Edward Morgan Forster

Born Jan. 1, 1879, in London; died June 7, 1970, in Coventry. English writer.

Forster studied at Cambridge University (1897–1910, with interruptions). In his short stories, which are traditional in form, Forster limited himself to the sphere of private life, criticizing the spiritual paucity, clannishness, and snobbism of the bourgeoisie. This point of view may be seen in the short-story collection The Celestial Omnibus (1911) and the novels Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), and A Room With a View (1908). Paying homage to the life and work of L. N. Tolstoy, Forster saw a way out of the dead end through moral self-improvement (the novel Howards End, 1910).

A retreat from abstract and humanist solutions to the problems of human existence may be seen in Forster’s novel A Passage to India (1924; Russian translation, 1937), in which the inevitable national liberation of the country is perceived as an act of moral and historical justice.

Forster also wrote literary criticism (Aspects of the Novel, 1927, and other collections of essays), screenplays, and the libretto to B. Britten’s opera Billy Budd (1951; based on the novel by H. Melville).