* * * * *
After hours of toil, thousands of words, countless library books and quite a lot of motivating chocolate, the dissertation is in.
After hours of toil, thousands of words, countless library books and quite a lot of motivating chocolate, the dissertation is in.
The final title was:
Escaping the “muddle”:
Lucy Honeychurch’s Italian education through E. M. Forster’s The Lucy Novels and A Room with a View.
(It appears virtually impossible for any undergraduate dissertation to avoid the ‘intriguing
quote: snazzy phrase’ format.)
8,800 words through and I have, somehow, managed to retain
my love for A Room with a View. Even
after 4 months of intensive exposure to the frustrating Lucy Honeychurch,
Florence has not lost its magical power.
A Room with a View is
one of Forster’s earliest novels, and its fairytale romance as Lucy Honeychurch
is confronted with her desires in the passionate, Italian landscape, has made it
one of his most popular. Readers can trace themes such as the women’s movement
and British colonial attitudes that Forster was to explore in his more serious
works, Howards End and A Passage to India. A Room with a View has
a bit of a reputation in the academic world for being ‘nice’, not brilliant
like Forster’s later works, but it is still my favourite.
If the images of the Italian landscape aren’t enough to woo
readers, there is the majestic George, whose heartfelt quest for beauty, strength
and truth makes him an almost irresistible hero. Anyone who has seen the 1985
film, directed by James Ivory, will understand my feelings. Ivory’s cinematography
is stunning as the endearingly muddled Lucy (Helena Bonham Carter) falls
through fields of violets into the embrace of George (Julian Sands). The
gossiping chaperons, Miss Bartlett and Miss Lavish, are potentially annoying
characters but their comical roles are consolidated by Maggie Smith’s and Judi
Dench’s girlish giggling over past romances.
As much fun as writing a dissertation on Ivory’s film would
have been, I instead focused on the manuscripts that Forster wrote whilst
drafting A Room with a View. The
first manuscript was written whilst Forster was travelling through Italy and its
protagonist, Lucy Beringer, is full of fight and passion; she doesn’t want to
sit darning a husband’s socks every evening and so she runs off to Rome. The second manuscript is much more like the final novel, with one
small exception,*spoiler* George dies at the end.
A Room with a View charts
Lucy’s journey from girl to woman, as she falls in love and learns to act for
herself, not her mother. In plot, A Room
with a View may not be much different from any other romance, but its
beautiful prose and awe-inspiring settings make it a perfect holiday read.
Photocredit: Ron Philips Travel
With no more essays to write it might just be time for me to
return to the magical city that is Florence.
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