Where Angels Fear to Tread

E. M. Forsters first novel explores the comic and tragic effects of culture clash between insular, provincial British personalities and sensual Italian culture and atmosphere. Lilia Herriton, an impulsive thirty-three-year-old widow from London, travels to Tuscany, where she falls in love with both Italy and the handsome, carefree Gino Carella, a dentists son twelve years her junior. When news reaches the snobbish Herriton family that Lilia intends to marry again, this time to an unsuitable Italian, the domineering Mrs. Herriton sends her son, Philip, to prevent the catastrophebut he arrives too late. When tragedy strikes, the Herriton family decides to bring Lilias infant son to England to be brought up properlybut not everyone is satisfied with the situation.