Aside from reading Rome by Robert Hughes, our class has also been asked to read E. M. Forster’s A Room With a View as we prepare for more literary discussions as the course unfolds. This novel is extremely entertaining to me, especially after picking up on some of the obvious criticisms Forster seems to be making about social life of the upper class in England. Despite some of Lucy’s more common characteristics fitting for a young woman in the Edwardian Era (beginning in early 1900s England), her time in Italy, (albeit chaotic) seems to be changing her in some way, and there is a particular quote which alerted me to this possibility at the end of chapter four:
“Leaning her elbows on the parapet, she [Lucy] contemplated the River Arno, whose roar was suggesting some unexpected melody to her ears” (36).
I sensed a very obvious shift being set up for Lucy’s character with this line, especially after the events that occurred prior to this quote, where she witnessed a murder in the street and was “rescued” from the scene by George Emerson. I enjoy this quote for its foreshadowing and allusion to the possibility that Lucy might soon break away from society life in England (undoubtedly credited to Italy’s influence).
Vámonos 