A truly fantastic read; sometimes you can see how a story will unfold, especially if it's something that's been around for so long (a 'classic,' really). But I was surprised at every clever turn of this book. I loved the characters. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that it was written by a man; Margaret and her sister were cheered on by me in their independence. It was sad, funny, and well-written.

I had my recently read 'On Beauty' by Zadie Smith in my head through much of the book; the characters in Howard's End are complicated but not all are terrible. It was hard to like anyone in 'On Beauty,' but I did like the fact that Howard in 'On Beauty' was an awful, terrible, no good person and 'Howard' in 'Howard's End' is just the name of a place. That, at least, was clever.