Howards End

E. M. Forster’s Howards End (1910) tells the story of two families, the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, who represent different aspects of society in Edwardian England. Specifically, it follows the Margaret Schlegel, the novel’s protagonist, amid her attempts to manage her own family as she becomes engaged to and marries the widowed Mr. Wilcox. In 1992 it was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, directed by James Ivory, and in 2017 it was adapted into a television series, directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Forster was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature multiple times.

This study guide refers to the 1999 Modern Library Edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

Margaret and Helen Schlegel, half-German and half-English, are two sisters who live alone with their younger brother, Tibby, in London. They are both relatively rich, living off of the inheritance left from their parents, and they are both idealistic and interested in the arts. They meet Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox in Germany while traveling, during which time the Wilcoxes invite the sisters to stay with them at their countryside home, Howards End. The novel opens with Helen Schlegel staying for a few days with the Wilcoxes as Margaret is at home with Tibby.

Helen writes to Margaret that she has fallen in love with the younger Wilcox son, Paul, and their aunt, Juley, convinces Margaret to allow her to go to Howards End to investigate. Aunt Juley leaves before another letter arrives from Helen saying that the romance with Paul has ended. Upon her arrival, Aunt Juley mistakes Charles Wilcox, the older Wilcox brother, for Paul, and the two begin to argue over the affair between Helen and Paul. After they arrive and Charles begins scolding Paul, Mrs. Wilcox comes in from the garden and defuses the situation.

The Schlegels also meet Leonard Bast at a concert. After Helen mistakenly takes his umbrella during the concert, he goes to pick it up at the Schlegels’ place. Leonard is a poor clerk who lives in a poorer area of London with his fiancée, Jacky, who is coarse and does not understand him.

After some time back in London, the Schlegels learn that the Wilcoxes are moving in right next door to them. Margaret befriends Mrs. Wilcox and spends some time with her before Mrs. Wilcox dies. Mrs. Wilcox was ill and did not tell anyone. After she leaves Howards End to Margaret in her will, the Wilcoxes decide not to execute this wish and not to tell Margaret about it.

Two years later, the Schlegel sisters are visited by Jacky, Leonard’s now-wife, who comes in search of her husband after she found their calling card among his belongings. They tell her that they do not know anything about him, and he comes the next day to apologize. While they are at first annoyed by his attempts to talk about art, the sisters become interested in Leonard when he talks about an “adventure” (a long and spontaneous night-time walk) he had been on when Jacky was looking for him.

Leonard becomes a topic of conversation the next day at the sisters’ discussion club—specifically regarding how philanthropic efforts might be used to benefit the poor. As they talk about it following the debate, Mr. Wilcox overhears them, allowing the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes to reconnect. He tells them that the company for which Leonard works is bound to go bankrupt. When the sisters try to tell this to Leonard one day, he becomes offended and storms off. Margaret and Mr. Wilcox, meanwhile, begin to enjoy spending time with one another.

In spite of Helen’s dislike for Mr. Wilcox, Margaret becomes engaged to him. Mr. Wilcox’s eldest son, Charles, and his daughter, Evie, do not like Margaret and do not approve, although they do not make their objections known. Margaret recognizes that Mr. Wilcox is emotionally callous, but she thinks that she can make him sympathize with others by showing him love. 

At a celebration following Evie’s wedding, Helen arrives with Leonard and Jacky to confront Margaret and Mr. Wilcox. Leonard followed the advice of Mr. Wilcox to leave his previous job, and he has now been fired from his new job. The sisters argue and Margaret turns Helen and Leonard away, while Jacky remains to eat and drink. When Mr. Wilcox appears, Jacky greets him in a lewd manner, revealing that Mr. Wilcox and Jacky had an affair years ago when Mr. Wilcox was married to Mrs. Wilcox.

Helen writes to Leonard that Mr. Wilcox will not be able to find him a job. Helen soon moves to Germany and tries to send money through Tibby in order to help the Basts, but Leonard refuses the money, even as he and Jacky are evicted from their apartment.

The sisters do not see each other for a period of several months, and Margaret begins to fear that Helen is having a mental health crisis. Margaret becomes persuaded by Mr. Wilcox to set up a trap to meet with Helen when Helen intends to return to England to get some furniture. The furniture has been unpacked at Howards End by a local farm worker, Miss Avery, and Margaret goes there with Mr. Wilcox after letting Helen know that she can pick it up. After she sees that Helen is pregnant (following an affair with Leonard the night of Evie’s wedding), she refuses to let Mr. Wilcox inside the house and turns him away.

The sisters’ reunion is cold and formal at first. However, the presence of their common furniture brings the warmth back to their relationship, and they recognize how important they are to each other. Margaret goes back to Mr. Wilcox to ask him if she and Helen can spend the night at Howards End alone together before Helen goes back to Germany, but Mr. Wilcox refuses. He demands to know the name of the man who has gotten Helen pregnant, and he refuses to accept Helen in light of her scandalous pregnancy.

Margaret finally confronts Mr. Wilcox about his refusal to connect emotionally with other people and to recognize his own hypocrisy of condemning an affair following his own affair with Jacky. Margaret goes back to Howards End where she spends the night with Helen. The following morning, Charles goes to Howards End on the request of his father to get the sisters out.

Leonard, who has become bankrupt and has been living off of money that his family has sent him, feels guilty about his affair with Helen and wants to apologize. He sets out to Howards End to make an apology. He arrives soon after Charles, and Charles strikes him with the flat edge of a sword. Leonard collapses and dies, and although he is ruled to have died as a result of a heart attack, Charles is sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter.

Charles’s sentence devastates Mr. Wilcox, and Margaret takes him to Howards End where, a year later, he is living happily with Margaret, Helen, and Helen’s baby son. Mr. Wilcox agrees to leave Howards End to Margaret upon his death; the house will then pass to Helen’s son upon Margaret’s death. Mr. Wilcox reveals that Mrs. Wilcox had written in her will to leave Howards End to Margaret, and Margaret views this news as confirmation that Mrs. Wilcox has been orchestrating events from beyond the grave.