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After Forster had written A Passage to India in 1924, he would never write another novel. He engaged in literary criticism and writing politocal essays. In 1927, he was invited to deliver the “Clark Lectures” at Cambridge's Trinity College. Result was an in-depth analysis of the basis of novels. These lectures were published as Aspects of the Novel.
The book is divided into seven chapters. Forster deals with the founding elements of narrative texts: story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern and rhythm. Forster uses some new ideas. First, he does not deliver a historical treatise on literature. Second, traditionally strong notions concerning literary criticism, as e.g. point of view, do not play an important part in his Aspects of the Novel. And, finally, he introduces completely new terms, as e.g. flat and round character. These points made the text an innovation at the time when it was published, and even today Forster's views form an important part of literary analysis. (h.z.)
  Maar, Michael. "Handwerker im Schloss." Literaturen Jan.-Feb. 2002: 91.
A short essay about Forster's Apects of the Novel in contrast to David Lodge's The Art of Fiction (to be viewed with  Adobe's Acrobat Reader). This essay is presented here by courtesy of Literaturen.
Resources
Book
Aspects of the Novel at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.
Please refer to the websites of Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com to find other editions of this book.
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