Aspects of the Novel

Edward Morgan Forster, commonly known as E.M. Forster, was a British novelist and literary critic. He wrote and published five novels in his lifetime, most notably Howard’s End, which explores themes relevant to the British middle class in the Edwardian era, and A Passage to India, which met with significant critical acclaim and addressed issues of race, class, and colonialism in the relationship between Britain and India. In addition to his novels, Forster was also a respected literary critic. His book, Creator as Critic, contains 40 of Forster’s articles and lectures on the nature of literature. His perspective as both a novelist and a scholar of the English novel allows his lectures to encompass the experience of both writer and reader.

Aspects of the Novel was considered, for many years, the premier work on the form of the novel. The book is an adaptation of a series of lectures that Forster delivered, and this is part of the reason its tone is much more colloquial than literary criticism of the time. Its casual tone makes Forster’s book more approachable for a contemporary