Morgan: A Biography of E.M. Forster is a fascinating book in which Nicola Beauman assesses in great details how life and fiction were interwoven, or how the former informs the great novels. I am not sure I am entirely convinced by the argument, but a good read it certainly is.
As a result, I decided to revisit his novels (though the only novel I remember reading was Where Angels Fear to Tread, which I found 'difficult' in my university days, and thus probably put me off from his other works - even if they were available back in the mid-1980s in a university library that was strong on 'classics' but weak on anything contemporary). While this needs some organising and input, I have taken the easier option of revisiting the film adaptations to start with.
Thanks to August, an anglophile, I have watched all of the film adaptations, mostly when they were broadcast on a Hong Kong English channel, back in the 1990s. Some of them, A Room with A View and Maurice to be exact, proved to be so popular, that they were shown a number of times on this channel. It came as a real disappointment therefore that both of them are under 'restricted viewing' list in the national library. Having been disappointed many times by the censors here, it is no surprise that Maurice is under this category, but A Room with A View?! There seems to be no logic in it at all.
And so I watched Howards End again last night, which, apart from the two lead actress in it, I could barely remember much from my previous viewing in China. I remain immensely grateful therefore to the biography.
