Pièce 39 - Letter from E. M. Forster to R. C. Trevelyan

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Is glad to hear Trevelyan is thinking of writing a novel, though the 'bothers' about writing distress him as they resemble his own. Asks if he has read and admired Norman Douglas's "South Wind"; suggests it, and Gide's "Les Caves du Vatican", as possible models. Will send him and Bessie 'the unpublished thing' ["Maurice"], but asks them to promise not to mention it to anyone except Goldie [Dickinson]. Has re-read it recently and found some 'grave faults' which he may alter. Has written a memorandum on Egypt for the Labour Party, and so spent a pleasant day in London seeing Woolf and Shaw. His aunt's neighbours, the Agnews, came to tea; he liked Mr Agnew. 'Yesterday I had tea at the House of the Lord'. Saw Tovey and Miss W. [Sophie Weisse] in Edinburgh. His mother is reading 'The Arrows of Lead' [ Joseph Conrad's "The Arrow of Gold"] which she finds slow.

Appears in Forster, E., Lago, M., & Furbank, P. (1985). Selected letters of E.M. Forster. Vol. 1, 1879-1920 / edited by Mary Lago and P.N. Furbank. London: Arena.