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A Room With a View full cast audiobook

by E. M. Forster

Released · Updated · 6h 53m · 25 voices

The story (no spoilers)

Lucy Honeychurch, a well-brought-up young Englishwoman, arrives in Florence in the early 1900s under the watchful eye of her anxious cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. Their rooms at the Pension Bertolini face the wrong way, and an offer to swap them comes from the blunt, freethinking Mr. Emerson and his brooding son George, a gesture Charlotte finds improper and refuses at once. Yet the encounter lingers. Among the pension's gossiping tourists, the novelist Eleanor Lavish, and the kindly clergyman Mr. Beebe, Lucy begins to feel the pull of a city that values passion and honesty over polite restraint. Back home at Windy Corner, in the quiet Surrey village of Summer Street, a respectable engagement to the refined, fastidious Cecil Vyse awaits. As Italy's light gives way to English drawing rooms, Lucy must decide whether to live by the rules she was taught or by what she has seen and felt for herself.

The cast

17 speaking roles are listed; walk-on parts are not. Each voice was designed, or chosen from our library of designed voices, to fit how the book describes the character, and it stays with them from the first chapter to the last. Portraits are illustrated impressions of each character.

  • Illustrated portrait of Lucy Honeychurch: about 18, chestnut brown, pinned up loosely with loose curls at the nape, a periwinkle-blue high-collared summer blouse

    Lucy Honeychurch

    Female, about nineteen years old, an English young gentlewoman from a comfortable Surrey family, travelling in Italy in 1908. She speaks with a refined Edwardian southern English accent, in a light, clear, slightly breathy soprano with a slender, youthful quality. Her pace is quick and eager, rising in excited bursts, and her tone is bright and earnest. She is impulsive, polite, a little nervous and easily moved.

  • Illustrated portrait of Miss Bartlett: about 40, mousy brown streaked with grey, severely parted and pinned back, a faded mauve high-necked dress with a cameo-style collar

    Miss Bartlett

    Female, about forty years old, an English spinster travelling in Italy in 1908, a genteel, dependent middle-class chaperone. She has a refined southern English accent and a thin, tight, mid-high, slightly nasal voice, often dropping to a whisper with her mouth barely open. She speaks in a fussy, hesitant, murmuring way, anxious, tactful, self-sacrificing and quietly put out.

  • Illustrated portrait of Arthur Beebe: about 38, sandy-fair, thinning at the temples, neatly combed, a black clerical coat with a plum-purple waistcoat visible at the neck

    Arthur Beebe

    Male, about forty-five years old, an English clergyman in Edwardian England in 1908, a comfortable middle-class country rector. He speaks with a clear, educated received pronunciation accent and a warm, full, mid-low baritone, stout and well fed. His pace is easy and unhurried, with a slightly clerical cadence, and his temperament is cheerful, sociable, tolerant and quietly amused.

  • Illustrated portrait of Cecil Vyse: about 28, pale flaxen blond, smoothly brushed back, a dove-grey frock coat with a burgundy silk cravat

    Cecil Vyse

    Male, about twenty-eight years old, an English gentleman of independent means in Edwardian London and Surrey in 1908, upper-class and cultivated. He speaks in a languid upper-class received pronunciation accent with a light, dry, slightly high tenor and a refined, thin build. He drawls slowly, with fastidious precision, and his temperament is critical, self-conscious, condescending and faintly weary.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mrs. Honeychurch: about 48, auburn going to grey, in a practical bun with a fringe, a teal-green tweed jacket over a cream blouse

    Mrs. Honeychurch

    Female, about forty-eight years old, an English widow living in a comfortable country house in Surrey in 1908, a prosperous middle-class gentlewoman. She speaks in a brisk southern English accent with a warm, firm, mid-low alto. Her pace is quick and chatty with direct, motherly bursts, and her temperament is practical, good-humoured, impatient with affectation and fond of her children.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mr. Emerson: about 68, thick white hair, tousled and swept back, a rumpled sage-green tweed jacket with an open soft collar

    Mr. Emerson

    Male, about seventy years old, an English retired journalist travelling in Italy in 1908, a plain-spoken middle-class freethinker. He speaks in a plain, unpolished southern English accent with a deep, gruff, heavy baritone from a large frame, slightly roughened by age. He speaks earnestly and carries loudly, then gently, and his temperament is blunt, kindly, childlike and sincere.

  • Illustrated portrait of George Emerson: about 24, dark brown, thick and unkempt, falling over the brow, a rust-orange knitted pullover under an open tweed jacket

    George Emerson

    Male, about twenty-six years old, an English railway clerk travelling in Italy in 1908, a modest middle-class young man. He speaks in a plain, understated southern English accent with a low, grave, quiet baritone from a big frame. He speaks slowly and sparely with long pauses, and his temperament is moody, sincere, world-weary and gentle.

  • Illustrated portrait of Freddy: about 17, ginger-red, cropped and untidy, a cobalt-blue school blazer with a loosened collar

    Freddy

    Male, about eighteen years old, Freddy, a cheerful country-house son in Surrey in 1908, middle-class, blunt and fond of teasing. He speaks with a casual Edwardian southern English accent. His voice is a light, bright, clear tenor, slim and quick. He speaks bluntly and breezily, quick and slangy, easily cross but good-humoured.

