First published in 1908, Forster's social comedy is a witty observation of the English middle classes as they holiday abroad in Florence. The novel describes the guests of the Pensione Bertoline, among them the clergyman Mr Beebe, novelist Miss Lavish and the impressionable and artistic Lucy Honeychurch, a young girl whose heart is awakened by her experiences in Italy. Most memorable of these includes witnessing a street murder and then an impulsive embrace from George Emerson. Lucy becomes engaged to cultured dilettante, Cecil Vyse, only to gradually realise it is George she loves. The drama unfolds as Lucy slowly extricates herself from what she describes as 'the muddle', against a sharply observed background of tennis, tea parties and amateur piano recitals.