Far more of a conventional novel in terms of its social sweep than Forster's previous fiction, his fourth novel has partly become famous for its epigraph, “Only connect”, which stands as a call across Forster's writing to seize the day and unite the spiritual and the material sides to life. Howards End (1910) is the story of two families, the Wilcoxes and the Schlegels. The Wilcoxes are a thriving but none-too-cultured unemotional middle-class family with a successful domestic and imperial business. They stand for industry and finance, commerce and capital: an outer life of “telegrams and anger” that embodies the Protestant work ethic and masculine endeavour. The Schlegels, Margaret, Helen and Tibby, are young intellectual London

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Published 08 January 2001

Citation: Childs, Peter. "Howards End". The Literary Encyclopedia. 8 January 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4641, accessed 20 November 2009.]