More than most successful writers E. M. Forster proceeded by fits and starts; success with him never produced a formula he could go on using. Two novels at least were aborted. The first, known as Nottingham Lace from its opening words, was Forster's first attempt, and petered out after 50 pages. The second, which he proposed to call Arctic Summer, exists in two major fragments, representing different attempts to come to grips with the plot. It was begun in 1911, a year after Howards End had made for him a reputation which he would have liked to exploit. Other bits and pieces, lovingly assembled and edited in [Arctic Summer and Other Fiction], are tales and short items which Forster either was unsatisfied with or else judged unfit for publication, together with a remarkable sexual fantasy written at the age of 83.

Arranged as they are, the fragments will illustrate the ambivalence...