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The Celestial Omnibus
Los relatos reunidos aquí respiran una atmósfera común y nos trasladan a escenarios donde se hace posible el encuentro de mundos irreconciliables.
First published January 1, 1911
About the author
E.M. Forster
578 books3,699 followersEdward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. His humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: "Only connect".
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
He had five novels published in his lifetime, achieving his greatest success with A Passage to India (1924) which takes as its subject the relationship between East and West, seen through the lens of India in the later days of the British Raj.
Forster's views as a secular humanist are at the heart of his work, which often depicts the pursuit of personal connections in spite of the restrictions of contemporary society. He is noted for his use of symbolism as a technique in his novels, and he has been criticised for his attachment to mysticism. His other works include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908) and Maurice (1971), his posthumously published novel which tells of the coming of age of an explicitly gay male character.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
May 14, 2023
Is the impossible possible?
I quite enjoyed reading these six short allegorical stories!
I quite enjoyed reading these six short allegorical stories!
September 3, 2020
The Celestial Omnibus is practically 'Midnight in Paris' in book form. Aside from adding that the stories are refreshing and entertaining, if sometimes a little odd and mysterious in their meaning--the reader is definitely expected to do some interpretation--all I can say is that they are very E. M. Forster. Many muddles--much muddling?--and plenty of the Englishman at home, abroad, and in some dimension in between.
The Story of a Panic - 3
The Other Side of the Hedge - 5
The Celestial Omnibus - 4
Other Kingdom - 5
The Curate's Friend - 4
The Road from Colonus - 3
The Story of a Panic - 3
The Other Side of the Hedge - 5
The Celestial Omnibus - 4
Other Kingdom - 5
The Curate's Friend - 4
The Road from Colonus - 3
May 19, 2015
Much more about this book later, but I finished this book about 3 a.m. this morning and I literally have not stopped thinking about it since. I just ordered Forster's Selected Stories, hoping that the other stories in that book are as good as these are.
Seriously -- super book. My favorite quotation from the entire collection:
"Lasciate ogni baldanza voi che entrate."
Seriously -- super book. My favorite quotation from the entire collection:
"Lasciate ogni baldanza voi che entrate."
February 22, 2024
E.M. Forster seemed to live and write like an electron in a region bordered by a semi-permeable membrane. Characters that can free themselves sufficiently from the hectic, cynical and ironic world are drawn through, they break on through to the other side.
The stories in this collection belong together. An old man, as weary as ancient Oedipus, has the scales fall briefly from his eyes while in a cool shaded glen in Greece in "The road From Colonus." A young boy, ignored and ridiculed by his parents who might at best think him cute, but never take him seriously, seeks a ride on "The Celestial Omnibus". In similar fashion a man relentlessly jostling for position on the rat race course of life manages to briefly pierce a barrier in "The Other Side of the Hedge".
So I am a sucker for this kind of Secret Garden tale, the concept of a welcoming realm free of backbiting and Trump having enormous appeal. In "The Other Kingdom" a young woman engaged to a wealthy landowner is lectured on the evils of impertinence. Her reply is,
"'Impertinence is nothing!' she cried. "It doesn't exist. It's a sham like 'claims" and 'positions' and 'rights'. It's part of of the great dream.'"
"She danced away from our society and our life, back, back through the centuries till houses and fences fell and the earth lay wild to the sun."
Derision, so rampant now on the Internet, is addressed by Forster in "The Road From Colonus". An elderly Englishman is having perhaps the most mystical and meaningful moment of his life, sitting alone in a hollow tree in a wooded glen. His daughter is typical of the many uptight, sick characters whose derisive assaults those of us who are dreamers (I'm not the only one) are constantly subject to. Her comment as she sees her father succeeding in breaking out of his life which is defined by age, responsibilities and annoyances, is withering and cruel, "Why, here's papa, playing at being Merlin."
