Have you read ... E.M. Forster

    Time for an admission of another gap in Cornflower's reading: I've never read E.M. Forster. Often studied at A level, I wonder how widely read he is otherwise nowadays, although doubtless the various film versions of his novels have brought many to the books themselves.

    My Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide says Forster's plots all turn on "the disastrous results of emotional inexperience, of people blundering about in each other's sensibilities", and goes on, "His intuition for emotional nuance and his compelling characterization (especially of women), give his books fascination despite their narrow focus".

    "Only connect" was the epigraph to Howards End (1910), reflecting his "impulse toward understanding and sympathy", shown also in his other works such as A Room with a View (1908) and A Passage to India (1924). Have you read them, or are you content with seeing them through the eyes of Merchant Ivory and David Lean?