Howards End - EM Forster

Malcolm Bradbury writes of the novel: “The will to vision, the liberal wish for right reason, the claim of the holiness of the heart’s affections – all are consistently confronted with ambiguity.” How do you respond to this assessment of Howards End? Perhaps what makes Howards End a truly great novel is the lack of any tangible resolution of the ideas raised and Forster’s reluctance to give the reader any definite answers. Instead Forster …

…unavoidable imperfections of the real world. Through Howards End the two families have been able to make the best of it that they are able to. The connection seems to have ensured an optimistic future for the spirit of Howards End, the spirit of humanity perhaps. Whatever the mistakes and shortcomings illustrated in the novel, and however the world is changing, at Howards End there will still be “‘such a crop of hay as never’”.