In these early short stories Forster is already going out on a limb, rejecting societal norms in favor of the Eternal Yes, as he would put it in a later novel. Hope and strength abound in these stories. Through more than a hundred years, he affirms that we can fight and successfully rise above derision, judgement and fear. He affirms that there are pathways that lead through an accepted and partly self-constructed barrier, to the "kingdom regained". E. M. would have skanked to Bob Marley when he sang:
"But if you know what life is worth, You would look for yours on Earth
And now you see the light, You stand up for your rights, Jah"
The stories in this collection belong together. An old man, as weary as ancient Oedipus, has the scales fall briefly from his eyes while in a cool shaded glen in Greece in "The road From Colonus." A young boy, ignored and ridiculed by his parents who might at best think him cute, but never take him seriously, seeks a ride on "The Celestial Omnibus". In similar fashion a man relentlessly jostling for position on the rat race course of life manages to briefly pierce a barrier in "The Other Side of the Hedge".
So I am a sucker for this kind of Secret Garden tale, the concept of a welcoming realm free of backbiting and Trump having enormous appeal. In "The Other Kingdom" a young woman engaged to a wealthy landowner is lectured on the evils of impertinence. Her reply is,
"'Impertinence is nothing!' she cried. "It doesn't exist. It's a sham like 'claims" and 'positions' and 'rights'. It's part of of the great dream.'"
"She danced away from our society and our life, back, back through the centuries till houses and fences fell and the earth lay wild to the sun."
Derision, so rampant now on the Internet, is addressed by Forster in "The Road From Colonus". An elderly Englishman is having perhaps the most mystical and meaningful moment of his life, sitting alone in a hollow tree in a wooded glen. His daughter is typical of the many uptight, sick characters whose derisive assaults those of us who are dreamers (I'm not the only one) are constantly subject to. Her comment as she sees her father succeeding in breaking out of his life which is defined by age, responsibilities and annoyances, is withering and cruel, "Why, here's papa, playing at being Merlin."
In these early short stories Forster is already going out on a limb, rejecting societal norms in favor of the Eternal Yes, as he would put it in a later novel. Hope and strength abound in these stories. Through more than a hundred years, he affirms that we can fight and successfully rise above derision, judgement and fear. He affirms that there are pathways that lead through an accepted and partly self-constructed barrier, to the "kingdom regained". E. M. would have skanked to Bob Marley when he sang:
"But if you know what life is worth, You would look for yours on Earth
And now you see the light, You stand up for your rights, Jah"
May 31, 2015
This is a different side of Forster that we see here. This is a collection of allegorical short stories that he considered fantasy. Very much on the lines of C.S. Lewis with a little Tolkien thrown in. The Celestial Omnibus gets top billing, but they were all quite good.
Want to read
June 10, 2016Free download available at InternetArchive.
November 13, 2017
A fantasy full of literary allusions (most which I probably missed), The Celestial Omnibus is a rant against snobs, I think. Its villain is named Bots—snob spelled backwards 😀) The Boy exudes innocence which nullifies all snobbery, ans who conquers Bots (with the help of The Boys Immortal friends). Abandon hope...
April 15, 2022
It is very nice when an author achieves a book of short stories in which they have some kind of connection to one another, even if it is a thematical connection. This is the case in Forster's The Celestial Omnibus and other Stories where supernatural elements give the tone to each one of them if not as a criticism of the Edwardian society with all its caste divisions - aristocracy, middle class/bourgeoisie, servants/workers - and its rigid moral, which cause more harm than help or does any good. Somehow, E. M. Forster's body of work is mostly intended to shed light upon it. And he did great.
In these stories, there is a constant confrontation between the English spirit and foreign forces, some supernatural, some against foreigners, some happening in foreign countries where British travelers expect that their way of seeing the world prevail beyond the limits of their own land and because of all of that, fortune is always lurking around to take its toll, sometimes too high a toll.
In these stories, there is a constant confrontation between the English spirit and foreign forces, some supernatural, some against foreigners, some happening in foreign countries where British travelers expect that their way of seeing the world prevail beyond the limits of their own land and because of all of that, fortune is always lurking around to take its toll, sometimes too high a toll.
July 13, 2019
This was my first reading of E. M. Forster, and I’m glad I started with this quirky, hard-to-describe little collection. It was a refreshing, fun read and while I know his longer novels won’t be in quite the same (fantasy) vein, I’ll surely begin on his novels soon because his writing style here was so appealing. I loved these short pieces of unexpected fabulousness!
