A Room With A View

E.M. Forster's 1908 novel A Room with a View is a defining romantic tale of one woman's life in a repressed Edwardian England. The novel focuses on social and political issues of the day, especially between conservative and radical thinking. This is embodied in the differences between the Medieval-minded characters Mr. Beebe, Miss Bartlett, and Cecil Vyse, and the Renaissance-minded character Lucy. The novel is set in Italy and England. Her character struggles with what society expects from women, compared to what she truly wants out of life.

Should she marry the stuffy high class Cecil Vyse? Or should she follow her own heart and get with intelligent, yet broke George Emerson? A Room with a View is Forster's most romantic and lighthearted novels, but it's still a brilliant work of art. For a "lighter" read, Forster still packs in an amazing amount of detail. You will certainly find something new each time you read this gem. It was ranked number 79 by the Modern Library on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.