Edward Morgan Forster: A Room With A View

The book was written 100 years ago and it is telling about the English people, about their habits and their lives. The main character is a young middle-class English girl called Lucy Honeychurch. Lucy is going to spend the summer with her cousin Charlotte Bartlett in Florence, Italy. They have two rooms in Pension Bertolini, but only one of these rooms has a view. At the dinner they speculate who should get the room with a view- if Lucy or her older, serious cousin, who is traveling just like an entourage. Two men listen to their conversation and offered them that they could take their rooms. Girls are confused and do not know, what to do. They accept it and later are told by their known Mr. Beebe, a clergyman, that the two men are Mr. Emerson and his son George. Charlotte don´t like them - she is quite old-fashioned. On the other day, Lucy is going to a walk wit Miss Lavish, a clever woman who they met the previous evening. They walk for a while, but after it Ms Lavish sees a friend of her and leaves Lucy alone. She doesn´t know, what to do, so she goes to a church which is quite near to her. There she meets Emersons and talks to them, especially to the old Mr Emerson. She thinks they are not so bad as everybody in the pension say. Later in the afternoon in the pension she plays the piano-she can play very good-and decides to do something, with what her cousin would disapprove. Lucy was always a good girl, but Italy changes her. She is still the good girl, but she feels like grown up now. She goes out and entered the Piazza (a square), where she sees a tragedy- there are two Italians arguing about money, but one of them is killed. She faints and the young George Emerson, who was there by a chance, gets her home. Everybody in the pension is shocked, only Ms Lavish decide that she will write a novel about it. She wants to write about two men arguing about a woman. Lucy thinks it is silly and realizes, how much did she change her significances. The next day two groups of people drive in carriages to Fiesole (a town near Florence). They have a break and Lucy with an Italian boy-driver-travel in a carriage. She is looking for Mr Beebe and for another clergyman, Mr Eager. Lucy finds a place with many violets, so they stop there. She suddenly falls down and a man goes against her - it is George Emerson. Without knowing what is going on, he helps her to stand up and kiss her. She is confused, but it is more complicated-her cousin Charlotte has seen her.

They decide not to tell anybody, even when they think that George is very rude. Lucy gets a letter-their friends Mr Vyse and his son Cecil are also in Italy, Rome. Lucy and Charlotte decide that the best what they can do, is to go to visit them, away from George.
The story moves to England, Lucy is now engagt with Cecil Vyse. Her mother is happy about it, but her brother Freddy and Mr Beebe aren´t really sure with this relationship. Lucy and Cecil have very different opinions. After a small garden party they go home and see two villas. They stop there and are told that one of the villas is ready for sale. Lucy have an idea- she writes to two old ladies who she met in Florence, to tell them, they could rent the villa. Later Lucy is told that the villa is already rent- Cecil has met by a chance two men and they are moving to their new home. Lucy is upset by Cecil´s behaviour. Freddy comes with news- some Emersons now live in the villa. Lucy is shocked, but it will be worst-her brother becomes a friend with George, so Lucy has to see him again. Like there was not enough these troubles, Charlotte is coming to stay for some time. Lucy talks to her, she says that George is living so near to her and that she is scared that Cecil will get know about the kiss. Charlotte asserts that she has not talk about it with anybody. The next day Freddy, his friend, George and Lucy play tennis and after it Cecil wants to read them from a book something, what he finds very silly. Lucy recognizes that it is Ms Lavishes book-there is the scene, where a boy is killed on the Piazza. But the next scene surprises her-it is about a girl between many violets kissing with a boy. Charlotte has told about it to Ms Lavish. Lucy wants to go home, so she goes with George and Cecil, but Cecil has forgotten the book so he has to go back for it. George says Lucy that he loves her and she should not marry Cecil. Then he kisses her again. She thinks he is very rude, but after she was thinking about everything, she cancels their engagement the same day. She feels like she has to go away, to escape. She hates George Emerson and wants to go to Greece. She meets the old Mr. Emerson, who talks to her and after that she discovers her true feelings. She knows she is in love with George from the beginning and now she can say it loud…
She goes back to Pension Bertolini, but this time she goes with George and feels happy again.

The book was written in 1908 and you can feel it.

There are some things, which are quite normal today, but in that time it was something like scandal - like for example when George kissed Lucy. You can see the importance of kind behaviour. For me it was interesting to read, how things changed in these hundred years, the atmosphere was described very good, but I didn’t really understand Lucy’s feelings-she was really lovely, but her behaviour was kind of strange.
At the beginning the book was a little bit boring, but later I found it really good and interesting. I liked that there was always something happening.