Howards End

A clear, vibrant portrait of life in Edwardian England, Howards End deals with personal relationships and conflicting values. On the one hand are the Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and their brother Tibby, who care about civilized living, music, literature, and conversation with their friends. On the other are the Wilcoxes, Henry and his children Charles, Paul, and Evie, who are concerned with the business side of life and distrust emotions and imagination. Howards End, a charming country house in Hertfordshire which belonged to Henry Wilcox's first wife, becomes the object of an inheritance dispute between the Wilcox family and Schlegel sisters. Through romantic entanglements, disappearing wills, and sudden tragedy, the conflict over the house emerges as a symbolic struggle for England's very future. Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was born in London and raised by his mother and paternal aunts. He pursued his interests in philosophy and classics at Cambridge and there began his writing. He wrote six novels, short stories, essays, and other nonfiction. His novel A Passage to India (1924) won both the Prix Femina Vie Heureuse and the James Tait Black Memorial prize. Nadia May is one of the pioneers of audiobook narration, with twenty-five years of recording and over 600 titles to her credit. Named one of AudioFile's Golden Voices, she has won fourteen Earphone Awards. She is also a well-known stage actor in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband and two badly behaved dogs.