This book was an insightful exploration of cultural differences set within a small village in Tuscany. I mostly enjoyed the description of the countryside and village of Monteriano. E. M. Forster has a great gift of storyteller and this is very evident in the story. The two main characters are very likable but their fate was a little depressing and not necessarily the happy ending I would have liked. I do recommend reading this as the writing is very compelling.
Forster's first novel pits an overbearing British family against an Italian gigolo: first for control of their daughter-in-law, then for that of the woman's son. Lilia, the daughter-in-law, is caught between them. Having lost her husband, she escapes his family by vacationing in Italy (at their suggestion). She leaves her daughter in the charge of her mother-in-law as collateral. While in Italy, she marries a âbum.â She escape from him too, albeit by dying in childbirth; thus, she escapes the remainder of the book as well. Just one more look at the warped sense of the British philosophy of family rights at the turn of the 20th century. Oh yes, and their view of the typical Italian also. Worth reading if you are a Forster fan as it somewhat sets the stage for his enlightenment on British attitudes that flow through his subsequent novels. As with Dickens, he âraps the same doorâ time and again, although not as verbosely.
