Yes there's the much hyped 'crime' analyzed in the broader context of presupposed guilt and innocence. And you will find this to be Forster's unambiguous, lucid vision of humanity languishing in a zone of resentful sociocultural synthesis, his unhesitant condemnation not merely of racism, casteism, religion-ism and what other noxious, vindictive 'ism's we have had throughout the history of our collective existence but of the fatalistic human tendency of rejecting a simple truth in favour of self-justifying contrivances. Peel away the British Raj too and the concomitant censure that its historical injustices invite. But strip away a colonial India from this layered narrative.

Maybe it is the handicap of my Indian sentimentality that I cannot remedy on whim to fine-tune my capacity for objective assessment. This, to me, will always be Forster's magnum opus even though I am yet to even acquaint myself with the synopses of either Howards End or Maurice. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.įorster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: 'Only connect'.

He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. Forster, was an novelist, essayist, and short story writer.

Edward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M.

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster