Forster, E. M. (1879-1970), was an English novelist, essayist, and literary critic. His novels show his interest in personal relationships and in the social, psychological, and racial obstacles to such relationships. His fiction stresses the value of following generous impulses.
Forster’s most highly praised novels are Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924). Howards End is a social comedy with tragic overtones about several English middle-class characters. It reflects Forster’s ideal of an “aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky.” A Passage to India describes the clash between English and traditional Indian cultures in India. Forster’s other four novels are Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), and Maurice (completed in 1914, published in 1971, after the author’s death).
For the last 46 years of his life, Forster produced only nonfiction. But he wrote his essays, biographies, and literary criticism in a masterly style noted for the same grace, polish, and elegant wit that characterized his novels.
Edward Morgan Forster was born on Jan. 1, 1879, in London. He died on June 7, 1970. E. M. Forster: A Life (1978), by British critic and scholar R. N. Furbank, is a standard biography of the writer.
