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Willa Magland

A Room With a View

Posted Apr 13, 2024

The ladies move, Mr Beebe moves, George moves, and movement may engender shadow. But this book lies motionless, to be caressed all the morning by the sun and to rise its covers slightly, as though acknowledging the caress.

Yesterday I finished E. M. Forster's A Room with a View, and today watched the book's adaptation to film. I loved them both! If I had read the book alone, or watched the movie without its source, I would have brushed them off as delightful, but I believe together they bring out the best in one another.

The beauty of the film was (as usual) the talent of the actors and how perfectly they were chosen for their respective roles. The complimentary costumes and scenery also brought out the dreamy, unreal atmosphere created in the book. But the most rewarding part of the movie for me was how it brought out comedy that I had misread or even missed in the book. Even though I could pick up comedic tones from the text, watching the movie pointed out the situational comedy that I had brushed off as 1900s British culture.

I still think the book did better with the ending, which was more dramatic (and had some great final lines from Mr Beebe, my favorite character), and as always with fleshing out the characters, but that's the case for all book-to-film adaptations.

Overall, I give both pieces a big 'ol thumbs up.

P.S. I've got 60 more pages in Maurice. After that, I'm done with Forster for LIFE. No hard feelings, but two in a row is exhausting.

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