Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread is a 1905 novel by E. M. Forster. The title comes from a line in Alexander Pope's poem An Essay on Criticism: "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread". The BBC adapted the novel for television in 1966 as a Play of the Month. In 1991 it was made into a film by Charles Sturridge, starring Rupert Graves, Giovanni Guidelli, Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter, and Judy Davis.[1] A ten-part radio adaptation of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4.An opera based on the novel by Mark Weiser was premiered at the Peabody Institute of Music in 1999, and received its professional premiere at Opera San Jose in 2015. Soon after the widowed Lilia Herriton arrives at the dusty Tuscan town of Monteriano with her friend Caroline Abbott, she falls in love with Gino Carella, a handsome-and younger-man. When her overbearing in-laws hear of the engagement, they panic, believing a marriage like that would dishonor their family and the memory of Lilia's late husband and their child.Lilia's brother-in-law, Philip Herriton, rushes to Italy to stop the marriage and "rescue" Lilia from Gino. He soon discovers that he's too late, and that they've already married. Their impulsive decision will have major consequences-not just for the couple itself, but also for Caroline, Philip, and everyone else in their orbit.Forster was just twenty-six in 1905 when Where Angels Fear to Tread, his first novel, was published. In a contemporary review, The Manchester Guardian called it "almost startlingly original" in its setting and the treatment of its motive, but also wondered if Forster could "could be a little more charitable" in future works. In 1991 it was made into a movie starring Helen Mirren, Helena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis, and Rubert Graves.