest novels of twentieth century English literature. The novel has also been an important work for postcolonial theorists and literary critics for its inherent Orientalism and treatment of race, gender, and imperialism. The novel begins with the arrival of a young British teacher named Adela Quested and her friend Mrs. Moore in India. When Adela visits a mosque, she is approached by Dr. Aziz, a young Muslim physician, who accosts her before noticing her respect and understanding of local customs. At a party arranged by a local tax collector, who has invited a group of Indians out of curiosity, Fielding, a college principal, invites Dr. Aziz to a tea party with Adela and Mrs. Moore. There, they make plans to visit the Marabar caves, but are interrupted by Ronny Heaslop, who is to be engaged to Adela. When the day of the journey arrives, only Adela and Mrs. Moore are able to make the trip, and Dr. Aziz accompanies them alone. At the caves, Adela is frightened by a strange echo and stumbles before convincing herself that Dr. Aziz has assaulted her. The ensuing trial divides the fictional city of Chandrapore along racial lines, exposing the prejudices and tensions that dominate life during the British Raj. A Passage to India explores themes of romance, friendship, race, and custom while critiquing the British conquest of India and illuminating the rise of the Indian independence movement. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Longest Journey (1907) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Despite its critical success, the novel was a commercial failure for Forster, but has since grown in reputation and readership to help cement his reception as one of twentieth century England's most talented writers. Rickie Elliot enters Cambridge as a young man, exploring his interests in poetry and art and joining a circle of intellectuals centered around a philosopher named Stewart Ansell. An orphan, Rickie cherishes his small number of friends, including Agnes and her brother Herbert, who were his only companions as a youth. When Agnes's fiance dies in a football match, Rickie steps in to console her, and the two become engaged. Shortly afterward, a visit to Rickie's elderly Aunt leads to his discovery of a stepbrother named Stephen, and the young scholar is plunged into the past and forced to face his family's secret history. While Agnes, now his wife, encourages him to reject Stephen, Rickie struggles with his feelings and takes his frustration out on his pupils at the dormitory school where he has been appointed to teach classics. Cut off from his Cambridge friends, and growing apart from Agnes, Rickie makes an effort to connect with Stephen, who has grown to be a troubled young man. Between literary fame and married life, the bonds of family and friendship, Rickie's story of hardship and personal development poses poignant questions regarding social conventions, infidelity, and the life of a struggling artist. The Longest Journey is a powerful bildungsroman and the second novel published by English literary icon E.M. Forster. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster's The Longest Journey is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

E. M. Forster's guide sparkles with wit and insight for contemporary writers and readers. With lively language and excerpts from well-known classics, Forster (author of A Passage to India, Howards End, and A Room With a View) takes on the seven elements vital to a novel: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. He not only defines and explains such terms as "round" versus "flat" characters (and why both are needed for an effective novel), but also provides examples of writing from such literary greats as Dickens and Austen. Forster's original commentary illuminates and entertains without lapsing into complicated, scholarly rhetoric, coming together in a key volume on writing."Forster's casual and wittily acute guidance...transmutes the dull stuff of He-Said and She-Said into characters, stories, and intimations of truth."--Harper's

Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. The work was Forster’s first novel, and its success helped launch his lengthy and critically acclaimed career as a writer of literary fiction. Where Angels Fear to Tread—the title is drawn from Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism (1711)—is a moving meditation on class, gender, social convention, and the grieving process. Following the death of her husband, a widow named Lilia Herriton travels to Tuscany with her friend Caroline Abbott. In Italy, Lilia falls in love with a young Italian named Gino, with whom she decides to remain. This prompts a fierce backlash among members of her deceased husband’s family, who privilege their honor and name over Lilia’s happiness. Although they send Philip, her brother-in-law, to Italy in order to retrieve her, Lilia has already married Gino, and is pregnant with their child. When she dies in childbirth, however, a fight ensues over the care of the boy, whom the Herritons want to be raised as an Englishman in their midst. Philip returns to Italy with his sister Harriet, meeting Caroline and devising a plan to wrest control of the boy from Gino, a loving and caring father. Where Angels Fear to Tread is a novel that traces the consequences of selfish decisions, the politics of family life, and the social conventions which hold women prisoner to those who claim to support them. The novel was an immensely successful debut for Forster, who would go on to become one of England’s most popular and critically acclaimed novelists of the twentieth century. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Longest Journey (1907) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Despite its critical success, the novel was a commercial failure for Forster, but has since grown in reputation and readership to help cement his reception as one of twentieth century England’s most talented writers. Rickie Elliot enters Cambridge as a young man, exploring his interests in poetry and art and joining a circle of intellectuals centered around a philosopher named Stewart Ansell. An orphan, Rickie cherishes his small number of friends, including Agnes and her brother Herbert, who were his only companions as a youth. When Agnes’s fiancé dies in a football match, Rickie steps in to console her, and the two become engaged. Shortly afterward, a visit to Rickie’s elderly Aunt leads to his discovery of a stepbrother named Stephen, and the young scholar is plunged into the past and forced to face his family’s secret history. While Agnes, now his wife, encourages him to reject Stephen, Rickie struggles with his feelings and takes his frustration out on his pupils at the dormitory school where he has been appointed to teach classics. Cut off from his Cambridge friends, and growing apart from Agnes, Rickie makes an effort to connect with Stephen, who has grown to be a troubled young man. Between literary fame and married life, the bonds of family and friendship, Rickie’s story of hardship and personal development poses poignant questions regarding social conventions, infidelity, and the life of a struggling artist. The Longest Journey is a powerful bildungsroman and the second novel published by English literary icon E.M. Forster. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster’s The Longest Journey is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Howards End (1910) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Inspired by his interactions with the famous Bloomsbury Group of writers and intellectuals, as well as by his personal experience growing up with a large inheritance on the family estate of Rooks Nest, Howards End has been recognized as one of the finest novels ever written in English. The story loosely follows the lives of three families: the Wilcoxes, whose wealth derives from the exploitation of British colonies; the Basts, an impoverished couple; and the Schlegels, half-German sisters who find themselves set between the vastly opposing classes of their peers. Much of the novel is set on the Wilcox estate, known as Howards End, a symbol of fortune and a reminder of the generational implications of hoarded wealth. When Ruth Wilcox moves to London, she befriends her neighbor Margaret Schlegel. On her deathbed, and in secret, Ruth leaves a note instructing that Howards End be left to Margaret in her will, bypassing her family entirely. When her son Henry, a widower, finds out, he destroys the note, ensuring that the estate remains within the family. Years later, when the two meet again, Henry proposes to Margaret, bringing the Wilcox and Schlegel families closer together. But when her sister Helen brings the struggling Leonard and Jacky Bast to a party at Howards End, Henry, who recognizes Jacky as a former mistress, believes he is being set up, and breaks off the engagement. Although they reconcile, Margaret is driven apart from her sisters, who resent the Wilcoxes and distrust Henry. But when Helen becomes pregnant by Leonard, and a tragic event destroys several lives, the families are brought together once more, and both Margaret and Henry are forced to choose between the fortune they stand to gain and the love they stand to lose. E.M. Forster's Howards End is a masterpiece, a brilliant study of family, wealth, romance, and secrecy that captures the depravity of the English aristocracy without losing what sets it apart-an undeterred sense of humanity. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster's Howards End is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

