Finished: Howards End (Forster) A good book about two British sisters, young women raising their teenage brother, who are thrown into the orbit of the prominent Wilcox family, and all that ensues. Margaret, the oldest at 29, and 21 year old Helen, first come across Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox, parents to three grown children, while on holiday where Mrs. Wilcox promptly invites the young women to visit their summer home outside of London, Howards End. Margaret stays home with their brother, Tibby, while Helen goes and within three days falls in love with their youngest son, Paul and he with her. They declare themselves engaged, but upon seeing that Paul is reluctant and embarrassed to tell his parents, Helen calls the whole affair off and heads home. Helen gets over her broken heart, but Margaret becomes worried when the Wilcox family, minus Paul who has gone to oversee his father's interests in India, moves into a flat across the street from their family home, left to them by their parents. Helen takes her own holiday with a cousin in Germany which leaves Margaret there to interact with the Wilcox's. Mrs. Wilcox takes a particular liking to Margaret and they develop a fast friendship before Mrs. Wilcox's health declines and she passes away. Shortly before her death, Mrs. Wilcox writes a note asking to leave Howards End to Margaret! Mrs. Wilcox had seen in Margaret a kindred spirit who would appreciate the nature of the summer home's surroundings and believe in the spirit of the home. She feels her own husband and children see it as simply a possession and have merely tolerated their trips out there each summer. Needless to say, when Mr. Wilcox, his oldest son, Charles, his greedy wife, Dotty, and the Wilcox's daughter, Evie, see the note, they are appalled! Together they justify to themselves that mother wasn't in her right mind and they burn the note! They all feel for sure that Margaret must have scammed their wife and mother. However, when a couple of years pass and Margaret never mentions it, they realize she had no idea. And, in other developments, Margaret and Mr. Wilcox slowly grow to care for each other and end up married! There are a few twists and turns...and lots off talk about the upper classes versus the lower classes...and men keeping women in their place (though Margaret is very feisty and independent and not the "typical" quiet woman of those times.) A falling out between the very close sisters comes to a head towards the end of the book and the sisters finally reconcile and Margaret ends up inheriting Howards End after all. Another good Forster book, though I think I liked A Passage to India better! :-)