August 8, 2021
3.5 rounded down. A free read for Kindle from Amazon.
Forster certainly believes in telling the truth. At the end of one of these stories, he writes, "...I have been forced to use the unworthy medium of a narrative, and to delude you by declaring that this is a short story, suitable for reading in the train."
Or at the pool in this case.
And he could have predicted Goodreads! In a story about runners/walkers in a race, a runner sees someone running "for fun" and and doesn't understand. He says, "Every achievement is worthless unless it is a link in the chain of development." That is one reason why I'm reading E. M. Forster--to expand my boundaries, to try a writer I wasn't thrilled with in the past and of course, record it on Goodreads.
As you could figure from the title, most of these stories have an otherworldy mood to them. That's a great device for a writer because then you don't have to explain anything odd that happens.
Forster certainly believes in telling the truth. At the end of one of these stories, he writes, "...I have been forced to use the unworthy medium of a narrative, and to delude you by declaring that this is a short story, suitable for reading in the train."
Or at the pool in this case.
And he could have predicted Goodreads! In a story about runners/walkers in a race, a runner sees someone running "for fun" and and doesn't understand. He says, "Every achievement is worthless unless it is a link in the chain of development." That is one reason why I'm reading E. M. Forster--to expand my boundaries, to try a writer I wasn't thrilled with in the past and of course, record it on Goodreads.
As you could figure from the title, most of these stories have an otherworldy mood to them. That's a great device for a writer because then you don't have to explain anything odd that happens.
June 25, 2015
I received an ARC of this title from Dover Publications through NetGalley.
This brief collection of stories show the true depth of Forster’s literary talent and his ability to infuse fantasy and imagination into his stories. My favorite stories were two in the collection into which Forster incorporates many classical references.
In the Celestial Omnibus, a boy discovers a sign for an omnibus in the lane across from his house. The alley is a very odd place for an omnibus to pass through so the boy gets up very early one morning to investigate it. When the sun rises a carriage does appear out of the fog and the driver picks the boy up. The boy goes on a journey of a lifetime through the clouds and he meets nymphs and great writers and heroes from famous books. The omnibus driver is Sir Thomas Browne, the famous essayist, but the boy doesn’t recognize or understand any of the famous people he meets; he just knows that he has had a wonderful time and has seen amazing things. The story is full of literary allusions and classical references but I won’t give any of them away here so as not to spoil them for other readers.
When the boy comes home after having disappeared all day, his father canes him for telling lies about his supposed journey to heaven. The boys neighbor, Mr. Bons, which happens to cleverly be “snob” spelled backwards, decides he will show the boy that no such omnibus possibly exists. But when the omnibus shows up in the alley and picks up Mr. Bons and the boy, Mr. Bons does not have the same wonderful experience on his journey as the boy; for Mr. Bons’ imagination is not as carefree and vast as the boy and he does not witness the same remarkable landscape as the boy does. It is no wonder in the end that Mr. Bons meets a horrible fate.
My other favorite in the collection is a story entitled “Other Kingdom.” In this story, and upper class aristocrat named Mr. Worters has taken a fiancé from Ireland, Evelyn Beaumont, who is much below his social status. In order to better educate his new fiancé, Mr. Worters hires a classics teacher, Mr. Inskip, to teach her Latin. It is evident from the beginning that Miss Beaumont does not have the intellectual capacity to learn ancient languages, but she does have a whimsical imagination and a carefree spirit.
Mr. Worters decides to buy his fiancé a wood, named Old Kingdom, for a wedding present. When Worters decides that the wood needs fences and paths and bridges, Miss Beaumont gets very upset that he is trying to organize and tame the natural wood. Through several allusions, the reader, or at least this reader, is quickly reminded of Ovid’s story of Daphne and Apollo in the Metamorphoses in which Apollo attempts to capture and tame Daphne the wood nymph. Similar to Apollo, Worters learns the harsh lesson that he cannot tame nature or the spirit of this woman. Miss Beaumont has a metamorphosis of her own but it is not the type that Worters had hoped for.
