In this brilliant piece of social comedy, E. M. Forster is concerned with one of his favorite themes: the "undeveloped heart" of the English middle classes, who are here represented by a group of tourists and expatriates in Florence. The English abroad are observed with a sharply ironic eye, but one of them, the young and unaffected Lucy Honeychurch, is also drawn with great sympathy.

In this brilliant piece of social comedy, E. M. Forster is concerned with one of his favorite themes: the "undeveloped heart" of the English middle classes, who are here represented by a group of tourists and expatriates in Florence. The English abroad are observed with a sharply ironic eye, but one of them, the young and unaffected Lucy Honeychurch, is also drawn with great sympathy. In her relationships with the unconventional Emersons and with her supercilious fiancé, Lucy is torn between lingering social and sexual Victorian proprieties and the spontaneous promptings of her own undeveloped heart.