A Room with a View

I remember being told once, never to give up reading a book until you've at least read 50 pages. I do try to follow that guideline and usually once I've read that far, I don't feel like I can abandon the characters in the book, so I just finish. In December I began reading "A Room with a View" by E.M. Forster. I read 90 something pages and stopped there. The beginning of the book was fine; the main character is a young woman who is on 'holiday' in Italy. I've always thought Italy would be a nice place to visit and have even taken a college course in Italian in my past life. I was excited when some of that knowledge helped with deciphering a few Italian words used in the book. However, my excitement wore off shortly after the main character leaves Italy and returns to England. I have always found the England described in books to be very drab and this book is no different. Being that I was reading this in December, a time when I look for ways to escape the gray of winter, I had no desire to enter it in a book.
As if that wasn't reason enough to stop reading, I have another. I have never enjoyed movies or books that are against my own moral beliefs. As I read more into this book, I realised that the whole reason the author had placed the character in Italy was for her to meet a man who was 'ill-bred' and portrayed as the "bad boy" (although he was in my opinion a gentleman and a nice guy), that way when she gets back to England and becomes engaged to a man of good breeding, the author has set the stage for what I'm going to call "the Titanic plot." I realize that this book was written well before the movie Titanic, but for me, it works. You see, many women loved the movie Titanic; I for one, did not. The reason I did not like it is that I feel like the movie glorified having an affair, with the condition that your husband or fiancee is not as exciting as the man you are having the affair with. So, what does this have to do with a "A Room with a View," I saw in it the same setup: Girl meets "bad boy" in Italy, girl is engaged to well-bred Brit in England, "bad-boy" from Italy moves into girl's neighborhood in England, well, I knew the rest of the story and just didn't want to go there.
I do believe that this book might have some merit as a social comedy, with the intent to evaluate the rigidity that was so prevalent in 20th century British society. I just couldn't bring myself to look beyond the moral thread to the social thread, eventhough that's why I began reading the book. So, my resolve for now. Avoid British novels in the winter and don't read books that can be the equivalent of chick-flicks.