First published in 1908, A Room with a View portrays the love of a British woman for an expatriate living in Italy. Caught up in a world of social snobbery, Forster's heroine, Lucy Honeychurch, finds herself constrained by the claustrophobic influence of her British guardians, who encourage her to take up with a well-connected boor. In the end, however, Lucy takes control of her own fate and finds love with a man, whose free spirit reminds her of "a room with a view."
More than a love story, A Room with a View is a penetrating social comedy and a brilliant study of contrasts- in values, social class, and cultural perspectives- and the ingenuity of fate.
