Just finished watching Howard's End...

[purplesquares]

...and didn't enjoy it at all! It was quite nice to look at but the characters were all so unlikeable and nothing much seemed to happen. Or am I completely missing the point?!

Apparently it was risky at the time. I feel much the same as you. liked the talking over each other though.

I especially disliked Helen as her 'do gooding' did no good at all, except bag her child a house one day. Her meddling devastated two families, but nevermind, she was fine in the end.

It’s about the clash of two social cultures if I recall my A level. Wilcox are new money. Crass, afraid of emotions, live in fear of convention. When he marries ms S who are all about feelings and arts, he has to change which he does.

But she said in episode 2 I think,”only connect” which is The Phrase Of The Book, and she does, she connects at a human level with mr Wilcox in the end.

The poor Bastes the whole point is Helen messed their lives no matter her good intentions

It’s a great book

I found watching it made me feel extremely tense. Definitely not feel-good Sunday night viewing, although I can see that it's not really supposed to be!

The film with Anthony Hopkings, Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham-Carter was 100 times better. The tv series was very padded out.

Bast is also punished for his out of class interest in the arts by death by bookcase....

"liked the talking over each other though."

I didn't. It meant I couldn't hear anything that was said. I wanted to like it, but it was rather complicated and unsatisfying.

I watched episode 1, then read the book before the next episode. I thought the series true to the book, and didn't think the book was that great. I cannot see why it is thought of as a classic needing to be filmed/serialised.

E. M. Forster can be seen on YouTube saying he is not a great writer like Tolstoy as he can only do people like him, people he would like to be like and people who irritate him(or possibly a combination). Maybe this is true, but I still think he's interesting. He didn't publish fiction after A Passage to India, and also said that his pre-first world war books are set in a world that is now gone. Howard's End wouldn't happen today, but Zadie Smith did publish a novel, On Beauty, heavily influenced by it.

And the disasters Helen causes are do to false information from Mr Wilcox, which she should have ignored but perhaps understandably doesn't (particularly since her sister actually becomes engaged to him) and who I always thought does get off lightly, but I think is meant to become at least partly self aware.

Glad it wasn't just me then! I also didn't understand why it was assumed that Henry and Margaret wouldn't have any children and that Howard's End would be left to her nephew - are they meant to be much older in the book? The actress who played Margaret only looked like she was in her late 20s/early 30s?

I felt sorry for Mr Bast but didn't exactly find him a sympathetic character either - willing to stick by his wife but not exactly kind or loyal to her. Does he come across better in the book maybe?

Agree with @MissTFied - Helen was particularly annoying!

Lizzzar, I'm off to YouTube , thank you. There's another thread on this btw.

Purple squares - Mr Wilcox is older in the book, and I got the impression from the book that when is sorting out who to leave what to, that his end is drawing near.

From what I can gather the moral of the story seems to be don't get ideas above your station, stick to your own class, else you'll be worse off in the end!

No one seemed to care much for poor Leonard or Jacky. Helen had had her fun, got bored, and moved on to being happy and unconventional (yet no shame for her as she was boho upper class).

Mr Wilcox is let off with cheating on Ruth Wilcox and with not honouring his dead wife's wishes for Meg to have HE earlier, while Jacky is left a poor widow presumably left to go back on the streets.