Step inside A Room with a View

The film without the cuts. And the book itself.

Lucy arrives in Florence promised a view of the Arno, and gets a courtyard instead — until two strangers offer more than propriety allows.

9:41

The Cast

Lucy Honeychurch

Main · Honeychurch household

A young woman at a piano, hearing more freedom in her own music than in anyone’s advice.

Locations

Pension Bertolini

pension

English travelers dine in cautious Florence, and one honest offer of a room upsets them all.

Passage

A promised Italian escape sours when Lucy fears she has traveled nowhere at all.

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The Author’s Pen

London in Florence

The Bertolini

“The Signora had no business to do it,” said Miss Bartlett, “no business at all. She 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. Oh, Lucy!”

“And a Cockney, besides!” said Lucy, who had been further saddened by the Signora’s unexpected accent. “It might be London.” She looked at the two rows of English people who were sitting at the table; at the row of white bottles of water and red bottles of wine that ran between the English people; at the portraits of the late Queen and the late Poet Laureate that hung behind the English people, heavily framed; at the notice of the English church (Rev. Cuthbert Eager, M. A. Oxon.), that was the only other decoration of the wall. “Charlotte, don’t you feel, too, that we might be in London? I can hardly believe that all kinds of other things are just outside. I suppose it is one’s being so tired.”

Reading

Lucy has traveled all the way to Florence and is disappointed to find England waiting for her at the table. She catalogues the room like a prisoner counting the bars: the English guests in their rows, the bottled water and wine, the dead Queen and dead Poet Laureate watching over the meal, the notice for the English church. This is a young woman who came abroad hoping for something and is quietly crushed that Italy has been kept safely outside the door. Her retreat into blaming her own tiredness shows how little she yet trusts her own longing.

World Index

The Plot

The Room DeniedFlorence UnguardedThe Piazza Breaks OpenThe Violet FieldCecil, MedievalThe Joke That Undoes EverythingThe Disaster WithinThe End of the Middle Ages

The Cast

Lucy HoneychurchGeorge EmersonCharlotte BartlettCecil VyseMr. EmersonReverend Arthur BeebeMrs. HoneychurchFreddy HoneychurchMiss Eleanor LavishReverend Cuthbert EagerMrs. VyseMiss Catharine AlanMiss Teresa AlanSir Harry OtwaySignora BertoliniPhaethonPersephoneMinnie BeebeAnneMaryPowellMr. FloydEuphemia

Locations

Cissie VillaFlorenceLoggia dei LanziMrs. Vyse’s London flatPension BertoliniPeruzzi ChapelPiazza della SignoriaRomeSanta CroceSummer StreetThe Arno / Lung’ArnoThe Fiesole Violet FieldThe RectoryThe Rooms with a ViewThe WealdTunbridge WellsWindy CornerWindy Corner Garden

Objects of Note

Baedeker guidebookFlorence photographs / picture postcardsGeorge’s question-mark paperLucy’s piano musicThe boilerThe Fiesole carriagesThe lettersThe ruby engagement ringThe tennis ballUnder a LoggiaViolets

Core Concepts

A view is a way of seeing truthComedy exposes what manners hideEngland travels abroad and Italy follows homeLove should be comradeship, not possessionPropriety protects and imprisonsTruth must break through muddle

The Author's Pen

The Offer of RoomsThe Menacing Question MarkWaking Up in FlorenceBeyond BaedekerMr Emerson in ChurchA Baby Hurt And FrightenedIntoxicated by the NotesThe Failure of PassionThen Something Did HappenThrowing Away the PhotographsSilence Into SympathyPhaethon and PersephoneGeorge Among the VioletsTo Laugh At ItAn Unfortunate SlipCecil EnteredItaly Worked Some MarvelShe Has Accepted MeThe Red Book in SunFreddy Names the TenantsThe Name of EmersonGeorge Joins the PlayA Drop of OilCecil Reads AloudThe Phrases ReversedA New Light On CecilThe Armour of FalsehoodAsking Cecil to Release HerBreaking Off the EngagementThe Sixth NoteLucy’s Deception ExposedThe Man You LoveReturn to the Pension BertoliniHow Little It All Hangs

Plot point 01

The Room Denied

Lucy arrives in Florence promised a view of the Arno, and gets a courtyard instead — until two strangers offer more than propriety allows.

Objects of Note

Baedeker guidebook

The guidebook that tells Lucy what to admire is taken away just when she needs it most.

The Cast

George Emerson

Main · Emerson household

A young man leaves a question mark on a wall and then steps into a field of violets.

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A Room with a View

E. M. Forster

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 127 classics in the Literah library

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