The Plot

Florence
Lucy Honeychurch and her old, dismal, full of self-pity cousin Charlotte Bartlett set off for a trip to Italy, Florence. When they get to their pension, the Pension Bertollini, they find out that the rooms which they have reserved, do not have a view, as they were promised to have, and they are not adjacent. They complain about it at dinner to their fellow travellers in the pension. Amongst them are the Miss Alans, two adorable, gossipy old ladies, a certain Miss Lavish, a lady novelist, Mr Beebe, a clergyman and the unconventional Emersons, a father and a son. Mr Emerson sr, overhearing their problems with the rooms, then offers to change rooms with them. They do have rooms that have views, and declaring that men don’t care for such things as views, he finds it the most natural thing that they should change rooms.
This is the opening scene of the book A Room with a View, in which the young Lucy Honeychurch, an English girl with an ‘undeveloped’ heart discovers true love and is torn between old Victorian English traditions and liberal, open views and the spontaneous promptings of her heart.
This true love is introduced to her in the person of George Emerson, the son. When they are in Florence, they discover that they quite like one another, but Lucy isn’t so sure about that. George, being rased with a sense of freedom, independence and honesty by his father, falls in love with Lucy instantly and he doesn’t see that as a vice nor does he hide it from her.
During a ride in the country just outside Florence, near Fiesole, things come to a climax when George kisses Lucy in the fields. Lucy, being tired of the company of Miss Lavish and her chaperonne, Miss Bartlett, goes for a walk to find Mr Beebe, the reverend. Walking in the woods, she discovers a field full of flowers and there stands George Emerson, staring into the woods. Then he sees Lucy standing there and he walks up to her and then he kisses her. Lucy, being a decent English girl with an undeveloped heart, doesn’t know what to think of this and feels ashamed. But she doesn’t even have time to think, because they are caught in the act by Miss Bartlett who calls Lucy to her and takes her back to the pension.
They immediately set off for Rome and then go back to England, after Miss Bartlett has made George promise that he won’t interfer in Lucy’s life again and shall not speak to anyone about this ‘dreadful incident’. She also makes Lucy agree with her that they won’t tell Lucy’s mother or anybody else about it. It would only upset everyone and poor Charlotte would be blamed.

Summer Street
A few months later Lucy consents to marry the supercilous, cold-hearted and arrogant Cecil Vyse. She has accepted his third proposal partly to please her mother and partly to please herself. She thinks she loves Cecil, because he’s musical, clever, educated, handsome and rich. It’s like the writer tells us himself: “It is obvious enough for the reader to conclude, ‘She loves young Emerson.’ A reader iin Lucy’s place would not find it obvious. Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practise, and we welcome ‘nerves’ or any other shibboleth thatt will cloak our personal desire. She loved Cecil;...








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