E. M. Forster, The Celestial Omnibus

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Published the year after

Howards End

, Forster's first collection of short stories is a departure from the realism of his recent novel into the fantasy of ancient Greece and Rome, Paganism and Paradise. As he had produced four novels in quick succession since 1905, the six stories of

The Celestial Omnibus

(1911) were published at a time when Forster appeared to be a prolific writer. Yet his next published book of fiction,

A Passage to India

, would not appear for thirteen years.

The first inclusion is “The Story of a Panic”, which Forster rewrote after excising it late on from his second novel The Longest Journey. Unlike the novels he had published up to this point, the story is told in the first person, by a narrator holidaying in Italy with his wife. A picnic in the chestnut woods

926 words

Citation: Childs, Peter. "The Celestial Omnibus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1310, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1310 The Celestial Omnibus 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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