A Room with a View

A Room with a View is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century. Merchant Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985.

 

The Modern Library ranked A Room with a View 79th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century (1998).

 

Stage, film, radio, and television adaptations

 

The novel was first adapted for the theatre by Richard Cottrell with Lance Severling for the Prospect Theatre Company, and staged at the Albery Theatre on 27 November 1975 by directors Toby Robertson and Timothy West.

 

Merchant Ivory produced an award-winning film adaptation in 1985 directed by James Ivory and starring Maggie Smith as "Charlotte Bartlett", Helena Bonham Carter as "Lucy Honeychurch", Judi Dench as "Eleanor Lavish", Denholm Elliott as "Mr Emerson", Julian Sands as "George Emerson", Daniel Day-Lewis as "Cecil Vyse" and Simon Callow as "The Reverend Mr Beebe".

 

BBC Radio 4 produced a four-part radio adaptation written by David Wade and directed by Glyn Dearman (released commercially as part of the BBC Radio Collection) in 1995 starring Sheila Hancock as "Charlotte Bartlett", Cathy Sara as "Lucy Honeychurch", John Moffat as "Mr Emerson", Gary Cady as "George Emerson" and Stephen Moore as "The Reverend Mr Beebe". The production was rebroadcast on BBC7 in June 2007, April 2008, June 2009 and March 2010 and on BBC Radio 4 Extra in August 2012 and March 2017.

 

In 2006, Andrew Davies announced that he was to adapt A Room with a View for ITV. This was first shown on ITV1 on 4 November 2007. It starred father and son actors Timothy and Rafe Spall as Mr Emerson and George, together with Elaine Cassidy (Lucy Honeychurch), Sophie Thompson (Charlotte Bartlett), Laurence Fox (Cecil Vyse), Sinéad Cusack (Miss Lavish), Timothy West (Mr Eager) and Mark Williams (Reverend Beebe). This adaptation was broadcast in the US on many PBS stations on Sunday 13 April 2008.

 

A musical version of the novel, directed by Scott Schwartz, opened at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in previews on March 2, 2012 with opening night March 10, and ran through April 15. Conceived by Marc Acito, the production featured music and lyrics by Jeffrey Stock and additional lyrics by Acito. The cast included Karen Ziemba (Charlotte Bartlett), Ephie Aardema (Lucy Honeychurch), Kyle Harris (George Emerson) and Will Reynolds (Cecil Vyse).

 

A reworked version of the musical opened at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre on April 15, 2014, following two weeks of previews, and ran through May 11. Directed by David Armstrong (director), the show's cast featured Louis Hobson (George Emerson), Laura Griffith (Lucy Honeychurch), Allen Fitzpatrick (Mr. Emerson), Patti Cohenour (Charlotte Bartlett), and Richard Gray (Reverend Beebe).

 

In 2020, Kevin Kwan released his novel "Sex and Vanity," a contemporary adaptation, in which the characters are well-connected aristocrats, and some are Crazy Rich Asians. (wikipedia.org)