The Creator as Critic and Other Writings by E.M. Forster

by Jeffrey M. Heath (Editor), Jeffrey Heath (Editor)

Overview

E.M. Forster, whose novels A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India probe the values of the English middle class, is recognized as one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished authors. He was also a highly respected literary critic. The Creator as Critic contains more than 40 of Forster’s hitherto-unpublished essays, lectures, and memoirs, spanning the period 1898 to 1960. They reflect his views on a wide range of authors: Coleridge, Tolstoy, Pater, Wilde, James, Hardy, Butler, Housman, Kipling, Joyce, Lawrence, Proust, Cavafy, and others.

The Creator as Critic also presents the original texts of some 30 broadcasts made by Forster for the BBC between 1928 and 1959. These radio talks, collected for the first time in this volume, are the thoughtful and thought-provoking products of Forster’s active engagement with the literary, political, and social events of his time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781550025224
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	02/25/2008
Pages:	814
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.25(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey M. Heath is the author of The Picturesque Prison: Evelyn Waugh and His Writing. He co-edited the University of Toronto's Modern Drama and has written extensively on E.M. Forster.

Table of Contents

Preface     9
Introduction     13
Explanatory Note     19
Talks and Lectures     21
Happy versus Sad Endings     23
The Poems of Kipling     26
A Roman "Society"     41
Samuel Butler, 1835-1902     45
Walter Pater     50
Meeting Old Bloomsbury     51
On Pornography and Sentimentality     54
English Literature since the War     56
Memory     61
The Creator as Critic     64
Three Generations     99
West Hackhurst: A Surrey Ramble (Part I)     108
Modern Writing     120
A.E. Housman     124
The Last Moment of Life     130
Reply to Lord Cohen     131
Cavafy     133
Eightieth Birthday Speech     134
Essays     137
The Relation of Dryden to Milton and Pope     139
The Novelists of the Eighteenth Century and Their Influence on Those of the Nineteenth     150
The Sentimental Essays     161
The Pantheon     161
Rome     162
Via Nomentana     163
Museo Kircheriano     164
Syracuse     166
The Seat of the Scornful     167
The Amateur among the Mountains     168
Cnidus     170
Pagus Quidam     171
The Bugiale     174
Luigi Cornaro     178
Other Memoirs and Memoranda     185
Loch Meikle     187
Stisted     187
Incidents of War     188
Swimming in the Sea     197
Madame Myslakowska     200
Charlie Day     201
Points de repere     204
Mother     205
Notes on the Future of Civilization     205
Nassenheide     206
Death of a Clock     211
Sex     212
Broadcasts     217
Railway Bridges     219
D.H. Lawrence     222
A Conversation in the Train     227
The Future of Broadcasting; Strachey, Capek, and Others     236
Books of 1937     240
Efficiency and Liberty     244
Here's Wishing...     246
Reading in Wartime     247
Books of 1939     250
The Freedom of the Artist     253
Some Books: The Brothers Karamazov and Bhakti     255
Books and the Writer: Dos Passos, Steinbeck, and Others     258
Some Books: A.L. Rowse, Rose Macaulay, L.A.G. Strong, and Others     261
Story by Five Authors     264
Some Books: Machen, Graves, and Others     267
Some Books: Islam To-day; Lord David Cecil on Thomas Hardy     270
The World We Want: What Must We Give to Get It?     273
Some Books: A New Year's Resolution for 1944     275
A Book that Influenced Me     278
Some Books: Hayek, Laski, Wedgwood, Smyth, "Q"     281
Some Books: Moon, Weston, Anand, Orwell, and Others     284
Some Books: Vercors, Lunn, and Others     287
Some Books: Edward Carpenter     290
Some Books: Jackson, Wescott, Wilder     293
Some Books: Orwell's Animal Farm     296
Some Books: Hilton Brown on Kipling; Kennan, Wilson, Welty     299
The Planned World and the Creative Artist     302
Some Books: Stoll, Dickinson, Iqbal, and Others     303
The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts     306
I Speak for Myself     310
The Butler Legacy     312
Power and Authority     316
E.M. Forster at Cambridge, 1958     317
Key to Abbreviations     319
A Note on the Forster Catalogue at King's College, Cambridge     321
A Note on the Page and Line References     322
Notes on the Talks and Lectures     323
Notes on the Essays     505
The Sentimental Essays: Introduction     529
Notes on Other Memoirs and Memoranda     591
Notes on the Broadcasts     625
The Broadcasts: Introduction     626
Appendices     723
Poems     724
Pater, Novalis, Forster     742
The Whole Truth     756
The Two Cheers for Democracy Broadcasts     764
Bibliography     775
Index     783

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Because Heath knows Forster so well and is able to hold all the texts ready for citation and comparison, he offers many probing and insightful observations." — Judith Scherer Herz, Ariel

Editorial Reviews

"A remarkable feat of scholarship..."

Hudson Review

Because Heath knows Forster so well and is able to hold all the texts ready for citation and comparison, he offers many probing and insightful observations.

Ariel - Judith Scherer Herz

The work collected here, or published for the first time, is gathered under four general headings: Talks and Lectures, Essays, Other Memoirs and Memoranda, and Broadcasts. As these suggest, the emphasis falls mainly on a special Forsterian voice, always urbane, at times disarmingly casual, and at moments formal and self-aware. The collection offers several pleasures, not least a prose style of signal distinction — John Stape

English Literature in Transition

The work collected here, or published for the first time, is gathered under four general headings: Talks and Lectures, Essays, Other Memoirs and Memoranda, and Broadcasts. As these suggest, the emphasis falls mainly on a special Forsterian voice, always urbane, at times disarmingly casual, and at moments formal and self-aware. The collection offers several pleasures, not least a prose style of signal distinction -- John Stape

"A remarkable feat of scholarship..."

"Because Heath knows Forster so well and is able to hold all the texts ready for citation and comparison, he offers many probing and insightful observations." -- Judith Scherer Herz, Ariel

From the Publisher