Aspects of the Novel

Note

THESE are some lectures (the Clark lectures) which were delivered under the auspices of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the spring of 1927. They were informal, indeed talkative, in their tone, and it seemed safer when presenting them in book form not to mitigate the talk, in case nothing should be left at all. Words such as "I", "you", "one", "we", "curiously enough", "so to speak", "only imagine", and "of course" will consequently occur on every page and will rightly distress the sensitive reader; but he is asked to remember that if these words were removed others, perhaps more distinguished, might escape through the orifices they left, and that since the novel is itself often colloquial it may possibly withhold some of its secrets from the graver and grander streams of criticism, and may reveal them to backwaters and shallows.

The text of this reissue of Mr. Forster's brilliant discussion is unchanged from the original edition of 1927. No attempt has been made to bring up to date the few topical references, mainly in footnotes, affected by the passage of time.