  • Illustrated portrait of Miss Lavish: about 42, bright hennaed red-brown, cut short and wispy under her hat, a saffron-yellow loose artistic jacket

    Miss Lavish

    Female, about thirty-eight years old, an English novelist and independent traveller in Florence in 1908, a bohemian middle-class writer. She speaks in an affected, educated southern English accent with a high, bright, squeaky soprano, short and fidgety. Her pace is quick and dramatic with sudden rising exclamations, and her temperament is playful, theatrical, original and a little nervous.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mr. Eager: about 45, glossy black, sleek and side-parted with grey at temples, a black clerical coat with a crisp white collar and an emerald-green stole

    Mr. Eager

    Male, about forty-two years old, an English chaplain to the expatriate church in Florence in 1908, a snobbish middle-class clergyman. He speaks in a precise, plummy Oxford received pronunciation accent with a cool, thin, nasal tenor. His pace is measured and lecturing, with a frigid, faintly petulant edge, and his temperament is self-important, repressive and condescending.

  • Illustrated portrait of Miss Alan: about 70, white, fine and curled in soft waves under a cap, a lavender wool shawl over a grey-blue dress

    Miss Alan

    Female, about seventy-two years old, an English retired gentlewoman living in a Florentine pension in 1908, a genteel, modestly off spinster. She speaks in a soft, old-fashioned southern English accent with a thin, quavering, high voice. Her pace is twittering and breathless, with plaintive rising phrases, and her temperament is charitable, gossipy, timid and easily scandalised.

  • Illustrated portrait of Sir Harry Otway: about 55, silver-grey, thin and swept straight back, a faded heather-blue tweed jacket with a maroon tie

    Sir Harry Otway

    Male, about fifty-five years old, an English baronet and landowner in Surrey in 1908, an upper-class country gentleman. He speaks in a gentle upper-class received pronunciation accent with a reedy, mid-high, slightly husky voice. His pace is hesitant and fussy, often dropping to a confiding murmur, and his temperament is worried, polite, anxious and soft-hearted.

  • Illustrated portrait of Minnie Beebe: about 13, flaxen blond, in two long plaits tied with ribbon, a sailor-collared coral-pink dress

    Minnie Beebe

    A thirteen-year-old English girl, a rectory niece in the 1900s, with a clear Edwardian southern English accent. Her voice is fairly high-pitched, high bright, with earnest, insistent energy. She is well-mannered, opinionated.

  • Illustrated portrait of Phaethon: about 20, curly jet-black, unruly, a scarlet neckerchief on a white open-necked shirt

    Phaethon

    Male, about twenty-two years old, an Italian carriage driver in the hills above Florence in 1908, a working-class cabman. He speaks with a strong Tuscan Italian accent in English, in a bright, ringing, fiery tenor. His pace is quick, musical and sing-song, often crooning, and his temperament is carefree, cheerful, flirtatious and full of fire.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mrs. Vyse: about 55, steel-grey, elaborately coiffed and waved, a deep sapphire-blue silk dress with a lace jabot

    Mrs. Vyse

    Female, about fifty-five years old, an English society widow in London in 1908, a wealthy upper-class matron. She speaks in a cool, clipped upper-class received pronunciation accent with a low, dry, smooth contralto. Her pace is slow and murmuring, with a languid superior air, and her temperament is snobbish, decided, subtly disapproving and complacent.

  • Illustrated portrait of Miss Teresa: about 72, iron-grey, scraped back under a black lace cap, a dark crimson woollen shawl

    Miss Teresa

    Female, about seventy-five years old, an English retired gentlewoman living in a Florentine pension in 1908, a genteel spinster. She speaks in a crisp, old-fashioned southern English accent with a dry, reedy, slightly lower voice than her sister. Her pace is brisk and pointed, with a sharp, polite curiosity, and her temperament is acute, a little unkind and watchful.

  • Illustrated portrait of Mr. Flack: about 50, balding on top with a ring of sandy-ginger hair, a checked brown-and-tan tweed suit with a yellow waistcoat

    Mr. Flack

    Male, about fifty years old, an English prosperous villa owner in Surrey in 1908, a self-made middle-class businessman. He speaks in a brisk, slightly nasal Home Counties accent with a mid-range, firm, dry baritone. His pace is brisk and matter-of-fact, proud of his handiwork, and his temperament is practical, self-satisfied and sociable.

Chapters

20 chapter markers; each link opens the video on YouTube at that point.

  1. Part 1, Chapter 1: The Bertolini
  2. Part 1, Chapter 2: In Santa Croce with No Baedeker
  3. Part 1, Chapter 3: Music, Violets, and the Letter “S”
  4. Part 1, Chapter 4
  5. Part 1, Chapter 5: Possibilities of a Pleasant Outing
  6. Part 1, Chapter 6
  7. Part 1, Chapter 7: They Return
  8. Part 2, Chapter 8: Medieval
  9. Part 2, Chapter 9: Lucy As a Work of Art
  10. Part 2, Chapter 10: Cecil as a Humourist
  11. Part 2, Chapter 11: In Mrs. Vyse’s Well-Appointed Flat
  12. Part 2, Chapter 12
  13. Part 2, Chapter 13: How Miss Bartlett’s Boiler Was So Tiresome
  14. Part 2, Chapter 14: How Lucy Faced the External Situation Bravely
  15. Part 2, Chapter 15: The Disaster Within
  16. Part 2, Chapter 16: Lying to George
  17. Part 2, Chapter 17: Lying to Cecil
  18. Part 2, Chapter 18: Lying to Mr. Beebe, Mrs. Honeychurch, Freddy, and The Servants
  19. Part 2, Chapter 19: Lying to Mr. Emerson
  20. Part 2, Chapter 20: The End of the Middle Ages

About this recording

Narrator
Vera Wynn, our house narrator voice
Runtime
6h 53m (complete and unabridged)
Voices
25
Channel
Cozy Audiobooks on YouTube
Released
Updated
Author
E. M. Forster
First published
1908
Kind
romance novel
Source edition
Project Gutenberg eBook #2641
Public domain (US)
A Room With a View (1908) by E. M. Forster is in the public domain in the United States; text from Project Gutenberg.