In the first half of this study, renowned transatlantic critic and teacher Frank Kermode looks back to Forster's Cambridge University lectures, published in 1927 as Aspects of the Novel. Forster's ideas about point of view, flat and round characters, and rhythm in the novel had enormous influence for decades, though Forster's own fiction, Kermode points out, had detractors in his own day. Kermode is at his best in explaining and illustrating how Forster's theory and practice differed from those of his contemporaries, notably Henry James, Arnold Bennett, and Virginia Woolf. The second half of the book offers Kermode's loosely organized observations on Forster's life and works. Especially valuable are the discussions of his place in the Bloomsbury and less-known circles, his other friendships, and his regret that England's repressive culture seemed to preclude his intimacy with men. Forster's love of India, evident in his most famous novel, A Passage to India (1924), receives attention, as do his mystical side and his love of music, which, Kermode demonstrates, Forster expressed in his fiction. The weaving of biographical and thoughtful critical insights makes this an important and attractive work for anyone interested in Forster, his world, and fiction.
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