A clear, vibrant portrait of life in Edwardian England, Howards End deals with personal relationships and conflicting values. On the one hand are the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and their brother Tibby, who care about civilized living, music, literature, and conversation with their friends. On the other are the Wilcoxes, Henry and his children Charles, Paul, and Evie, who are concerned with the business side of life and distrust emotions and imagination. Howards End, a charming country house in Hertfordshire which belonged to Henry Wilcox's first wife, becomes the object of an inheritance dispute between the Wilcox family and Schlegel sisters. Through romantic entanglements, disappearing wills, and sudden tragedy, the conflict over the house emerges as a symbolic struggle for England's very future. Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was born in London and raised by his mother and paternal aunts. He pursued his interests in philosophy and classics at Cambridge and there began his writing. He wrote six novels, short stories, essays, and other nonfiction. His novel A Passage to India (1924) won both the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse and the James Tait Black Memorial prize. Nadia Mayhas been nominated as an AudioFile Golden Voice five years running and is a winner of fourteen AudioFileEarphones Awards. She is the co-founder of TheatreFirst, a theater company in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently lives. Excerpted from Howards End by E. M. Forster All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
