Name: Where Angels Fear to Tread
Rating: 3.4 (15 reviews)
ISBN: 9781434485076

E. M. Forster

Where Angels Fear to Tread

Sarah Sammis

Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster recounts the tragic results of rash decisions. A widow goes on holiday to Italy and ends up marrying a much younger man of no means. When she dies in child birth, her in laws rush to Italy to claim the child, not out of a sense of love or duty, but to avoid the waggling tongues.

My first thought was to wonder if Marlena De Blasi had read the book before marrying her Italian husband. Of course, A Thousand Days in Venice is a memoir and not tied to dramatic conventions. Rather than rushing in like the fools of Forster's novel, Marlena brought her fiance home first for approval from her children before returning to Italy to wed. And yet I kept picturing Gino as Marlena's "Peter Sellers."

As the novel's mood darkens, I was torn between setting it aside and continuing on with my breath held. I pressed on growing more and more horrified at all the adults in the novel. I'm glad I read it (at my brother-in-law's recommendation) and I know it will be one of those novels that will stick with me. Nonetheless, it's not one I'll want to revisit soon; it's too emotionally draining.

Where Angels Fear To Tread

Sarah Ryan

A comedy of manners. A culture clash story steeped in stereotypes, of both English and Italians. EM Forster's first novel written at the age of 26. Only ok. Some fairly horrific things happen but are dismissed without being dealt with.

They were all at Charing Cross to see Lilia off—Philip, Harriet, Irma, Mrs. Herriton herself. Even Mrs. Theobald, squired by Mr. Kingcroft, had braved the journey from Yorkshire to bid her only daughter good-bye. Miss Abbott was likewise attended by numerous relatives, and the sight of so many people talking at once and saying such different things caused Lilia to break into ungovernable peals of laughter. “Quite an ovation,” she cried, sprawling out of her first-class carriage. “They’ll take us for royalty. Oh, Mr. Kingcroft, get us foot-warmers.”

Sarah Escorsa

** spoiler alert **
           I read quite a few E.M. Forster novels when I was younger and have always enjoyed his style. I came across Where Angels Fear to Tread by chance and was very excited as I had never heard of the book.

Of course the first thing that comes to mind when reading this novel is that it resembles A Room With A View. Only it doesn't really, except where old-fashioned Victorian values and prejudices are concerned. It is much more tragic than A Room With A View and quite melodramatic. The characters can be very annoying at times and Italy doesn't change them at all, as is the case with some characters in A Room With A View. Here, there seems to be hope at all. Things will not and cannot evolve and will stay as they are, despite what Forster might have the reader think at the beginning of the novel.

A very well-crafted and enjoyable read.

In an account of the collision of two cultures, an English widow on a grand tour of the continent surprises her stodgy relatives by marrying a penniless Italian.

Grace O'Callaghan

I think this book was fine. It did make me chuckle quite a few times as it is a comedy of manners. There were also some very tragic moments. But it’s just not going to be one I particularly remember in a few months time.

Rocío de la Hera

Charlotte Dann

Yuvraj Jha

Alice Hyman

"On travelling to Italy with her friend Caroline Abbott, the impulsive English widow Lilia Herriton outrages her dead husband's family by meeting and quickly becoming engaged to a dashing but deeply unsuitable Italian man twelve years her junior. Infuriated, her ex-brother-in-law Philip sets off from England to her new home in the Tuscan town of Monteriano - but, finding himself unable to persuade Lilia to leave her handsome, uncouth new lover, returns to England without her. When Lilia's marriage leads to sudden tragedy, however, Philip and Caroline feel compelled to return once more to Italy, where they find they are forced to examine their own lives." "This edition reproduces the Abinger text, and also includes further reading, notes, a chronology, an introduction by Ruth Padel discussing division and culture clash in the novel and an appendix detailing an exchange about the novel between Forster and the poet R. C. Trevelyan."--BOOK JACKET.

Where Angels Fear to Tread

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