E. M. Forster was a novelist, essayist and critic. He was educated at Tonbridge School and King’s College, Cambridge. Later on, he was made an honorary fellow of the University. While at Cambridge he developed contacts and got himself associated with Bloomsbury Group. He travelled in Europe, lived in Italy and Egypt and spent some years in India as a secretary to an Indian State King after the First World War. The Longest Journey like Shelley’s Epipsychidion is an attempt to analyse ‘the thing’, and the story of the search, self-understanding of man, for subsequent understanding of man’s place in the cosmic scheme. The three parts of the novel–Cambridge, Sawston and Wiltshire signify three distinct ways of life. Cambridge stands for chivalrous enthusiasm, Sawston for pragmatism, and Wiltshire for plain blunt sincerity.
Research Scholar, P.G. Department of English and Research Centre, Magadh University, Bodh-Gaya