This is a collection of stories that I will reach for and reread over and over again and every time I read them I will discover something new and different. I highly recommend THE CELESTICAL OMNIBUS AND OTHER TALES from Dover Publications.
For more of my reviews visit my blog: www.thebookbindersdaughter.com
This brief collection of stories show the true depth of Forster’s literary talent and his ability to infuse fantasy and imagination into his stories. My favorite stories were two in the collection into which Forster incorporates many classical references.
In the Celestial Omnibus, a boy discovers a sign for an omnibus in the lane across from his house. The alley is a very odd place for an omnibus to pass through so the boy gets up very early one morning to investigate it. When the sun rises a carriage does appear out of the fog and the driver picks the boy up. The boy goes on a journey of a lifetime through the clouds and he meets nymphs and great writers and heroes from famous books. The omnibus driver is Sir Thomas Browne, the famous essayist, but the boy doesn’t recognize or understand any of the famous people he meets; he just knows that he has had a wonderful time and has seen amazing things. The story is full of literary allusions and classical references but I won’t give any of them away here so as not to spoil them for other readers.
When the boy comes home after having disappeared all day, his father canes him for telling lies about his supposed journey to heaven. The boys neighbor, Mr. Bons, which happens to cleverly be “snob” spelled backwards, decides he will show the boy that no such omnibus possibly exists. But when the omnibus shows up in the alley and picks up Mr. Bons and the boy, Mr. Bons does not have the same wonderful experience on his journey as the boy; for Mr. Bons’ imagination is not as carefree and vast as the boy and he does not witness the same remarkable landscape as the boy does. It is no wonder in the end that Mr. Bons meets a horrible fate.
My other favorite in the collection is a story entitled “Other Kingdom.” In this story, and upper class aristocrat named Mr. Worters has taken a fiancé from Ireland, Evelyn Beaumont, who is much below his social status. In order to better educate his new fiancé, Mr. Worters hires a classics teacher, Mr. Inskip, to teach her Latin. It is evident from the beginning that Miss Beaumont does not have the intellectual capacity to learn ancient languages, but she does have a whimsical imagination and a carefree spirit.
Mr. Worters decides to buy his fiancé a wood, named Old Kingdom, for a wedding present. When Worters decides that the wood needs fences and paths and bridges, Miss Beaumont gets very upset that he is trying to organize and tame the natural wood. Through several allusions, the reader, or at least this reader, is quickly reminded of Ovid’s story of Daphne and Apollo in the Metamorphoses in which Apollo attempts to capture and tame Daphne the wood nymph. Similar to Apollo, Worters learns the harsh lesson that he cannot tame nature or the spirit of this woman. Miss Beaumont has a metamorphosis of her own but it is not the type that Worters had hoped for.
This is a collection of stories that I will reach for and reread over and over again and every time I read them I will discover something new and different. I highly recommend THE CELESTICAL OMNIBUS AND OTHER TALES from Dover Publications.
For more of my reviews visit my blog: www.thebookbindersdaughter.com
January 20, 2021
The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories was a small volume first published by E. M. Forster in 1911. The spotlighted story, The Celestial Omnibus, is, in many lists, considered to be one of the best stories ever written. It was said, that Forster felt books, and stories for that matter, must be read in the proper way. They must be absorbed "not as ends, but as means - as signposts, not destinations."
I must completely agree that the stories in this volume, must have been "signposts," because more than once I turned the page to continue a story only to find that it had ended. Consequently, these were stories that were not easily digested, requiring some reflection. I found myself, in some cases, thinking about the real meaning or intention of the story, or what really happened. For example, the story The Other Side of the Hedge is an obvious allegory, but one around which I couldn't wrap my mind. In fact, when I looked this story up on the web, there are a number of commentaries and interpretations. One of the commentaries starts out by saying, "The Other Side of the Hedge serves as a metaphor for life, death and afterlife. Within the story, Forster has hidden many references – both religious and philosophical – to the world as an average reader would perceive it...." Consequently, the reader who undertakes this volume, must understand that it may be a series of stories that are not easily construed, and they are not simply read for entertainment. They are stories that require some study and pondering.
