Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiance Cecil Vyse.

Edward Morgan Forster was born in London in 1879. A pacifist and conscientious objector during the First World War, he volunteered instead for the International Red Cross, which took him to Alexandria. During his lifetime he travelled through Europe, Egypt and India, wrote six novels, two volumes of short stories, two collections of essays, two biographies and a libretto for Britten's opera Billy Budd, declined a knighthood, was made a member of the Order of Merit, and died at the age of ninety-one.

Where Angels Fear to Tread and Howards End are also published in the Penguin English Library.