Summary of Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) is a novel by E. M. Forster about the conflict between English social conventions and the freer, more passionate way of life found in Italy.
The story begins when Lilia Herriton, a young English widow, travels to Italy. Her relatives, especially her sister-in-law Caroline Abbott and brother-in-law Philip Herriton, worry that Lilia will behave irresponsibly. In Italy, however, Lilia falls in love with Gino Carella, a much younger Italian man, and marries him.
After Lilia dies while giving birth to a son, her English relatives become concerned about the child’s future. They believe that the boy should be brought to England and raised according to their family’s values. Philip travels to Italy with Caroline to take the child away from Gino.
Their attempt creates a tragic conflict. The English characters see themselves as acting for the child’s benefit, but they fail to understand Gino’s feelings as a father and the importance of his relationship with his son. The situation eventually leads to the accidental death of the child, leaving the characters devastated.
The novel ends with Philip and Caroline confronting the consequences of their actions and recognizing the limitations of their rigid English attitudes.
Major themes
English society vs. Italian culture: Forster contrasts English restraint and social convention with Italian spontaneity and emotional freedom.
Love and family: The novel questions who has the right to decide what is best for a child.
Class and social prejudice: The Herritons judge Gino partly because he is Italian and socially different from them.
Hypocrisy and convention: Forster criticizes people who follow social rules without considering their human consequences.
Life and spontaneity: Italy represents a more passionate and instinctive approach to life, challenging the controlled world of the English characters.
In essence: the novel shows how attempts to impose rigid social values on human relationships can produce unintended and tragic consequences.
The Man Who Refused to Bow… A Story of Courage … by Pranita Lele
Reviewed by: Kamlesh Tripathi
The book is a personal account of author Pranita Lele, who is combating horrific situations that life has offered her. Her husband is suffering from Cancer. Cancer, as one can say, is the reverse of the Midas touch. Just as the Midas touch converts everything into gold, cancer can transform life into a gruelling journey. Cancer can walk into anyone’s life surreptitiously, and as an uninvited guest, without any warning, just as it walked into Vikram Lele’s life, the author’s husband. You need a Satyavati to retrieve her husband from the menace of cancer. I’m reminded of the famous story of Satyavati, Satyavan and Yama. The analogy may sound similar. Pranita and Vikram’s story evokes the celebrated episode of Savitri and Satyavan in the Mahabharata. When Satyavan suddenly fell ill while working in the forest, Savitri cradled his head in her lap. When Yama, the god of death, arrived to claim her husband’s life, she refused to abandon him and followed Yama, ultimately persuading him to restore Satyavan’s life. Truly, a kindred metaphor.
Another glimpse that one gets is of the 1963 Bollywood hit … Dil Ek Mandir, starring Meena Kumari, Rajendra Kumar and Raj Kumar. For a closer fit, consider Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, whose relationship involved emotional support during difficult periods, though it is not principally a story of a wife nursing a seriously ill husband.
I’m reminded of the first stanza of one of my poems titled, ‘I’m Life,’ where life says: You think you know me/Well, everyone thinks that way/But believe me/ I’m very sneaky/I’m very tricky/And I rarely play by the rules you make for me.
Spread across 40 chapters and around 170 pages, the book presents its central message in a precise, concise and accessible manner. Normally, such books are unplanned because tragedies strike without notice, and the author has to play it by ear. The narration is in easy English, in short sentences with a pleasant trickle and flow like a flowing river.
The book intertwines life’s onerous circumstances with biological calamities. Aged parents above 90. Vikram, after recovering from brain haemorrhage, falls prey to oesophageal cancer. And in this global world, one cannot expect children to be by your side always. And in these frightful circumstances, one finds author Pranita walking through a dark isthmus all by herself.
But to every downside there is an upside. The world survives because of the balance. The plane has wings. It will glide through high turbulence, provided the pilot is competent and the support system is good. This is where the Oncology Department of Max Hospital Lucknow comes into play. Its team of doctors and support staff extended extensive support to Vikram and Pranita throughout the treatment. The subject book is definitely to honour the entire team of Max Hospital.
The author has painstakingly acknowledged friends and relatives, contacts, including overseas contacts and hospital staff, for what they did for Vikram.
The book doesn’t bear a sombre and morose tone. It is filled with lively episodes that take you away from the pain of the patient and the family.
The author has used the correct terminology in terms of describing each stage of illness. The narrative helps in building the doctor-patient relationship. The narration has a separate chapter for each doctor and support staff. It describes Chemotherapy, Radiation, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy in simple language.
Pranita Lele’s steadfast companionship also recalls the enduring ideal of marital devotion found in English literature. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost (there is a thematic echo), Adam and Eve’s relationship, despite its trials and consequences, explores the profound bond between husband and wife. While the circumstances differ considerably from Vikram and Pranita’s struggle with cancer, the work invites reflection on companionship when life becomes difficult. Pranita’s story brings this ideal into the everyday world of medical appointments, uncertainty and caregiving, showing how commitment is expressed not merely through words but through continued presence and practical acts of love…. A real page-turner.
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QUOTES 1/10/26 * An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so… MAHATMA GANDHI * Let us cherish and love old age; for it is full of pleasure if one knows how to use it. Fruits are most welcome when almost over; youth is more charming at its close…Each pleasure reserves to the end the greatest delights which it contains…SENECA, Letters from a Stoic * ‘I have always been wandering/seeking my inner self/ As I am myself the voyager/ and the destination.’ …Poet Iqbal * The Warren Buffet family motto might have been “spend less than you make,” with the corollary “don’t go into debt”. * Don’t ask the barber whether you need a haircut * Praise by name, criticise by category * ‘Law and order represent the largest circle within which is the next circle representing ‘public order’ and the smallest circle represents ‘Security of state’s … JUSTICE HIDAYATULLAH * The man who exceeds in fearlessness has no name…but he who exceeds in confidence is rash…and he who exceeds in fearing and is deficient in confidence is a coward… ARISTOTLE * While there may be an immigration problem, it isn’t really a serious problem. The really serious problem is assimilation… SAMUEL P HUNTINGTON * Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a man ever walked the earth…said ALBERT EINSTEIN on Mahatma Gandhi. * Spinning to me is the means to establish communion with God, and khadi is the symbol of unity of Indian humanity… MAHATMA GANDHI * Those who ‘abjure’ violence and do so only because others are committing violence on their behalf… GEORGE ORWELL * Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well and an be of service to him. And blessed is he who loves his brother as well when he is far off as when he is by his side… ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Break a barrier draw a line * The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow… WILLIAM POLLARD * The song I came to sing remains unsung to this day. I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument. The time has not come true, the words have not been rightly set; only there is agony of wishing in my heart…” … RABINDRANATH TAGORE * Daniel Defoe’s 1701 satirical poem, The True-Born Englishman, a bestseller in its day: “Speak, Satire, for there’s none can tell like these,/ Whether ’tis folly, pride, or knavery,/ That makes this discontented land appear/ Less happy now in times of peace, than war:/ Why civil feuds disturb the nation more,/ Than all our bloody wars have done before.” * Leo Tolstoy said evocatively in Anna Karenina, “Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?” * No light, but rather darkness visible…MILTON, Paradise Lost * A gender equality society would be one where the word ‘gender’ does not exist: where everyone can be themselves…GLORIA STEINEM
