E. M. Forster’s first novel explores the comic and tragiceffects of culture clash between insular, provincial British personalities andsensual Italian culture and atmosphere.

Lilia Herriton, an impulsive thirty-three-year-old widowfrom London, travels to Tuscany, where she falls in love with both Italy andthe handsome, carefree Gino Carella, a dentist’s son twelve years her junior.When news reaches the snobbish Herriton family that Lilia intends to marryagain, this time to an unsuitable Italian, the domineering Mrs. Herriton sendsher son, Philip, to prevent the catastrophe—but he arrives too late.

When tragedy strikes, the Herriton family decides to bring Lilia’sinfant son to England to be brought up properly—but not everyone is satisfied withthe situation.