E. M. Forster: A BBC Radio Collection

Twelve Dramatisations and Readings Including a Passage to India, A Room with A View and Howards End

De: E.M. Forster

Narrado por: full cast

Dramatisations and readings of EM Forster’s finest works, plus Stephen Wakelam’s radio play A Dose of Fame and the documentary feature Forster in India: Sex, Books and Empire

One of the greatest English novelists of the 20th century, EM Forster was also an accomplished short story writer. This collection includes stunning adaptations of his classic novels A Passage to India, Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Room with a View and Howards End. Among the star casts are Penelope Wilton, Ellie Kendrick, Sian Thomas, Emilia Fox, Sheila Hancock and John Hurt.

Also featured are four of his short tales – ‘The Story of the Siren’ (read by Dan Stevens), ‘The Road from Colonus’ (read by Andrew Sachs), ‘The Obelisk’ (read by Ruth Wilson) and ‘Ansell’ (read by Peter Kenny).

Forster’s posthumous novel, Maurice, is dramatised with a full cast and stars Alex Wyndham and Bertie Carvel, while Stephen Wakelam’s drama A Dose of Fame, starring Stephen Campbell Moore as Forster, sees the author grappling with a mysterious death, his own sexuality and an idea for his next novel.

In addition, Zareer Masani presents a revealing Radio 3 profile exploring Forster’s literature, love life and personal passage to India.

©2019 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2019 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Very nice collection

I enjoyed this collection very much. My favorites were " A Passage to India" and " A Room With A View". The dramatization was very well done and the stories were very well written and entertaining.

enjoyable

it took me a little bit to get used to the different voices and sounds, but once I knew what to expect u did like it. I would have liked it if the chapters were labeled by their content, eg "A Room With a View, part Ii". But they're not.

It’s abridged!

GROW- I was so excited to listen to the book, A Passage To India as a radio version. When I started it, I was following along and it would skip a whole paragraph of the book and keep going. I understand as a radio version it may shorten it, but it should say abridged. Now I have an audio book in my library I used a credit for and won’t use.

GLOW- I loved all the voices and sounds, the performance is excellent, I just wished it said abridged.

E.M.Foster blows it again with unlikely drama

Foster's other work, Howards End, remains a great favourite, the only weak spot being a rather unlikely and unnecessary death-by-bookshelf. Anyone who has been hit by a bookshelf knows death is an unlikely outcome, however neatly symbolic it may be. Here, there are many interesting ideas to explore until Foster decides to go full Hollywood blockbuster on us. To not ruin it for readers I will not name names. There is an unlikely sequence of events inserted to add unnecessary extreme emotional drama, something Hollywood is regularly guilty of. Again it was unnecessary for the exploration of the ideas and relationships in this book, and just turns it all into an operatic farce. While some people may like operatic farces, empathy is destroyed, and the story becomes a metaphor rather than a real exploration of real people.