The Longest Journey

This novel, which E.M. Forster considered the book he was 'most glad to have written,' is a tragicomedy of manners and a bildungsroman centered on Rickie Elliot. A bookish, sensitive, and introspective young man at Cambridge, Rickie harbors an intense imagination and a desire to become a writer, finding himself among a circle of philosophical friends. His life takes a tragic turn when he falls in love with and marries the 'devastatingly practical' Agnes Pembroke. This decision leads him to abandon his natural intellectual habitat and artistic aspirations for a life of 'petty conformity' and bitter disappointment as a classics teacher at the conventional Sawston School, alongside his brother-in-law. The novel explores the conflict between idealism and materialism, examining how Rickie's freedom of thought and moral sense are suppressed by the conventional world, illustrating his personal and spiritual loss.

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