A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

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“It is fate that I am here,' George persisted, 'but you can call it Italy if it makes you less unhappy.” A forewarning to anyone reading this review, I'm writing this while still on a reading high. The following will most likely turn into a compilation of all my favorite quotes and incoherent fan-girling at any moment because A Room with a View quite possibly just knocked out my current top favorite book, which has held that title for FIVE YEARS! A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you know I wouldn't do this to you unless it was a REALLY good book. So could you at least scooch over a tiny bit and get cozy with the idea of a 1st place tie from now on? You two can be buddies!

“This solitude oppressed her; she was accustomed to have her thoughts confirmed by others or, at all events, contradicted; it was too dreadful not to know whether she was thinking right or wrong.” I've seen the Merchant Ivory film twice before reading the book. And Howard's End. And A Passage to India. But I don't think it lessened my reading experience, although I do I try to abide by the "read it first" rule and you can too by visiting www.readit1st.com to be officially internet-approved reader of books before watching their movie versions. Even still, I think reading his books now makes it more enchanting, I can fully appreciate original stories and get excited about watching the movies all over again!

“But this time I'm not to blame; I want you to believe that. I simply slipped into those violets. No, I want to be really truthful. I am a little to blame. The sky, you know, was gold, and the ground all blue, and for a moment he looked like some one in a book.” Last spring I read my first of his novels, The Longest Journey, which wasn't made into a major motion picture, and thought it was amazing. On some level, I recognize that it's depth reaches much higher in prose and opinion than A Room with a View, but on another it's an entirely different story and I liked this one more... for the story is so rich yet shared through a simple elegance that makes my heart melt. Forster executes one of the best love stories I've ever laid my eyes on in such few pages and in my world less is always more.

“Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.” It's the magic of travel, the wonder that is young love, philosophy, social classes, the characters. Boy, if you just scooped up the characters out of this book and put them anywhere else they'd steal the show. I love George. I love Freddie. I love Mr. Beebe. I can't get angry at any of them, not even Cecil. Each character is perfect. I can't get any more descriptive than that.

“It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. 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.” This state of perpetual giddy hasn't left me since I finished the book at 12:30 AM. I can't pretend to be composed and write anymore. I have to go watch the movie and soak up this feeling as long as it wants to rest in my chest. 5/5 stars.