_ASPECTS_ OF THE NOVEL E. M. FORSTER NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1927, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. _By the same author_ A PASSAGE TO INDIA HOWARDS END A ROOM WITH A VIEW THE LONGEST JOURNEY WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS _and other stories_ THE ETERNAL MOMENT _and other stories_ ABINGER HARVEST GOLDSWORTHY LOWES DICKINSON VIRGINIA WOOLF (_The Rede Lecture_) _To_ CHARLES MAURON 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. CONTENTS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY II THE STORY III PEOPLE IV PEOPLE (_continued_) V THE PLOT VI FANTASY VII PROPHECY VIII PATTERN AND RHYTHM IX CONCLUSION INDEX OF MAIN REFERENCES ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL I INTRODUCTORY THIS lectureship is connected with the name of William George Clark, a fellow of Trinity. It is through him we meet today, and through him we shall approach our subject.