Howards End
By: E.M. Forster / Narrated By: Nadia May
Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
I know I know I know: Forster’s Masterpiece and all that -BUT-
Good cow! The characters were just sooo over the top in their representations of British classes. Plus I wanted to throttle Helen every now and again.
Consider if you will, as I had to consider for over 11 hours: Our story opens with missives Helen pens to her Aunt Juley and sister Margaret/Meg. Helen is naturally QUITE effusive, and here she’s been staying with the Wilcoxes and has fallen truly, deeply in love with the family. For some reason, the hyper-intellectual discussions that are par for the Schlegel sisters’ course have flown the coop, and soon Helen waxes poetic about how she and the younger son of the Wilcox family are in love, etc. etc. This bowls Margaret and Juley over, and Aunt Juley wheedles her way into seeing to Helen at Howards End AT ONCE.
Ooooh too bad, cuz right after Juley leaves, Helen sends a frantic telegram stating it’s over, do NOT come, etc. etc., throwing Meg into a whirlwind of emotions and setting Juley up for a run-in with the Wilcoxes that will become part and parcel of the entirety of this novel. The Wilcoxes, part of the upper classes who made their fortune in the African colonies, lead unexamined lives, and we listen ENDlessly to mundane little conversations that are representative of the class, of families holding onto wealth and living by unforgiving codes of status.
The Schlegel sisters, on the other hand, are part of the intellectual bourgeoisie and have ENDless conversations where they absolutely wallow in nitpicking and contradicting each other, as after all: Their reason for living is solely about accepting nothing at face value. A life unexamined is no life at all to them.
Also in the opening is young Leonard Bast, a member of the lower classes. He has just enough to do with the Schlegel sisters that Margaret gives him her card, seeing as twittery Helen has left a musicale with his umbrella. Later on, his fiancée, Jacky, will find this card and hot foot it over to find Meg, thinking a missing Leonard is up to no good. This unfortunate pair delights the sisters as Leonard is doing his dangedest to live a questioned life, plus, the sisters just plain believe they’re duty-bound to assist the lower orders who are often exploited by the upper ones.
So don’t ask me how, after a friendship with Ruth Wilcox (Wife of Henry who kicks the bucket early on), Margaret winds up in a romance with Henry Wilcox, the head of the family. He is sooo obstinate, sooo, well, dare I say it: He’s kinda a despicable character. He and Margaret have zippo in common, and even after events of a sordid nature come to light, Margaret consents to marry him. Meanwhile, Helen in a fit of passion cuz she’s ALL about a Life Examined, has a bit of a fling with the doomed Leonard, thus knocking her up well and soundly.
This all sounds fraught with action and emotion, but do believe me when I say that it’s not. Rather, each bit o’ drama is packed with conversations and bickering and sooo much philosophizing that I questioned why I like audiobooks and seek to review them. Surely, thought I to m’self, I could be listening to Christmas carols and playing with our cats. Surely, thought I, I could be taking a weed whacker to my toenails as what age does to toenails is quite simply horrific, and much much time and effort are in order… time I spent listening to Helen whine and jaw, effort I spent trying not to fly into exasperated rages.
Does it sound like I Want My Hours Back? Actually, no as this is indeed considered to be E.M. Forster’s masterpiece, and I did like Maurice. And it’s always good to suss things out for one’s self. Besides, Nadia May turns in a stellar performance, even capturing the complexity of Margaret’s nature: Placid, she is NOT, and that’s ALWAYS good to see. She made Henry not as despicable as his actions and choices would have suggested, thereby letting us get just a smidgen of why on earth Meg would deign to marry the man.
All wraps up nicely in the end, quite possibly in the only way it could’ve. Tragedy strikes, and we’re left with people/characters who’ve been stripped to their essences by it, and with other characters filling the gaps that calamities will bring forth.
All in all, yeh yeh yeh, well-written conversations and concepts bandied about, fine writing and a healthy dose of cynicism whenst contemplating an unforgiving class system. Dare I say it, an important work?
Yup, but I’m sooo glad it’s over. I’m lame enough to admit it, plus I did soooo love the movie. That was graced by Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, but here? Dude! Nadia May!
But dude! it HAD to have Nadia May, or I woulda upped and DIED halfway through…!
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