"I love him, and I'm not ashamed"Is that a prelude to this dazzling novel, or a thinly-veiled, snappy portrayal of the author Edward Morgan Forster? Now, the novel was first published a century ago, in 1905 to be precise, and Mr Forster, a talented writer I think, was a homosexual. I don't think the English society would have accepted such tendency. To wit, D. H. Lawrence once commended that Mr Forster's writing starved of emotions - an inference of his repression?
Yet Mr Forster was able to leverage this flaw, especially when his subject is the stiff lipped English society. The main thread of the novel is simple enough: the clash of two opposing societies - the free-spirited, yet amoral Italians and the oh-so-formal, yet pretenious English - resulting in the improvement or ascension of two individuals; they become saints, in a down-to-earth manner, that is.
Where Angels Fear to Tread is in essence a tragic comedy. It should have the English laughing. At least it happened to me several times on bus trips. Then I realised I was mocking myself too, though I doubt that was Mr Forster's intention. Philip, our young protege, like me, views this world as a "spectacle", is flippant in finding life dilemmas amusing and doesn't actually live the "real life".
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