Young Lucy Honeychurch plays piano passionately and beautifully. The Reverend Mr. Beebe observes that “If Miss Honeychurch ever takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting–both for us and for her.”

A thoroughly conventional, always chaperoned, sheltered, proper Edwardian woman, she has to make a choice about whether to live by society’s rules and do what is expected of her, or pursue what her heart desires. (First, of course, she has to figure out just what it is that her heart desires.)

Some have interpreted this romantic and optimistic novel as a metaphor for E.M. Forster’s struggles with his own sexuality, Lucy, with her choices to make in life, being something of an alter ego for a closeted gay man. (Forster’s only novel to address homosexuality directly was the controversial and posthumously-published Maurice.) I think that reading makes good sense, but the theme of choosing one’s own path and rejecting what’s false, pretentious, and repressive is even larger than that, and really does speak to everyone.

Pay close attention to the names in this book; Forster isn’t as heavy handed as Dickens, but Lucy means “light,” and Cecil means “blind.” The Emersons seem to allude to Ralph Waldo (and the other transcendentalists).

Plus there’s a trip to Florence, a field of violets, impulsive kisses, boys skinny dipping with the vicar, secrets kept, secrets told, and some notable instances of surprising decency. Read it, and buy a copy for someone you love.

(There’s also a terrific Merchant Ivory film of A Room with a View from 1985, with Helena Bonham Carter starring as Lucy, and also featuring Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Watch it with someone you love.)

NOVEL: A Room With a View

AUTHOR: E.M. Forster

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1908

IMAGE: book cover, Penguin Classics