When I read Still Life a few months ago, the main characters often referenced EM Forster–the English novelist who was sighted in Florence several times while they were there–and his novel A Room with a View (published in 1908) was already well known. So I figured I should go back and reread what I probably read in college and had forgotten.
The book left a similar impression on me this time–which is to say forgettable. Its premise remains relevant more than a century later: societal norms, “ladylike” behavior, female repression, acceptable marriage proposals, etc. But those themes are so much more interesting in an Austen novel or in Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence, books that kept me engaged with characters I found compelling. I just really couldn’t care much about Lucy Honeychurch or anyone else, and I kept putting this book down because I got bored.
But…sometimes Forster’s irony is clever such as poking fun at the over reliance on a guidebook in order to enjoy a city or museum (I’m still guilty of this) or the commentary on religion when Mr Emerson cannot understand his son’s unhappiness/depression when he was brought up “free from all the superstition and ignorance that lead men to hate one another in the name of God.”
And Forster’s conveyance of early 20th c gender norms in a discussion of “ladylike” should have been amusing though I’m dismayed by the number of people who would probably agree with it today, almost 120 years later: “It was not that ladies were inferior to men; it was that they were different. Their mission was to inspire others to achievement rather than to achieve themselves. Indirectly, by means of tact and a spotless name, a lady could accomplish much. But if she rushed into the fray herself she would be first censured, then despised, and finally ignored.”
Perhaps Forster knew that in some ways, society would always prefer that women remain helpmeets to their men.
Important themes and some memorable passages, but a bit of a slog in characters and plot. Though it’s under 250 pages, I had to do some skimming.
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Forster was one of my first MustReadEverything authors, and this was the first of his books I read, so obviously I enjoyed it more than you do. hehe But I also remember thinking, on the only occasion I reread it, that it worked better for me to read like short stories (leaving time between the chapters), which I don’t think would be true of his other books. (BTW, I found my way to your site via Andrew’s, in case you’re wondering!)
Thanks! I always like to know what others think, especially of a book that I liked less than them because it offers me another perspective, or often, something I missed.