Howards End

Abstract

For Lionel Trilling, Howards End (1910) is ‘undoubtedly Forster’s masterpiece’; for F. R. Leavis, it ‘exhibits crudity of a kind to shock and distress the reader as Mr Forster hasn’t shocked or distressed him before’.⁴⁶ When two of the twentieth century’s most distinguished critics take up such sharply contrasting positions, we can expect to encounter critical problems in our consideration of this work. What seems undeniable, however, is that of the four novels Forster had published to date, Howards End is the most ambitious.