Where Angels Fear to Tread

by E. M. Forster

First published 1905

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3.8(1,249)

Recently widowed Lilia Herriton travels to Italy with the encouragement of her English in-laws, who hope the journey will improve her spirits without loosening their control. In the Tuscan town of Monteriano she marries the much younger Gino Carella, shocking the Herritons and challenging their assumptions about class, nationality and respectability.

After Lilia's death, members of the English family return to Italy intending to take custody of her infant son. Their intervention turns cultural arrogance and family rivalry into tragedy, while Philip Herriton and Caroline Abbott are forced to recognise the emotional limits of the respectable values they have brought with them.