Review: A Room with a View

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this while on holiday in Florence. Went looking for the Pension Bertolini (it is now a hotel) and many of the other sights described in the book. Loved the city. Loved the book.

It is laugh out loud funny in places. It is the kind of book that on almost every page there's a line you want to share with the people around you. For example, from chapter 1:

"You must have it," said Miss Bartlett, part of whose travelling expenses were paid by Lucy's mother—a piece of generosity to which she made many a tactful allusion.

or

He preferred to talk to Lucy, whose playing he remembered, rather than to Miss Bartlett, who probably remembered his sermons.

and

He is nice," exclaimed Lucy. "Just what I remember. He seems to see good in every one. No one would take him for a clergyman."

I could go on!

It was interesting reading it straight after The Masters of Sitcom: From Hancock to Steptoe. Galton and Simpson may have invented the TV sitcom but so much of the humour in this book comes from the situations that it is clear Galton and Simpson were standing on the shoulders of giants.

Serious issues are addressed: class, sexuality, education, passion, repression... but it is seriously good fun and a seriously good read

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