Books

First edition, first impression, of the author's classic novel of contemplation and conflicted love. Forster started planning A Room with a View while at university in 1902, but it was several years before he finished it. The dedicatee, "H.O.M.", was Hugh Owen Meredith, one of Forster's friends at university and an early object of his affections. The book was adapted into a Merchant Ivory film in 1985, starring Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott, and Judi Dench. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With 8 pp. of advertisements at rear. Neat signature of "Shepheard-Walwyn", dated 1909, to half-title; bookseller's ticket to rear pastedown. Spine faded and creased, cloth rubbed and lightly frayed at extremities, inner hinges cracked but firm, light foxing to edges and occasionally to contents. A very good copy. Kirkpatrick A3.

A Room with a View is a novel by E. M. Forster, published in 1908. Set in England and Italy, the story is both a romance and a critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century.