‘Swift, witty and satirical, with a fine eye for English manners and English snobbery’
JULIAN BARNES

Impulsive Lilia Herriton is a vulgar source of embarrassment to her late husband’s family, so her decision to embark on a year abroad in Italy with her friend Caroline Abbott is welcomed by all. But in Monteriano, a Tuscan town perched among the hills and surrounded by olive trees, Lilia scandalises her in-laws by quickly becoming engaged to a charismatic but unsuitable Italian man twelve years her junior.

Hoping to bring Lilia back to England before it’s too late, her brother-in-law Philip sets out for Tuscany, but on arrival, his ideas about the town and Lilia are challenged at every turn, and he returns home in defeat.

When the marriage leads to tragedy, Philip and Caroline must once again take the winding road to Monteriano, where they are forced to examine their own values and reconsider the lives that await them back in England.

In the spring of 1905, within those vine-covered walls, a brief romance between Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox brings the pragmatic, bourgeois Wilcoxes into conflict with the liberal, idealistic Schlegels. When Helen befriends Leonard Bast, a young bank clerk on the edge of ruin, a chain of events is set in motion that brings the Schlegel, Wilcox and Bast families together irrevocably, for better or for worse, and leads back, in the end, to where it all began, Howards End.

‘One of the most beautiful, poignant and poetic love stories, as relevant today as it was then’
SARAH WINMAN

‘My first intimation of the possibilities of fiction’
ZADIE SMITH

‘Brimming with yearning and desire . . . a novel I return to often’
CALEB AZUMAH NELSON

‘You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.’

Young, impressionable Lucy Honeychurch arrives in Italy for the first time, dependent on a Baedeker travel guide and her stern chaperone, Miss Bartlett. Staying at the Pension Bertolini, where a group of unusual characters come together, Lucy explores the basilicas and piazzas of Florence, the romantic charm of Italy beginning to work on her. And then one day, on a hill of violets overlooking the city, an encounter with passionate George Emerson opens Lucy’s eyes to the possibility of a life beyond the constraints of her middle-class upbringing.

Back in England, among the tennis courts and manicured lawns of home, Lucy tries to regain the respectable path laid out for her. But when she meets George again, she is torn between social obligation and the desire for a different sort of life. Can she learn how to be true to herself, before the possibility of a life of love and beauty slips through her fingers?

‘His heart leapt alive and shook him to pieces. It cried “You love and are loved.”‘

Maurice Hall grows up in comfort and privilege near London, in a villa surrounded by pines, where all is convenience and ease. He progresses through a traditional English education, projecting an outer confidence that masks troubling questions about his unspoken desires.

At Cambridge University, Maurice meets Clive, an assured older student, with whom he enjoys a close and intense relationship. Sneaking around college, climbing through windows and skipping lectures, Maurice begins to grasp a less conventional view of the nature of love. And then, on a trip to Clive’s family estate, he meets Alec, the gamekeeper, and his emotional and sexual awakening reaches its height, opening up the possibility of a life that strays from the path he was raised to follow. But can Maurice overcome societal pressures, self-doubt and heartbreak to find happiness?

Forster completed Maurice in 1914 but felt that it could not be published in his lifetime. It was not until 1971, the year after Forster’s death, that the novel was finally published.

‘There’s no writer better than Forster at portraying the genuine feelings that are born from the interaction between one human being and another’
KAMILA SHAMSIE

‘Forster’s last and greatest novel’
DAMON GALGUT, GUARDIAN

‘His great book . . . masterly in its prescience and its lucidity’
ANITA DESAI

‘The first time I saw you, you were wanting to see India, not Indians, and it occurred to me: Ah, that won’t take us far.’

The Indian town of Chandrapore seems to change dramatically season by season, day by day, offering different impressions from each angle it is viewed. Vulnerable to flooding, but blessed by glorious sun, it is surrounded by vast, flat expanses, except for hills to the south that house the extraordinary Marabar Caves.

When Mrs Moore and her younger travelling companion Adela arrive in town, they are frustrated and disappointed that all they can find is the claustrophobia of British colonial culture. Then a chance meeting with the charming and well-respected Dr Aziz seems to present the perfect opportunity to fulfil their desire to see the ‘real India’.

But during a guided tour of the Marabar Caves, a strange incident occurs, resulting in a shocking accusation that throws Chandrapore into a fever of racial tension and the doctor straight into the heart of a scandal from which he might never recover.

‘One doesn’t come to Italy for niceness,’ was the retort; ‘one comes for life. Buon giorno! Buon giorno!’

Lucy’s rigid, middle-class life is meticulously mapped out for her. Boredom and monotony await, along with a perfectly respectable marriage to her perfectly respectable fiancé, Cecil Vyse. But an indulgent holiday to Florence changes the course of her life forever.

Through scenic picnics and jovial dinners, Lucy learns that her life need not be reduced to polite conversation, nor does she need to adhere to the restrictive expectations dictated by outdated notions of propriety. For the first time, Lucy and her painfully conventional cousin Charlotte, are introduced to an eclectic cast of characters. The esteemed novelist Eleanor Lavish is flamboyant and hopelessly romantic. The charming Mr Emerson sees right through the folly of British society and makes sure those around him do too. And then there is his son, George, a handsome man who is poetically passionate and in love with Lucy.

Lucy has a difficult decision to make. Will she walk down the chosen path or carve her own way by following her heart?

People were all around them, but with eyes that had gone intensely blue he whispered, ‘I love you.’

From curious schoolboy to studious scholar, Maurice Hall grows with all the confidence his privileged status allows. The path to success is measured and assured, as long as he follows the rules dictated by society. But things quickly change as he finds himself increasingly attracted to his own sex. First through Clive, a fellow student he meets at Cambridge, and then through Alec, the gamekeeper on Clive’s country estate, Maurice experiences a profound emotional and sexual awakening, one which his contemporaries cannot condone.

Maurice is widely considered a founding work of modern gay literature. Although completed in 1914, this groundbreaking novel could not be published in Forster’s lifetime. Fittingly, it acts as a piercing critique of the suffocating ideals that permeated British society at the time. Forster himself said: ‘I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.’

This bold novel is one of defiance and bravery. As beautifully crafted as it is heartwrenching, this love story transcends time and generations.

A compelling portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India depicts the fate of individuals caught in the great political and cultural conflicts of their age. It begins when Adela and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, and feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced British community. Determined to explore the ‘real India’, they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal.

Edited by OLIVER STALLYBRASS with an Introduction by PANKAJ MISHRA