In addition, these stories, although it isn't necessary, are better understood with some knowledge of classical literature, and when I say classical, I don't mean Dickens, I mean Greek and Roman. I consider myself a complete novice in this area, and, thus, I was either ignoring the classical references, or looking them up on my Kindle. For the story, The Celestial Omnibus, a familiarity of some British writers, essayists, or bards may also be helpful.
In any case, I remember hearing that the current comprehension level of this type of literature is significantly dropping among mainstream readers, which is sad. These are amazing stories, and I only rated them four stars, because, for me, they were a bit cryptic, which is my fault and not the author's. But that is because they are not meant to be general drugstore pulp fiction. They are meant to say something that requires reflection. They are meant to be something that, if remembered, makes the reader a better person than what he/she was before beginning the story.
I must completely agree that the stories in this volume, must have been "signposts," because more than once I turned the page to continue a story only to find that it had ended. Consequently, these were stories that were not easily digested, requiring some reflection. I found myself, in some cases, thinking about the real meaning or intention of the story, or what really happened. For example, the story The Other Side of the Hedge is an obvious allegory, but one around which I couldn't wrap my mind. In fact, when I looked this story up on the web, there are a number of commentaries and interpretations. One of the commentaries starts out by saying, "The Other Side of the Hedge serves as a metaphor for life, death and afterlife. Within the story, Forster has hidden many references – both religious and philosophical – to the world as an average reader would perceive it...." Consequently, the reader who undertakes this volume, must understand that it may be a series of stories that are not easily construed, and they are not simply read for entertainment. They are stories that require some study and pondering.
In addition, these stories, although it isn't necessary, are better understood with some knowledge of classical literature, and when I say classical, I don't mean Dickens, I mean Greek and Roman. I consider myself a complete novice in this area, and, thus, I was either ignoring the classical references, or looking them up on my Kindle. For the story, The Celestial Omnibus, a familiarity of some British writers, essayists, or bards may also be helpful.
In any case, I remember hearing that the current comprehension level of this type of literature is significantly dropping among mainstream readers, which is sad. These are amazing stories, and I only rated them four stars, because, for me, they were a bit cryptic, which is my fault and not the author's. But that is because they are not meant to be general drugstore pulp fiction. They are meant to say something that requires reflection. They are meant to be something that, if remembered, makes the reader a better person than what he/she was before beginning the story.
November 15, 2018
2.5 stars. It’s hard to believe this collection of stories was written by the same man who wrote
A Room with a View
,
A Passage to India
, and
Howards End
-- all of which I love, and the first of which I consider to be one of my favorite novels of all time. I have heard the stories described as “fantasy” (on the back book cover) or speculative fiction, but really they are just allegories with a mythological bent. They contain none of the darkness or creativity of previous Victorian tales of the supernatural (M.R. James, Blackwood, Machen, Doyle, etc.) nor the thought-provoking speculative predictions -- and pure entertainment -- of Wells or Verne. They are light and corny, with the typical overbearing symbolism of allegory. To quote the final line of “The Curate’s Friend,” which was intended by Forster to be ironic, but quite frankly sums up how I feel about each of these tales: “[T]his is a short story, suitable for reading in the train.”
Read
May 16, 2019Although I read all the stories in this collection in another one of Forster (with other stories), when I saw a 1920 edition of it, I couldn't resist getting it. Some books are just plain sweet to own.
April 5, 2024
Not my favorite by Forster, but worthwhile if you are already a fan.
January 13, 2011
I have to admit that I am still getting used to Forster's style. He's not especially descriptive, which can be a good thing. I've read books that take pages upon pages to describe something as inconsequential as the front porch of a random building, down to the individual hues and intricate pattern of the wood grain. Um, no thanks. That's when I start skimming, in an attempt to keep my eyes from glazing over and drooping shut. However. Forster, in my opinion, goes too far in the opposite direction. Although I did notice it here and there in A Room With a View, it was much more obvious in this collection, probably due to the short story form. It was a bit disconcerting to begin a story and find myself plopped in mid-conversation amongst characters who are completely indistinguishable from one another (I am thinking specifically of Other Kingdom). Forster eventually gets around to sorting them out and the stories' backdrops and characters become clearer, but it does make for slightly uncomfortable reading in the first few pages.
