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鈥淲e need a vantage post, for the novel is a formidable mass, and it so amorphous鈥搉o mountain in it to climb, no Parnassus or Helicon, not even a Pisgah. It is most distinctly one of the moister areas of literature, irrigated by a hundred rills and occasionally degenerating into a swamp.鈥�
鈥揈. M. FORSTER

Edward Morgan Forster was born on January 1, 1879, at 8,Melcombe Place, Dorset Square, London. He attended Tonbridge School, as a day scholar and later went to King鈥檚 College, Cambridge, in 1897. It was his Cambridge association that stood him in good stead as a writer of undoubted repute. He became the Resident Honorary Fellow of the King鈥檚 in 1946 and several honorary degrees were conferred on him by many universities. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1953, another Cambridge distinction.

Forster inherited a liberal outlook of life from his parentage. His great-grandfather, Henry Thornton, was a leading banker and a member of Parliament and a leading member of the Clapham Sect known for its Evangelical preaching, philanthropy and opposition to slavery. 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 father, who died young, was an architect. Forster was left to the care of his mother and the benevolent grand-aunt, Marianne Thornton, whose biography he wrote later paying rich tributes to the great lady. 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 mother came from the Whicheloes stock who were known for their aesthetic sensibilities.

Forster wrote two volumes of short stories and four of his six novels-before the first world war. Just a decade after the publication of 鈥淎 Passage to India鈥� (1924), which is now an established classic, he wrote his first biography of his Cambridge Teacher of Classics and best friend, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson and it appeared in 1934 and another of his great aunt, Marianne Thornton in 1956. There were the Clark Lecturers at Cambridge, published in book, form under the title, Aspects of the Novel (1927), a masterpiece of Criticism; a Travelogue, The Hill of Devi, 1953, which was the basis for his 鈥淧assage鈥� and two large Collections of Essays, Reviews, Letters and Broadcasts collected in the book, 鈥淭he Abinger Harvest鈥�, 1936, and 鈥淭wo Cheers for Democracy鈥�, 1951, besides the posthumous publication of his last novel, Maurice, 1971.

Forster has firmly established himself as a great writer and critic and won a niche among the distinguished British writers of this age in spite of his limited literary output. It is the distinctive features of his works that have won for him a place of eminence in the literary world of this century.

As a man, according to J. R. Ackerley, Forster has the rarest and the finest qualities. Faith in personal human relationships is central to 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 credo though he was aware of the limitations placed on their efficacy. His fiction is, in many ways, artistic glorification of his basic belief in personal relations and the consequential dilemmas they create in the way of man鈥檚 realization of this ideal, as Prof. V. A. Shahane, a noted critic of Forster, justly observes. It is rightly said that Forster is the last survivor of a cultural liberal tradition in literature. It is this tradition which is richly imbued with the passion for the arts and democratic values of life. Forster as a man and writer has displayed a hatred for what is false and smug with a characteristic modesty to any claim of greatness.

As for 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 works, his short stories, written before 1914, claim our attention to the writer鈥檚 zest for tradition and we see that some of the themes of these stories reappearing in his later works on a wide expanse. Nearly all of his short stories are didactic and much influenced by Greek mythology and ideas. He believes like the ancient Greeks that the natural passions and emotions of the body need not be shunned and the man can ennoble himself by them. Italy as in the later works continues to dominate the scene in these stories. The short stories are but a glimpse of 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 artistic excellence. It is in his novels that we see the potentialities of Forster as a creative artist.

Though Forster chose to expound his views through this literary form, he oddly notes in 鈥淎spects of the Novel,鈥� that 鈥渢he novel tells a story鈥濃�揵ut we know he has revealed much more, delineating characters of diverse complexities through his novels.

贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 first novel, 鈥淲here Angels Fear to Tread鈥� appeared in 1905 when he was just twenty-six. No doubt, we encounter in this novel an unsteady method and a point of view with a limited appeal. The contrast in the ways of life represented by Sawston and Italy is ably presented. There is the wit and comedy which veil fierce passions and end in acts which are almost melodramatic. There is also the search for salvation and neither Sawston nor Italy is credited with any exalted position. In pursuance of truth, snobbery鈥搒ocial and intellectual鈥搃s criticized in the Forsterian fashion. According to Lionel Trilling, the theme of this novel is the violent opposition between British respectability and a kind of pagan and masculine integration, 鈥淲here Angels Fear to Tread鈥� marks the initial stages of a pattern.

His next novel, published in 1907, is 鈥淭he Longest Journey.鈥� Forster regarded this novel with particular affection, perhaps because of its association with Cambridge and his own introduction to the civilized life. It is one of the novels by which he himself has chosen to be represented in the world鈥檚 classics. Here again in his characteristic way, Forster sets up an investigation of truth or what is real. It begins in Cambridge with a group of undergraduates discussing metaphysics. The main theme revolves round the main character, Rickie Elliot, and his collapse into unreality as represented by his wife Agnes and the public school world of Sawston and his emergence again in the light under the guidance of his Cambridge friend, Ansell, and his half-brother, Stephen. The inconstant, unsubstantial state of man鈥檚 affairs is stressed in the novel. According to James McConkey, one of the recurrent motifs of this novel is that of the fragility of human existence, the fact that, 鈥淲e are all of us bubbles on an extremely rough sea.鈥� 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 literary art mellowed in this novel and his rhythmic imagery found its full expression here;

鈥淎 Room with a View鈥�, published in 1908, was 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 third novel. It should have been placed along with his first novel, 鈥淲here Angels Fear to Tread鈥�, for it was planned as early as 1903. It is full of exquisite comedy. The women characters in particular are treated with the utmost grace and wit. The juxtaposition of truth and falsehood and art and life is present here. Italy plays a significant part again in this novel as it does in the first one. Here again rhythm appears as an aesthetic device or an accompaniment to character and plot.

鈥淥nly Connect鈥� is the motto of his fourth novel, 鈥淗owards End鈥�, published in 1910. Here the two worlds are represented by two families鈥揻irst the two Schlegel sisters (half English and half German) and the second, the Wilcox family. Margaret and Helen Schlegel live for 鈥渃ulture鈥�, for the inner life, for personal relationships. Yet they are aware of the existence of an 鈥渙uter life.鈥� The Wilcoxes, on the other side, adept at 鈥渢he outer life鈥� are unaware of the existence of any other life at all. 鈥淥ne interesting fact about Howards End is that it was written by 1910 and it is therefore a product of that Indian summer of Victorian liberal humanist culture which immediately preceded the first world war,鈥� 鈥淗owards End鈥� is usually regarded as a 鈥渕odern鈥� rather than an Edwardian or Georgian novel. This novel, according to Peter Widdowson, seems in some way, to be both an image of its own milieu and symptomatic of subsequent developments, a creation 鈥渨andering between two worlds.鈥� It contains both an ardent affirmation of liberal humanist values and an intuition of their vulnerability鈥損erhaps their inefficacy in the process of contemporary social change. 鈥淗owards End鈥� written before 鈥渢he world broke up鈥� in 1914, just manages to resist the depredations of those 鈥渄ecivilizing鈥� forces which Forster sensed in the modern world, and finally postulates the survival of the values be cherished.

贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 fifth novel, 鈥淎 Passage to India鈥� published in 1924 is his best known. It is rightly said that 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 place as one of the greatest novelists of modern times would have been firm even if he had not written any other work other than the 鈥淧assage.鈥�

