A Room with a View is a 1908 novel by English writer E. M. Forster, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian-era England. Set in Italy and England, the story is both a romance and a humorous critique of English society at the beginning of the 20th century.
Part one
The novel is set in the early 1900s as upper-middle-class English women are beginning to lead more independent, adventurous lives. In the first part Miss Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her overly fussy spinster cousin and chaperone, Miss Charlotte Bartlett. The novel opens in Florence with the women complaining about their rooms at the Pensione Bertolini. They were promised rooms with a view of the River Arno but instead have ones overlooking a drab courtyard. Another guest, Mr. Emerson, interrupts their "peevish wrangling" by spontaneously offering to swap rooms. He and his son, George, both have rooms with views of the Arno and he argues, "Women like looking at a view; men don’t." Charlotte rejects the offer, partly because she looks down on the Emersons' unconventional behaviour and because she fears it would place them under an "unseemly obligation". However another guest, Mr. Beebe, an Anglican clergyman, persuades Charlotte to accept the offer; Charlotte suggests that the Emersons are socialists.
The following day Lucy spends a "long morning" in the Basilica of Santa Croce, accompanied by Miss Eleanor Lavish, a novelist who promises to lead her on an adventure. Lavish confiscates Lucy's Baedeker guidebook, proclaiming she will show Lucy the "true Italy". On the way to Santa Croce the two take a wrong turn and get lost. After drifting for hours through various streets and piazzas they eventually make it to the square in front of the church, only for Lavish (who still has Lucy's Baedeker) to abandon the younger woman to pursue an old acquaintance.
Inside the church Lucy runs into the Emersons. Although the other visitors find Mr. Emerson's behaviour somewhat unrefined, Lucy discovers she likes them both. While touring Piazza della Signoria Lucy and George Emerson separately witness a murder. Overcome by its gruesomeness Lucy faints and is aided by George. Recovered, she asks him to retrieve the photographs she dropped near the murder scene. George finds them but, as they are covered in blood, he throws them into the Arno before telling Lucy; Lucy observes how boyish George is. Before returning to the pensione they engage in a personal conversation.
Lucy decides to avoid George, partly because she is confused by her feelings and also to placate Charlotte, who grows wary of the eccentric Emersons after overhearing Mr. Eager, a clergyman, saying that Mr. Emerson, "murdered his wife in the sight of God".
Later in the week Mr. Beebe, Mr. Eager, the Emersons, Miss Lavish, Charlotte and Lucy go on a day trip to Fiesole, a scenic area above Florence, driven in two carriages by Italian drivers. One driver is permitted to have a pretty girl he claims is his sister sitting next to him on the box seat. When he kisses her Mr. Eager promptly orders her to leave. In the other carriage Mr. Emerson remarks how it is defeat rather than victory to part two people in love.
On a hillside Lucy abandons Miss Lavish and Miss Bartlett to their gossip and goes searching for Mr Beebe. Misunderstanding Lucy's awkward Italian, the driver leads her to where George is admiring the view. Overcome by Lucy's beauty amongst a field of violets, he takes her in his arms and kisses her. However they are interrupted by Charlotte, who is shocked and upset but mostly is ruffled by her own failure as a chaperone. Lucy promises Charlotte that she will say nothing to her mother about the "insult" George has paid her. The two women leave for Rome the next day before Lucy can say goodbye to George.
Part two
In Rome Lucy spends time with Cecil Vyse, whom she knew in England. Cecil twice proposes to Lucy in Italy; she rejects him both times. As Part Two begins, Lucy has returned to Surrey, England, to her family home, Windy Corner. Cecil proposes yet again and this time she accepts. Cecil is a sophisticated London aesthete whose rank and class make him a desirable match despite his despising country society; he is a rather comic figure, who is snobbish and gives himself pretentious airs.
The vicar, Mr. Beebe, announces that a local villa has been leased; the new tenants are the Emersons, who, after a chance meeting with Cecil in London, learned about the villa being available. Cecil enticed them to come to the village as a comeuppance to the villa's landlord, Sir Harry Otway, whom Cecil (who believes himself to be very democratic) thinks is a snob. Lucy is angry with Cecil, as she had tentatively arranged for the elderly Misses Alan, who had also been guests at the Pensione Bertolini, to rent the villa.
Fate takes an ironic turn as Mr. Beebe introduces Lucy's brother, Freddy, to the Emersons. Freddy invites George for "a bathe" in a nearby pond in the woods. Freddy, George and Mr. Beebe go there. Freddy and George undress and jump in, eventually persuading Mr. Beebe to join them. The men enjoy themselves, frolicking and splashing in and out of the pond and running through the bushes until Lucy, her mother and Cecil, having taken a short-cut through the woods during their walk, come upon them.
Freddy later invites George to play tennis at Windy Corner. Although Lucy is initially mortified by facing both George and Cecil, she resolves to be gracious. Cecil paces around and mockingly reads aloud from a light romance novel. Lucy and George sit down to rest after the tennis and Cecil reads them a scene suspiciously reminiscent of George's kissing Lucy in Fiesole. Lucy realizes that the novel was written by Miss Lavish and that Charlotte must thus have told her about the kiss. George catches Lucy alone in the garden and kisses her again.
Furious with Charlotte for betraying her secret, Lucy forces her cousin to watch as she orders George to leave Windy Corner and never return. George argues that Cecil sees Lucy only as an "object for the shelf" and will never love her enough to grant her independence, whereas he loves her for who she is. Lucy is moved but remains firm. Later that evening, after Cecil again rudely declines to play tennis, Lucy sees Cecil for what he truly is and ends their engagement. She decides to flee to Greece with the two Misses Alan.
Meanwhile, George, unable to bear being around Lucy, is moving his father back to London, unaware Lucy has broken off her engagement. Shortly before Lucy's departure she accidentally encounters Mr. Emerson at Mr. Beebe's house. He is unaware that Lucy is no longer engaged and Lucy is unable to lie to him. With open, honest talk Mr. Emerson strips away her defenses, forcing her to admit she has been in love with George all along. He also mentions how his wife had "gone under"—lost the will to live—because she feared that George's contracting typhoid at the age of 12 was a punishment for his not being baptized. Her fear was the result of a visit by the stern clergyman Mr. Eager, and the incident explains Eager's later claim that Mr. Emerson had "murdered his wife in the sight of God".
The novel ends in Florence, where George and Lucy have eloped without Mrs. Honeychurch's consent. However, Lucy has learned that Charlotte knew that Mr. Emerson was at Mr. Beebe's that fateful day and had not discouraged nor prevented her from going in and encountering him. Although Lucy "had alienated Windy Corner, perhaps for ever" (although the appendix implies a reconciliation with her family), the story ends with the promise of lifelong love for both her and George.
The cache
Working around the main continents of the world we have :
Asia = 466
North America = 398
Europe = 367
Africa = 361
South America = 292
and Oceania = ABC
Using the values of ABC, the cache can be found at :
N 53° 2 (B-A-C) . B A C W 003° 0 (A+B) . (A+C) B (A-C)