The Eternal Moment, and Other Stories

A room controlled by switches becomes the setting for a dispute between a mother and son in E. M. Forster's opening story, The Machine Stops. Vashti accepts a life supplied and mediated by machinery; Kuno wants a visit in person and a view of the stars from the earth's surface. Their conversation gives this collection a concrete starting point for thinking about convenience, dependence and the limits of communication at a distance.

Written before 1914, these six stories combine science fiction and fantasy with questions about human connection and belief. In Mr. Andrews, two souls ascend toward heaven together, each initially certain of his own faith. Forster's preface also places his imaginative tales among English and Italian holiday scenes and possible futures. Readers interested in short fiction that turns an unusual premise into an argument about ordinary assumptions will find a varied collection, moving from mechanical comforts to expectations of the afterlife.