What Was Forster Thinking About This Week?
E.M. Forster's letters range across numerous subjects - his day-to-day experiences and attitudes, the books he wrote and read, the times he lived in. By sifting through these, undergraduate Colette Sensier and the Cambridge Authors team have put together an unusual virtual diary of what was on Forster's mind at different times of the year. On this page you'll find what he was thinking this week; and this will change regularly. If you wish, you can receive these updates, approximately once a week, by e-mail. Just enter your email address in the box below to receive your own 'Forster's Thought for the Week'. A great variety of thought-provoking material will come through - sometimes sad, sometimes serious, sometimes quirky and even a little objectionable. Do you see things the same way he did?
WHAT WAS FORSTER THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK?
In April 1899 he was thinking about education, and his prospects. In a letter home to his mother from university, he related a conversation with his college Tutor Nathaniel Wedd. The news was that he had little chance of a first-class degree, and Wedd had been very critical of his education at Tonbridge School: too much time had been spent on repetition. Conversation turned to Forster’s future career: perhaps journalism. He ruefully wrote that 'it is rather a pit to attempt without influence [i.e., very difficult to get far without contacts], and I don’t think I shall be good enough’. (Source: Selected Letters of E.M. Forster, ed. Mary Lago and P.N. Furbank (London: Collins, 1983-1985), letter of 23 April 1899)
