Welcome to Shelf Control — an original feature created and hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies.
Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out my introductory post, here.
Want to join in? Shelf Control posts go up every Wednesday. See the guidelines at the bottom of the post, and jump on board!
Title: Howards End
Author: E. M. Forster
Published: 1910
Length: 302 pages
What it’s about (synopsis via Goodreads):
A chance acquaintance brings together the preposterous bourgeois Wilcox family and the clever, cultured and idealistic Schlegel sisters. As clear-eyed Margaret develops a friendship with Mrs Wilcox, the impetuous Helen brings into their midst a young bank clerk named Leonard Bast, who lives at the edge of poverty and ruin. When Mrs Wilcox dies, her family discovers that she wants to leave her country home, Howards End, to Margaret. Thus as Forster sets in motion a chain of events that will entangle three different families, he brilliantly portrays their aspirations to personal and social harmony.
How and when I got it:
I’ve had a dusty old paperback edition on my shelves for over a decade!
Why I want to read it:
I’ve been meaning to read this book for years now. I own it because it’s part of the two-in-one edition that includes Room With A View, which I actually have read. When I decided, earlier this week, to participate in the current round of the Classics Club Spin, Howards End seemed like a great choice to include… and although I won’t be reading it for this round, I was reminded (yet again) that I do intend to read this book eventually.
My interest in Howards End was renewed when the BBC adaptation (starring Hailey Atwell and Matthew Macfadyen) aired in 2018. I enjoyed it so much that I was determined to read the book ASAP… but oh well, the best of intentions and all that.
If I don’t get to Howards End sooner, then it’ll be on my list again for the next Classics Club Spin!
Have you read Howards End? If so, did you enjoy it?
Please share your thoughts!
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Have fun!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
I have read this book and it is so good. One of his best.
That’s great to hear!
One I’ve actually read for a change 🙂 I did like the book but with Foster (what little I’ve read so far), he often leaves me feeling like there are far more layers to the book I’ve read than I’ve peeled back, and I need to come back to it again.
I can see what you mean — I remember feeling something along those lines when I read A Room With a View after seeing the movie, and realizing that there was much more to the story than I originally thought.
I think there was a movie back in the 90s and I’m sure I saw it. But I’m curious about the book too. I hope you get to read it!
Oh wow, just looked it up — Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson! A Merchant-Ivory movie, and it was nominated for Best Picture. I had no idea!!
I always intend to read more 20th century classics like this, but then my brain goes, “Look! Another 12th century saga!”
Haha, our brains want what our brains want! I’ve been drawn to early 20th century classics myself. 12th century seems awfully intimidating to me!
The Icelandic sagas are so strange! One will have warriors and sorceresses, and the next will be about how an estranged father and son reconcile thanks to a series of lawsuits. Sarah Tolmie’s All the Horses of Iceland gives a great modern take on sagas, without having all the background generational stuff you see in historic sagas.
I like Howard’s End, though A Room With A View will always be my favorite E.M. Forster book. 😀
It’s the only one I’ve read so far, but I’d like to read more!
I also have a dusty paperback of this book on my shelf, and although I know I read “A Room with a View” but now that I think about it, I’m not sure if I read this one. I did, however, see the 1992 film with an all-star cast of Helen Bonham-Carter, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and Emma Thompson (which is amazing)! I haven’t see this TV series, though.
Maybe once I finally read this, I’ll go back and see the film as well. What a cast!
Yes, what a cast, plus it was a Merchant Ivory production, that won three Oscars, and had 6 more Oscar nominations, won two BAFTAs and 9 more BAFTA nominations.