The Southern Quarterly, vol. XXXIII, 1 (Fall 1994), p. 27--31.

Anne Foata

The Knocking at the Door : A Fantasy on Fate, Forster and Beethoven's Fifth

Abstract. Near the beginning of Howards End, Margaret and Helen Schlegel attend a concert at the Queen's Hall in London. Helen has a knack for finding meanings in music, for ``turning'' music into literature or painting. For Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, she devises a startling fantasy that not only sums up her life to that point and her vision of life in general but -and this is my contention in this article- at the same time points to the very structure of Howards End, thus providing the musical subtext of the novel.

anne2.foata@wanadoo.fr

The following versions are available: