Two talks on “A Room with a View”

(NYU Students and Faculty only)

Freedom and Oppression in E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View
Dorothea Barrett

Dr. Barrett wilI begin by describing Forster’s life and ideas: his position as a transitional figure between Victorian and modern literature; his beliefs in the areas of gender & sexuality, politics, and religion; England at the time (feminist movement, social class). She will then focus on binaries in the novel, such as rooms and views, medieval and Renaissance. Finally, and hopefully with the help of the audience, she will give a close reading of the scene in Piazza della Signoria from Chapter Four.

“A Garden” with a View: Hortense Mitchell Acton and her Taste in Fashion
Francesca Baldry

When E.M. Foster’s Room with a View was published in 1908, Arthur and Hortense Acton were designing their own Italian Renaissance garden and assembling an impressive art collection to decorate their home. Dr. Baldry analyzes Hortense’s taste in fashion in the years between the Edwardian era to the Roaring Twenties; she will look at the Callot Soeurs dresses in Hortense’s wardrobe to tell Hortense’s story, from her youth in Chicago to her new life as a sophisticated signora in Europe.

Three Edwardian era Callot Soeurs dresses will be on temporary display in the rooms of the villa.