Lucy Honeychurch is spending some time in Italy with her older cousin, Charlotte, who is chaperoning her. It’s the early 1900s, and spending time in Florence and Rome for the British is a must-do. Lucy comes from a wealthy family. Her little world is full of respectability and prejudice, with a conception of social order where some are acceptable and others are not. Typically, George Emerson is not, the son of a man with no tact and decency… But George will kiss her, and she will not forget. Back home, she agrees to marry Cecil, an acceptable husband, but soon George reappears in her life. A story about women and their place in society. A classic book to have read. A room with what view ? One on the Arno…
“There was a general sense of groping and bewilderment. Pan had been amongst them—not the great god Pan, who has been buried these two thousand years, but the little god Pan, who presides over social contretemps and unsuccessful picnics. Mr. Beebe had lost every one, and had consumed in solitude the tea-basket which he had brought up as a pleasant surprise. Miss Lavish had lost Miss Bartlett. Lucy had lost Mr. Eager. Mr. Emerson had lost George. Miss Bartlett had lost a mackintosh square. Phaethon had lost the game.”