The Long View:

The novel opens in Florence, Italy, with Lucy and the very peevish and self-righteous guardian-aunt, Charlotte Bartlett. They are lamenting over the conditions of their rooms: 'The Signora . . . promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart . . .' complains Charlotte.

The contentiousness of their relationship is revealed over dinner, during which a debate ensues over whom shall be allotted the first available room with a view - both play the martyr, insisting the other shall have the first available.

Overhearing this, a 'pensione' tenant, the kindly but socially unfashionable Mr. Emerson, offers his room and his son's room to the ladies in exchange: They have a view. Charlotte is appalled at this most improper breach of etiquette. Lucy is hesitant, trying to gauge the situation. She does not yet know the world well enough to confidently act according to her own convictions. She is finding her way, and this is a hesitant and tricky business for a young woman in the early 1900's.

Dinner also introduces the other pensione tenants with whom Lucy and Charlotte will interact: There are Mr. Emerson's brooding son, George; the proper elder spinster sisters, Teresa and Catharine Alan; Eleanor Lavish, a quirky, melodramatic lady novelist; and the Reverend Mr. Beebe, a generous, open-minded parson who has little patience with petty social proprieties.

Lucy and Charlotte are already acquainted with Mr. Beebe, and he is to be the new parson in Lucy's home church in the near future. He promptly receives an account of Mr. Emerson's offer and is disgusted by the debate; however, he volunteers to 'act as intermediary,' and the offer is accepted.

Charlotte promptly begins to neglect her duties as chaperon in favour of the intimacy of Eleanor Lavish. As a result, Lucy has two experiences which will alter the course of her life: She first witnesses the murder of a native Italian man in the square, where the young George Emerson happens to be at hand as she swoons at the sight of blood.

George, sensitive and introspective, is immediately transformed by the experience. Lucy, after recovering from the initial shock of the event, brushes off the experience, commenting on the funny nature of Italians. She asserts life will continue on the course determined prior to the incident.

Lucy's second experience occurs at a picnic on the hills outside Florence. Wanting a tête-a-tête with Ms. Lavish, Charlotte bullies Lucy into leaving them in favour of the gentlemen. Entreating the guidance of the non-English-speaking carriage driver, she is led to George Emerson, alone in a field of violets. George is so overwhelmed by her arrival and the sight of her, he promptly - and improperly - kisses her passionately. There are two witnesses to this incident: The carriage driver; and Charlotte, who by some intuition, has come to fetch her young charge. The romantic interlude is prematurely aborted. Lucy is quickly declared ill by Charlotte and whisked off into a carriage for the return journey.

At the pensione, Charlotte bullies Lucy again, this time to extract a promise that Lucy won't speak of her amorous experience and thereby reveal Charlotte's neglect. Charlotte puts the rest of her guilt behind her by packing them both off to Rome the next day.

Upon Lucy's return to Windy Corner, her family home in Summer Street, Surrey, we meet the rest of the characters: Lucy's 19-year-old brother, Freddy, who is caught between the youthful plagues of frivolity and existentialism. He wishes the rest of the world could cheer up enough to come play with him. Lucy's mother, Mrs. Honeychurch, is alternately casual and proper. She is generally relaxed but has a great respect for social rituals and propriety, which makes her perplexing at times.

Next we meet Cecil Vyse, to whom Lucy has just become engaged. Cecil is fastidious, prudish and emotionally sterile: The reader soon begins to pray for his comeuppance and demise.

An engagement party ensues the fact, and Cecil quickly reduces the attendees via snide remarks to Lucy. He takes an instant dislike to a local landlord, Sir Harry Otway, who is seeking a tenant for his villa. Lucy decides that the Misses Alan would make ideal residents, and she and Mr. Beebe begin a campaign to draw them to the neighbourhood. Letters fly back and forth regarding the butcher, etc.; but by the time the Misses Alan are convinced, the villa has been let.

To Lucy's horror, it was Cecil who orchestrated the new tenant arrangement as revenge on Sir Harry Otway. He is quite pleased with himself for the joke, but Lucy chastises him for interfering with her efforts for the Misses Alan. He is taken aback slightly at her display of temper; he is not accustomed to her asserting her views.

Lucy receives another surprise from the situation: Otway's new tenants are none other than Mr. Emerson and George. In a moment of sublime hilarity so typical of Forster, Lucy is re-introduced to George Emerson while on a pleasant walk with Cecil and Mrs. Honeychurch: George, Mr. Beebe and Freddy Honeychurch happen to be bathing in the local pond - au naturel - when their paths cross.

Charlotte reappears in the chapter, "How Miss Bartlett's Boiler Was So Tiresome." She is invited to the Honeychurches for a visit while repairs are being made on her home in Tunbridge Wells. Charlotte's presence, naturally, brings on a series of irritations for the residents of Windy Corner.

Matters come to a head in a single day. George Emerson is invited for tennis, and after the game, Cecil reads aloud an excerpt from Eleanor Lavish's new novel. In the paragraph, Lucy's encounter with George in the hills of Italy is laid out before them. George kisses her again when they have a chance moment alone.

Lucy calls Charlotte for a discussion, and in her most forceful moment, she questions the aunt regarding her indiscretion. Charlotte is horrified that Ms. Lavish has betrayed the confidence and puts on a display of regret. Lucy sends Charlotte off to fetch George Emerson, and another scene ensues. She entreats him to "Go out of this house and never come into it again as long as I live here."

George objects and lays out the situation for her: He loves her, and as for Cecil - "He should know no one intimately, least of all a woman." Lucy is implacable. She sends George away, back "into the dark" he knew before she fainted in the square in Florence.

That evening, Lucy breaks off her engagement with Cecil. She flounders with the reasons, then quotes George Emerson regarding Cecil's failure with intimacy. Cecil admits the truth of the statement and suddenly appears almost human. The intolerable man appears at his best just preceding his exit.

Mrs. Honeychurch, Freddy and Mr. Beebe are relieved that the marriage is not to take place, but Lucy shocks them by insisting on a trip to Greece with the Misses Alan. She is running away under the guise of preventing gossip.

Lucy soon discovers that the Emersons are moving from Summer Street. Her salvation arrives in a chance encounter with Mr. Emerson, who only recently learned of all that has transpired between her and George. Lucy struggles to maintain her front of propriety but cannot resist in the face of Mr. Emerson's honest view of the situation. She tries to escape, saying, "They trust me," referring to her mother and Charlotte, her family and acquaintances in general.

Mr. Emerson replies, "But why should they, when you have deceived them?"

The Misses Alan journey to Greece alone, and Lucy and George return to the Pensione Bertolini. The couple is ensconced in one of the rooms that was once the subject of a kindly offer; however, they do not linger overlong at the view that is without.

Back to Forster's Room