Tone and Structure

The narrative tone, or voice, of Aspects of the Novel is first and foremost determined by the fact that it is a printed version of a series of lectures, originally written and presented in verbal form by the author before an audience of college and university students and professors in the halls of Trinity College, Cambridge, Forster's alma mater, in the name of the distinguished Clark lecture series. An editor's note that opens the reprinted lectures observes that their tone is "informal, indeed talkative." Because of this informal, chatty tone, Forster's voice throughout this collection of lectures is relatively intimate and, on a surface level, appears to make unexpected digressions or include various asides, which one might not find in a work originally intended solely for the printed page. The overall structure of Forster's discussion, however, is not the least haphazard or off-the-cuff. Each chapter/lecture...