A Room with a View and Howard's End (Modern Library)

The Modern Library selected both of these novels as among the 100 best novels of all time. E.M. Forster's works offer portraits of life in Edwardian England. Published in 1908 to critical and popular acclaim, A Room with a View is a comedy of manners centered on Lucy Honeychurch, a young woman who flees from the man who stirs her emotions while remaining engaged to a wealthy man. Forster called it his "nicest" novel, and it remains among his most well-liked works. The novel's message is straightforward: abandon etiquette and follow your heart. Forster's next novel, Howards End, concerns who would inhabit a charming old country house and, more broadly, who would inherit England. It centers on conflict between the wealthy, materialistic Wilcox family and the cultured, idealistic Schlegel sisters. Informed by Forster's principle "Only connect," the novel expresses tenderness toward its characters. Alfred Kazin described it as "a classic English novel . . . superb and wholly cherishable . . . one that admirers have no trouble reading over and over again."