The Life to Come
And Other Stories
Published on 25. July 2024
256 pages
978-1-80206-663-0 (ISBN)
Description
A searing collection of E. M. Forster's short stories about forbidden sexuality and desire
'Madness, isn't it? What can it matter to anyone else if you and I don't mind?'
Exploratory, experimental and pioneering, the short stories collected in this volume show E. M. Forster writing about love between men with sensitivity, honesty, anger and humour. Written between 1903 and 1958, only two of the fourteen stories here appeared in print in Forster's lifetime; most remained unpublished while homosexuality was a crime. They range from light-hearted, satirical pieces to moving, highly charged depictions of desire and shared intimacy - a Christian missionary tormented by longing in 'The Life to Come'; a fateful woodland encounter in 'Arthur Snatchfold'; an illicit affair between a young English officer and his Indian friend in 'The Other Boat' - and explore the gap between private and public selves, and the places where love, class, race and sexuality collide.
Edited by Oliver Stallybrass
With an Introduction by Diarmuid Hester
'Madness, isn't it? What can it matter to anyone else if you and I don't mind?'
Exploratory, experimental and pioneering, the short stories collected in this volume show E. M. Forster writing about love between men with sensitivity, honesty, anger and humour. Written between 1903 and 1958, only two of the fourteen stories here appeared in print in Forster's lifetime; most remained unpublished while homosexuality was a crime. They range from light-hearted, satirical pieces to moving, highly charged depictions of desire and shared intimacy - a Christian missionary tormented by longing in 'The Life to Come'; a fateful woodland encounter in 'Arthur Snatchfold'; an illicit affair between a young English officer and his Indian friend in 'The Other Boat' - and explore the gap between private and public selves, and the places where love, class, race and sexuality collide.
Edited by Oliver Stallybrass
With an Introduction by Diarmuid Hester
Reviews / Votes
Beautifully written . . . has a freshness, sparkle and bite * Sunday Telegraph * Have we been as ready for Forster's honesty as we thought we were? . . . the best realized of the homosexual stories dovetail perfectly into the best of all his work. Even the earliest and most ephemeral of them will be recognized as the frailer embodiments of the same passionate convictions that made for the moral iron of his novels -- Eudora Welty * New York Times Book Review *More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Penguin Books Ltd
Edition type
New edition
File size
0,94 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-80206-663-0 (9781802066630)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
07/2024
Penguin Classics
€14.00
Available immediately
Persons
E.M. Forster (Author)
Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) wrote six novels - Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910), A Passage to India (1924). Maurice , written in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. He also published two volumes of short stories; two collections of essays; a critical work (Aspects of the Novel); The Hill of Devi; two biographies; two books about Alexandria; and the libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd.
Diarmuid Hester (Introducer)
Dr Diarmuid Hester is a radical cultural historian, activist and author of the critically acclaimed Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper. He has held research fellowships at Cambridge University, the University of Oxford, New York University, the Library of Congress, and the British Library. He is a BBC New Generation Thinker and regularly contributes to BBC Radio 3. Diarmuid teaches at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, and is a research associate of Emmanuel College.
Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) wrote six novels - Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910), A Passage to India (1924). Maurice , written in 1914, was published posthumously in 1971. He also published two volumes of short stories; two collections of essays; a critical work (Aspects of the Novel); The Hill of Devi; two biographies; two books about Alexandria; and the libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd.
Diarmuid Hester (Introducer)
Dr Diarmuid Hester is a radical cultural historian, activist and author of the critically acclaimed Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper. He has held research fellowships at Cambridge University, the University of Oxford, New York University, the Library of Congress, and the British Library. He is a BBC New Generation Thinker and regularly contributes to BBC Radio 3. Diarmuid teaches at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, and is a research associate of Emmanuel College.
