A ROOM WITH A VIEW.
By E. M. FORSTER,
Author of 'The Longest Journey, 'Where Angels Fear to Tread,' etc.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
A novelist's third book, when its predecessors have shown great promise, is generally held to make or mar his reputation. There can be no question that Mr. Forster's new story will effectually establish his position. The author's whimsical humour, and unexpected turns of satire, have attained a still more piquant quality. He excels especially in satirizing the banalities of ordinary conversation, and his dialogue is always deliciously amusing.
Readers of 'Valerie Upton' will turn eagerly to Miss Sedgwick's new novel. The relations between a mother and her son form the basis of the story, and the dramatic situation begins when the son, a youth of nineteen, broaches to his mother the question why she and his father do not live together. Curiosity is thus awakened, and the emotional atmosphere charged with uneasy expectation. Thereafter events move quickly, reaching a dramatic climax within the space of a week. Further than this it would not be fair to the author to reveal her plot.
This is a promising first novel by a new writer, whose style is remarkable for delicate workmanship. The story moves round the dying fortunes of an old country family and its ancestral home. The hero belongs to another branch of this family, and there is a mystery about his birth. The heroine is an orphan, the daughter of a yeoman father and a French mother. Another important character is a scheming lawyer, and with these threads of love and intrigue the author has woven an interesting plot which is cleverly worked out.
In this story the vacillating relations of a young married lady with a man who has divested himself of his wealth in order to devote his life to service among the poor, are handled in a manner extremely modern.
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43, MADDOX ST., BOND ST., W.
