A Companion to E.M. Forster (3 vols. set) (Hardbound-2007)

A great novelist, a learned and wise critic, and a charming short-story writer—can these three reside in a single person? Yes, but, of course, in a very few, and E.M. Forster is certainly one of those very few, and that he is par excellence. Any knowledge of modern English novel without even an acquaintance with Forster is absurdly incomplete. All of Forster’s six novels, perhaps barring only Maurice, have been and are being printed and re-printed in hundreds of thousands of copies, and all the six but perhaps The Longest Journey have been filmed by worthy directors, such as Lean and Merchant, and the films have received and are receiving high and spontaneous acclamations. As said, Forster is also an outstanding critic and will go a long way down the history of criticism as much as he will be remembered as a highly fantastic but excellent short-story writer for a long time to come as he is today.

This compendium-like book, split into three Volumes, contains discussions on all the six novels of Forster—Where Angles Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View, Howards End, Maurice and A Passage to India. Besides, the study includes his twelve prime short stories, and his critical acumen and theories. It does not harbour—no, it carefully avoids—any pretension or pedantry, but it comprises almost all the matters relevant to Forsteriana, plainly but rather expatiatingly treated, so that it is expected to help, yeoman-like, certainly not the avant-garde but the sophomores. An in-depth study of Forster as a novelist and as a critic provided herein adds to the value of the book. Furthermore, Quotations included in the Appendix, Bibliography and Index would serve as useful study-aids for the readers.

Sunil Kumar Sarker, Ph.D. in English Literature and Philosophy, has recently retired as Reader from Raiganj (University) College. Earlier, he served as Principal at Garbeta College, Midnapore, West Bengal. Dr. Sarker is a well-known figure in the literary world. He has to his credit a large number of books on literature, philosophy, history and politics, of which a few deserve mention: A Companion to William Wordsworth, W.B. Yeats: Poetry and Plays, S.T. Coleridge, Milton and Shakespeare’s Sonnets.