Una Camera con Una Vista

In “A Room with a View” by E.M. Forster, The protagonist, Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her overbearing older cousin, Charlotte Bartlett. The novel opens with their complaints about the hotel 'The Pension Bertolini' because they have been promised a room with a view, and instead are given a room that looks out onto a courtyard. One of the other guests at the hotel, George Emerson, offers to switch rooms with the two women. The two women choose not to accept the offer until persuaded to by another guest, and clergyman, Mr. Beebe. They feel discomfort from the offer, and feel that Emerson is using undignified behavior.

            The novel touches upon many issues surrounding society and politics in the early 20th century in England. Much of the novel focuses on the complaints of the hotel guests over the Emerson’s unusual behavior. The Emerson’s do not fit into the rigid guidelines dictated by Edwardian culture. Lucy and The Emerson personify a younger generation, while Miss Bartlett and the older hotel guests represent and older and repressed English culture. Florence acts as a backdrop for this clash of cultures, but the story says a lot more about English culture then an Italian lifestyle. In the novel, the characters have surrounded themselves with other English hotel guests, and rarely communicate with any Italian people.

            I found the discussion of a clash of cultures to be very interesting. Instead of feeling a clash of cultures based on generation, my travels abroad have taught me a lot about Italian cultural differences. When entering any new culture you must be careful, no matter how similar the people you meet may be, there are going to be certain things that cannot be communicated across cultural lines. Many of these cultural differences have given Italians a very bad image of Americans, and there are many negative stereotypes that you must battle as an American in Florence.

            While the book offered little insight into Italian culture, it did have extremely vivid descriptions of some Florentine landmarks. There is a detailed description of Piazza Santa Croce that describes it just as it is today. I really enjoyed the novel and felt it was an interesting perspective on being a tourist during the early 20th century.