The Longest Journey is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1907. It has a reputation for being the least known of Forster's novels, but was also the author's personal favourite and one of his most autobiographical.
Rickie Elliot is a student at early 20th century Cambridge, a university that seems like paradise to him, amongst bright if...More
Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English fiction writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examine class difference and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View (1908) and Howards End (1910). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 16 separate years. Forster's first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, was described by reviewers as "astonishing" and "brilliantly original". Forster is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels.
Forster was President of the Cambridge Humanists from 1959 until his death and a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association from 1963 until his death. His views as a humanist are at the heart of his work, which often...More
Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English fiction writer, essayist and librettist. Many of his novels examine class difference and hypocrisy, including A Room with a View (1908) and Howards End (1910). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 16 separate years. Forster's first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, was described by reviewers as "astonishing" and "brilliantly original". Forster is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels.
Forster was President of the Cambridge Humanists from 1959 until his death and a member of the Advisory Council of the British Humanist Association from 1963 until his death. His views as a humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. Sexuality is another key theme in Forster's works. Some critics have argued that a general shift from heterosexual to homosexual love can be observed through the course of his writing career.
(wikipedia)
Book Summary
The Longest Journey is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1907. It has a reputation for being the least known of Forster's novels, but was also the author's personal favourite and one of his most autobiographical.
Rickie Elliot is a student at early 20th century Cambridge, a university that seems like paradise to him, amongst bright if cynical companions, when he receives a visit from two friends, an engaged young woman, Agnes Pembroke, and her elder brother, Herbert. The Pembrokes are Rickie's only friends from home. An orphan who grew up living with cousins, he was sent to a public (boarding) school where he was shunned and bullied because of his lame foot, an inherited weakness, and frail body. Agnes, as it happens, is engaged to Gerald, now in the army, who was one of the sturdy youths who bullied Rickie at school. Rickie is not brilliant at argument, but he is intensely responsive to poetry and art, and is accepted within a circle of philosophical and intellectual fellow-students led by a brilliant but especially cynical aspiring philosopher, Stewart Ansell, who refuses, when he is introduced to her, even to acknowledge that Agnes exists.