Italy_Destination-Reads_Article-header

Reading lists

9 beach reads set in Italy

A Passage To India

His great book ... masterly in its prescience and its lucidity

Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) wrote six novels - Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910), A Passage to India (1924). Maurice , written in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. He also published two volumes of short stories; two collections of essays; a critical work (Aspects of the Novel); The Hill of Devi; two biographies; two books about Alexandria; and the libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd.

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.

E M Forster

Alfred Kazin

The story of a house and two sisters, <i>Howards End</i> is also a subtle meditation on national, sexual and social identities. Half German by birth and middle-class English by upbringing, Helen and Margaret Schlegel struggle to come to terms with the problems of their inheritance in Edwardian England. If the contrasting temperaments of the heroines often recall <i>Sense and Sensibility</i>, the comparison with Jane Austen is fully justified by the power of Forster’s irony and the brilliance of his wit.

Howards End

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Kate-Atkinson

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classics

E M Forster

Books by E M Forster

Series by E M Forster

Everyman’s Library Contemporary Classics

Articles featuring E M Forster

9 beach reads set in Italy

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter