Where Angels Fear to Tread

'Where Angels Fear to Tread' (1905) is a novel by English author E.M. Forster. The work was Forster's first novel, and its success helped launch his lengthy and critically acclaimed career as a writer of literary fiction. The title is drawn from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (1711)-is a moving meditation on class, gender, social convention, and the grieving process. When the young English widow Lilia Herriton takes off on the grand tour and along the way marries a penniless Italian, her in-laws are far from amused. That the marriage should fail and poor Lilia die tragically are only to be expected. But that Lilia should have had a baby and that the baby should be raised as an Italian are matters requiring immediate correction by Philip Herriton, his dour sister Harriet, and their well-meaning friend Miss Abbott. It is a novel that traces the consequences of selfish decisions, the politics of family life, and the social conventions which hold women prisoner to those who claim to support them.