Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) is E. M. Forster's debut novel. When widowed Lilia Herriton travels to Tuscany and scandalously marries the charming young Italian Gino Carella, her respectable English family in Sawston is outraged. After Lilia dies in childbirth, the Herritons send Philip to Italy to rescue her infant son from his "unsuitable" father. Philip, accompanied by the sympathetic Caroline Abbott, becomes entangled in unexpected affection and cultural conflict. Tragedy strikes when an attempt to kidnap the child ends in death. A sharp comedy of manners, the novel contrasts English middle-class repression with Italian passion and vitality.
