Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • E.M. Forster

  • A New Life
  • By: Wendy Moffat
  • Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
  • Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
E.M. Forster cover art

E.M. Forster

By: Wendy Moffat
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £21.99

Buy Now for £21.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

ALA Stonewall Honor Book

Finalist for James Tait Black Memorial Prize

E. M. Forster’s homosexuality was the central fact of his life. Between Wilde’s imprisonment and the Stonewall riots, Forster led a long, strange, and imaginative life as a gay man. He preserved a vast archive of his private life - a history of gay experience he believed would find its audience in a happier time. Seeing Forster’s life through the lens of his sexuality, Wendy Moffat’s biography offers us a dramatic new view - revealing his astuteness as a social critic, his political bravery, and his prophetic vision of gay intimacy. E.M. Forster: A New Life casts fresh light on one of the most beloved writers of the 20th century.

©2010 Wendy Moffatt (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about E.M. Forster

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 2.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Boringly read

What would have made E.M. Forster better?

I found it very difficult to get a feel for the book as it was so badly narrated.

What was one of the most memorable moments of E.M. Forster?

I am sure there were many but I found it too difficult to wade through the appalling pronunciation and lack of tone/vocal inflection of the narrator.

What didn’t you like about Paul Boehmer’s performance?

The book would have been more absorbing if there had been more interest in the voice of the narrator. He did not pronounce some of the words properly and quite often I had to listen to the sentence again to work out what he was saying.

Any additional comments?

I would love to hear the book again but being narrated by someone who enjoys reading and conveying to others his/her interest in the text.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Only connect

A sympathetic account of Forster's life, generally well-written, but in US English, which sometimes causes momentary confusion; "idyll" is a homonym of "idol", "preparatory school" isn't 5-13, but a secondary school, "write V Woolf" means send her a letter, ie, "write to her".
Pronunciation (except for Italian) isn't European, and the narrator could have done us the politeness of finding out "Tonbridge" is pronounced "Tunbridge"; the spelling, not the sound, was changed to avoid confusion at railway stations with its younger, more prosperous neighbour, Tunbridge Wells, where I live at present, subject of literary scorn from Jane Austen to Mary Beard, but redeemed lately in being the only constituency in SE, outsideLondon, to vote "Remain" in EU Referendum.

Entertained by description of Cavafy, a poet I appreciate, as "57, but described himself as middle-aged"! OF COURSE, 57 is young....(at least in Europe, maybe old in US)

Morgan, born a century too early, might not have written his considerable novels if he'd been able to live authentically. Merchant-Ivory wouldn't have had material for costume dramas of beauty and gentle social comment, but perhaps he'd have produced even better literature; who knows?



Morgan seems to have been rather a nice bloke; he wanted love, not endless casual sex, considered other people's feelings, was pacifist, a loyal friend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Absorbing and interesting

Loved this book which added to the pleasure of Forster's books, have already started to read again, such a beautiful and authentic being.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

Loving the diary of E.M.Forster. I think it would be better if a UK English, speaker could have read this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

marred by inappropriate narrator

Really interesting biography, narrator completely unable to pronounce English place names. terrible accent too. Such a shame that such a book was given an American narrator who makes Dickens van Dyke's cockney sound convincing.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, poor narration

I loved the print version of the book, so wanted to hear it via Audible.
Unfortunately, it was spoilt for my by the narration - unusual choices around pausing and spacing sentences, and sounds like a computer generated narration.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!