Some Interviews with E. M. Forster, 1957-58, 1965 - British novelist

Twentieth Century Literature, Spring, 1997 by Wilfred Stone

I asked him again for an explanation of why he ceased writing novels after Passage. He said the social thing was no longer a feasible subject. I mentioned Jane Austen, and that was what he clearly had in mind. He said he thought the modern world was more the subject for the poet. The immensity of its issues simply didn't allow of easy treatment in the novel. He mentioned reading recently Auden's "Ode on the Death of Freud" - which he thought very great. The novelist just can't do that sort of thing. I said I thought the epic was out today, though. He said he thought the opposite, that the materials for epic had never been so present - the immensity of the problems of the world were simply staggering - but that he thought the fault was in the absence of an audience for epic.

About this time a "lady journalist" (as he called her) came in - with an appointment. She was doing an article on Forster for the next issue of Varsity. But we exchanged a few more words.

Would he qualify in any way the critical views he expressed in Aspects? Yes, he would revise his opinion of Joyce. "Joyce is not my kind of writer, but I can see I undervalued him."

He had not read Glen O. Allen's article in PMLA on Passage.

I had to leave before much else was said, but he urged me to see him again before we left.

MARCH 8, 1965

I returned to England for almost three weeks (March 3-March 24) mainly to collect photographic illustrations for The Cave and the Mountain, now almost completed. Forster had written to say that he could not send photographs, but that if I could get over there we could have a "rummage" together through his collections. We spent the better part of a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of one week together, and I came away with copies of some 80 photographs. It was a bonanza, and Forster's generosity was beyond praise. Most of our talk was informal, but on Monday I asked him some prepared questions and jotted down answers in the usual way.

WS I notice that you make frequent references to Matthew Arnold, not only in Howards End but in a good many essays. Was he a conscious influence?

EMF Yes, he was a conscious influence.

WS "Nature" is obviously something you love - landscapes, rivers, trees, downs, etc. What kind of a nature-worshipper would you call yourself? How much do you share Wordsworth's sense of "something far more deeply interfused" in the natural environment?

EMF My attitude has changed in the last few years when I see how easily nature can be destroyed. It was once a reverential approach, occasionally mystic.

WS Of this "art business" you say: "No violence can destroy it, no sneering can belittle it." This reminds me of Arnold's claim that humanistic culture will survive because of an instinct for "self-preservation" in the race. Would you say there is an equivalence here?

EMF I'm not too clear about what I can say about our differences. I'm glad to say that we're very different.

WS Why did you make the father in The Longest Journey so hateful?

EMF It just suited the book.