A Passage to India (1924) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. Written during the rise of the Indian independence movement against the British Raj, A Passage to India is considered one of the greatest novels of twentieth century English literature. The novel has also been an important work for postcolonial theorists and literary critics for its inherent Orientalism and treatment of race, gender, and imperialism. The novel begins with the arrival of a young British teacher named Adela Quested and her friend Mrs. Moore in India. When Adela visits a mosque, she is approached by Dr. Aziz, a young Muslim physician, who accosts her before noticing her respect and understanding of local customs. At a party arranged by a local tax collector, who has invited a group of Indians out of curiosity, Fielding, a college principal, invites Dr. Aziz to a tea party with Adela and Mrs. Moore. There, they make plans to visit the Marabar caves, but are interrupted by Ronny Heaslop, who is to be engaged to Adela. When the day of the journey arrives, only Adela and Mrs. Moore are able to make the trip, and Dr. Aziz accompanies them alone. At the caves, Adela is frightened by a strange echo and stumbles before convincing herself that Dr. Aziz has assaulted her. The ensuing trial divides the fictional city of Chandrapore along racial lines, exposing the prejudices and tensions that dominate life during the British Raj. A Passage to India explores themes of romance, friendship, race, and custom while critiquing the British conquest of India and illuminating the rise of the Indian independence movement. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

'"You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other. "I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that."' E.M. Forster is best known for his exquisite novels, but these two affecting short stories brilliantly combine the fantastical with the allegorical. In 'The Machine Stops', humanity has isolated itself beneath the ground, enmeshed in automated comforts, and in 'The Celestial Omnibus' a young boy takes a trip his parents believe impossible. This book contains The Machine Stops and A Celestial Omnibus.

The Penguin English Library Edition of A Room with a View by E. M. Forster '"But you do," he went on, not waiting for contradiction. "You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you, and no other word expresses it ..." Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiance Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart? The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Exploring issues of colonialism, faith and the limits of comprehension, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterly portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world. 'His great book ... masterly in its presence and its lucidity' Anita Desai

An astonishingly frank and deeply autobiographical account of homosexual relationships in an era when love between men was not only stigmatised, but also illegal, E.M. Forster's Maurice is edited by P.N. Furbank with an introduction by David Leavitt in Penguin Classics. Maurice Hall is a young man who grows up confident in his privileged status and well aware of his role in society. Modest and generally conformist, he nevertheless finds himself increasingly attracted to his own sex. Through Clive, whom he encounters at Cambridge, and through Alec, the gamekeeper on Clive's country estate, Maurice gradually experiences a profound emotional and sexual awakening. A tale of passion, bravery and defiance, this intensely personal novel was completed in 1914 but remained unpublished until after Forster's death in 1970. Compellingly honest and beautifully written, it offers a powerful condemnation of the repressive attitudes of British society, and is at once a moving love story and an intimate tale of one man's erotic and political self-discovery. In his introduction, David Leavitt explores the significance of the novel in relation to Forster's own life and as a founding work of modern gay literature. This edition reproduces the Abinger text of the novel, and includes new notes, a chronology and further reading. 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 centred 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 Maurice, you might like Forster's A Room With a View, also available in Penguin Classics.