I feel like the above is making it seem as if I didn't like his stories, but I did. I loved them. I loved the weaving together of Edwardian era characters and sensibilities with fantasy and fable. The Story of a Panic, The Celestial Omnibus, Other Kingdom, and The Road from Colonus were standouts, but honestly there's not a bad one in the bunch.
I feel like the above is making it seem as if I didn't like his stories, but I did. I loved them. I loved the weaving together of Edwardian era characters and sensibilities with fantasy and fable. The Story of a Panic, The Celestial Omnibus, Other Kingdom, and The Road from Colonus were standouts, but honestly there's not a bad one in the bunch.
December 22, 2021
Relato de 25 páginas en el que Forster vuelca su amor por la literatura haciendo apología de la libertad individual para amarla, llegando a ella desde el espíritu, a la vez que desprecia a quienes se las dan de eruditos y solo la aprecian como instrumento intelectual y de prestigio. No le doy más puntos por el final, que no me ha convencido
November 13, 2010
A nice collection of stories with fantasy/supernatural element; the main theme seems to be the forces of nature and imagination versus rules of society and reason. Some of the stories were slightly too sublime for my taste, but I liked "The Story of a Panic" and "The Road from Colonus".
August 12, 2016
More like 3.5
April 5, 2019
Although Forster was one of my earlier favorites, this collection of short stories is sadly very rough. Despite being written over the first decade of the 20th Century, during the same period during which he gave us Where Angels Fear to Tread, The Longest Journey and A Room with a View, these stories seem juvenile and quite lacking in polish. At times, the language was so in need of an editor that it was unclear what was going on. All the stories include elements of fantasy, but are not convincing in their depictions - they're a bit twee, really. It's striking, though, considering that Forster is often considered a humanist, with characters filled with longing seek out the contact of other humans, that these stories have a similar longing but instead have characters reaching out for something not actually there. And whereas you still see much of Forster's ability to depict the pompous English gentleman, these stories fail to make it clear that he's not inhabiting those characters, rather than satirizing them.
For me, Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies, both from the same time period, are much more successful.
For me, Kipling's Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies, both from the same time period, are much more successful.
April 16, 2022
The Celestial Omnibus
Rabbit trails led me to this one; I was going to read C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce" along with the Literary Life Podcast episode 47, when the blurb for that recording sent me to read this eponymous short story first.
It is advantageous that there was an episode to go with "The Celestial Omnibus," else I would not have understood it or gotten much out of it, quite probably. I really appreciated the insights the hosts shared, and was able to thus appreciate the story as well.
Now, as to the other tales in this volume - I could surely benefit from discussions of these in a similar vein to the podcast (alas, there are none that I can find). I sense that there is indeed deeper allegorical meaning to them, but I can't figure them out. They just seem oddly unsettling. I have guesses, but really don't know what the messages are in the other stories. 🤷 I only read the first half of the book (which consisted of three tales, "The Story of a Panic," "The Other Side of the Hedge," and "The Celestial Omnibus") and decided that the rest of it was not for me at the present time.
Note: my rating applies only to the title story.
Rabbit trails led me to this one; I was going to read C.S. Lewis's "The Great Divorce" along with the Literary Life Podcast episode 47, when the blurb for that recording sent me to read this eponymous short story first.
It is advantageous that there was an episode to go with "The Celestial Omnibus," else I would not have understood it or gotten much out of it, quite probably. I really appreciated the insights the hosts shared, and was able to thus appreciate the story as well.
Now, as to the other tales in this volume - I could surely benefit from discussions of these in a similar vein to the podcast (alas, there are none that I can find). I sense that there is indeed deeper allegorical meaning to them, but I can't figure them out. They just seem oddly unsettling. I have guesses, but really don't know what the messages are in the other stories. 🤷 I only read the first half of the book (which consisted of three tales, "The Story of a Panic," "The Other Side of the Hedge," and "The Celestial Omnibus") and decided that the rest of it was not for me at the present time.
Note: my rating applies only to the title story.
