A vibrant portrait of Edwardian England, Howards End examines personal relationships and conflicting values. The Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and their brother Tibby, place their values in civilized living, music, literature, and conversation with their friends. The Wilcoxes, Henry and his children Charles, Paul, and Evie, are concerned with the business side of life and distrust emotions and imagination.

The two families are brought together by an inheritance dispute over Howards End, a charming country house in Hertfordshire which belonged to Henry Wilcox's wife. Through romantic entanglements, disappearing wills, and sudden tragedy, the conflict over the house emerges as a symbolic struggle for England's very future.

Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970) was born in London and raised by his mother and paternal aunts. He pursued his interests in philosophy, literature, and Mediterranean civilization at Cambridge. He soon determined to devote his life to writing and achieved his first major success as a novelist with Howards End. His writing, which placed him among the foremost novelists and critics of the twentieth century, is remarkable for its constant attention to moral, ethical, and human values.