Howards End is thought by many critics and readers to be the greatest of Forster's several wonderful novels. It is the complex and absorbing story of three families in turn of the century England. They seek to connect across class lines, but good intentions collide with the realities of economic inequality, clashing values, and social conventions. Forster's elegant and subtly comic prose illuminates the struggles of the novel's characters to make and maintain human connection in an increasingly depersonalized world. For the first class, please read the first ten chapters.