December 13, 2020
Having only known Forster as a novelist, I was surprised (though perhaps I should not have been) by the potency of these few short stories. Simple enough in their prose, their themes are, by Forster's own label, fantastic, and mysterious. I can see how more cynical readers might be inclined to roll their eyes at the romantic, humanist themes--indeed, they might seem to verge on the melodramatic for a modern audience--but I found the passion of Forster's convictions refreshing and inspiring. If there is anything to complain about with this petite collection, it's that, even in just six stories, the themes (the liberatory power of natural world, the way that the rules and categories of so-called civilized society destroy the human spirit, the proximity of both the very young and the very old to some hidden cosmic truth) become repetitive. By the sixth story, some novelty had worn off. Nevertheless, this collection one of my new favorites.
November 30, 2020
An excellent collection of tales where E.M. Forster tries his hand at far more speculative fiction than some of his more well-known works, a practice I wished he’d done more often because the results were magical. The omnibus was such a delightful, character-specific place where it comes into question whether or not it’s real or imaginary…or is it the character who doubts its existence whose imaginary? More than one story makes its characters wonder if otherworldly forces are at work even amidst the most ordinary settings with ordinary people. Often the ordinary people don’t (or refuse) to notice these forces, acting as the true enemy to the protagonist tentatively reaching out for them. If you like speculative fiction and E.M. Forster, don’t miss this.
January 14, 2024
There is something very soothing about Forester's writing in this short story collection. Each one contemplates the friction between civilization and nature, sophistication and innocence in the context of such social divisions a class, race, and sex, without providing judgment or answers. There is no hitting one over the head with the message except in the gentlest ways. The fantasy elements give these stories a dream-like quality, leaving the reader to contemplate the roads we have taken and those yet to come. All of this may sound rather vague, but these stories are something that must be read and felt to be truly understood.
June 28, 2021
There is a certain dry coolness to these stories, perhaps due to the unflappable calm of the Englishman. But even an Englishman can be blown off his pins by the inexplicable. So a sullen young boy, moody and withdrawn, is infected or possessed with the spirit of an ancient Grecian god and goes running into the wilderness; a smug man loses his fiancé to a woodland glade and a boy is captivated and amused by Achilles.
The ordinary jumps the tracks in a way that seems plausible and yet decidedly queer. Such is the subtle delight of the stories in this slim anthology.
The ordinary jumps the tracks in a way that seems plausible and yet decidedly queer. Such is the subtle delight of the stories in this slim anthology.
June 22, 2019
Even though that the dialogue are somewhat archaic and difficult to follow and there are moments where you have to re read if you missed something in the story, it is an incredible lecture that lets the reader feel the empathy of the characters that want to be outside the status quo and are spiritually awake. That's what I liked about these short stories. It's about people or situations that let you open your eyes of what really matters in life.
August 9, 2023
Slightly cheating here as ‘The Celestial Omnibus’ was in ‘The Machine Stops’; only 25 pages or so.
Really interesting little read, if at times a bit confusing given the period it was written (and there are subsequent references that become quite integral to the narrative of this short story).
This was the kind of book that having read some more stuff online afterwards, I’ve grown to love it even more
Really interesting little read, if at times a bit confusing given the period it was written (and there are subsequent references that become quite integral to the narrative of this short story).
This was the kind of book that having read some more stuff online afterwards, I’ve grown to love it even more
December 30, 2023
Middling collection of stories with all but the final one having some magical component. Certainly there is nothing here to rival Forster’s superlative short story The Machine Stops with its prescient themes of internet insularity. The Story of a Panic was probably my favourite.
December 2, 2017
It is quite an interesting read. Forster has a very important message in it and that is to not be too proud of your knowledge for it may surprise you. The reader is touched by the innocence of the young boy and at certain places wishes to hold the same truthful and pure heart as that of the child.
April 7, 2019
A wonderful pastoral collection. I've known for a while that he was really into the outdoors, but this was an excellent collection of stories about nature and the desire to connect to it or be a part of it.
Really, it was close to magical realism, between the release of dryad and the creation of a faun. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Really, it was close to magical realism, between the release of dryad and the creation of a faun. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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