Clever social commentary, often comic and occasionally deeply touching
The style Forster employs in A Room with a View is unforgettable – it’s unpretentious, almost conversational, good humored, and funny. At the same time, though, it manages to throw in moments of lyrical beauty that totally catch us off guard (for example, the scene of George and Lucy’s kiss among the violets has to be one of the most romantic, gorgeous kisses in the history of literature!). Forster takes on a lot of different angles here – social criticism, sympathetic views of individual characters, romance, and comedy among other things – and manages to balance them all masterfully.