Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M Forster
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M Forster
This is a classic worthy of that title. E.M Forster is one of my favourite old-time authors and I find myself going back to his books again and again. ‘A Room with a View’, ‘A Passage to India’, ‘Howard’s End’…how could I resist? Many of his novels shine a light on class difference and its hypocrisy in 20th century British society in a very tongue-in-cheek way…one only needs to look at the subtlety of the title of this read ‘Where Angels Fear to Tread’ (hint: Only fools rush in…?) to appreciate his wit.
On a journey to Italy with her young friend and traveling companion Caroline Abbott, widowed Lilia Herriton falls in love with a man named Gino, a handsome Italian much younger than herself, and decides to stay. Furious, her dead husband’s family send Lilia’s brother-in-law Philip to Italy to prevent a misalliance, but he arrives too late. Lilia has already married Gino and becomes pregnant. She gives birth to a son, but dies in childbirth. Caroline decides to go to Italy again to save the child from what she perceives will be a difficult life. Not to be outdone, the Herritons send Philip to Italy, accompanied by his sister Harriet, to save the family’s reputation. In the public eye, they make it known that it is both their right and their duty to travel to Italy to obtain custody of the infant so that he can be raised as an Englishman. Secretly, though, they have no regard for the child, only public appearances. (Plot summary taken from here)
If you would like to try some of the classics without the ‘heaviness‘ (?) usually associated with these books, give this one a go!
I give this book FOUR COFFEE CUPS ☕☕☕☕