M. Sivarama Krishna writes in 鈥淔ocus鈥� on 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 鈥淎 Passage to India鈥濃�揑ndian Essays in Criticism鈥揈dited by Prof. V. A. Shahane that, 鈥淚n venturing to write on A Passage to India today, one feels not only a sense of a trepidation but also a sense of cripling helplessness and this stems, curiously enough, not from the paucity but from the sheer abundance of the critical corpus available on the novel, admittedly his finest, had, for the critics, at least one quality for a myth: its inexhaustibility to critical contemplation.鈥� Another pungent Indian critic of 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 Passage, Prof. Viswanadham, writes in his book, 鈥淚ndia in English Fiction鈥� that 鈥渢he novel is a plea for love: love is the Bridge of Understanding. 鈥淎 Passage to India鈥� is a very sensitive seismograph registering the concussions of the Indo-British world. Hence perhaps its greatest popularity and relevance today.鈥�

贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 A Passage to India is a great classic because it is primarily concerned not with social or political problems, but with man and his relationship with the universe. 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 quest is for the ultimate reality or truth鈥揳s exemplified both in Mrs. Moore and Professor Godbole, the two central characters in the novel, observes Prof. V. A. Shahane, a great authority on the novelist in his 鈥淓. M. Forster鈥揂 Study in Double Vision.鈥� On the surface of it the novel deals with the Indo-English relations鈥搒ocial and political in the British India. But it has many other facets鈥搃t is a novel of action and character and it reveals a symbolic pattern which in the view of Prof. Shahane is the heart of its structure and meaning, its design and vision. On a narrative plane, the 鈥淧assage鈥� is primarily concerned with the theme of friendship and love. In Chapter II, Aziz, another chief character of the novel, discusses with his friend as to 鈥渨hether it is possible to be friends with an Englishman.鈥� Thus the Aziz-Fielding relationship becomes the core of the story which unfolds the themes of separation and union, hatred and love, negation and affirmation. The problem of communication between man and man is thus central to the novel鈥檚 theme.

The 鈥淧assage鈥� has three structural dimensions, Mosque, Caves and Temple. These are three parts of the novel, in their dramatic and symbolic meanings. They converge on the central stream of the passage to India, 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 quest for truth, thus giving it an organic unity. The major mythological referent of 鈥淎 Passage to India鈥� is that of Hinduism and such a referent has given Forster a framework totally in keeping with the implications of his voice and that the prophecy of the novel results from such a relationship as James McConkey observes in his book 鈥淭he Novels of E. M. Forster.鈥�

贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 posthumously published novel, Maurice, came out in 1971 (Forster died on June 7, 1970). It has reinforced the impression of 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 rare distinction as a 鈥渟pecial man.鈥� It was on the theme of homosexuality, and Forster himself wrote in defence of the theme in a letter to Forrest Reid. Forster here idealizes the idea of green wood and even the relationship between man and man. The relationship between the main characters, Maurice and Clive, is intellectually and physically portrayed but not vitally projected, The theme is surely Lawrentian, but it lacks the vitality and the fire one finds in the fiction of D. H. Lawrence. As a novel Maurice hangs uncertainly between two great poles of 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 achievement 鈥� the finely cultivated architectural design of 鈥淗owards End鈥� and the aesthetically and philosophically created structure of his masterpiece, 鈥淎 Passage to India.鈥� The composition was almost a psychic relief for Forster from the 鈥渟tate of restlessness and lack of connection between individual and society鈥�, to quote again Prof. Shahane.

鈥淎spects of the Novel鈥�, reveals a keen and individual mind, and a love of great literature which Forster is successful in communicating to the reader. Here in the introductory remarks Forster says that the human quality of the novel should be upheld. In the 鈥淎spects鈥�, he deals with the different aspects of the novel and the story is the foremost aspect of it.

Forster is 鈥渞are鈥� indeed because he is in part a late Victorian or an Edwardian and in part a modern but, above all, human. 鈥淗is life extends over a long period from 1879-1970 marked by rapid and radical social change. It is difficult to find another British writer who has 贵辞谤蝉迟别谤鈥檚 vision and gifts and whose relationship with the age covers such varied phases of social and cultural changes for ninety years or more. It is, however, not so much this uncommon relationship with the age that makes Forster so unique as the inherent qualities of his personality, mind and art.鈥