25-In-Person-E.M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread: The Wars We Fight with Those Closest to Us
Fall or Spring Course | Registration opens 1/5/2026 6:00 AM EST
E. M. Forster (A Passage to India, Howard's End) focused his first novel, Where Angels Fear to Tread, on the wars we fight, often with those closest to us: wars between parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. But the novel also offers moments of profound, sacramental grace. Set in backgrounds of a posh, small English town and a stunning Tuscan hilltop village, and within the space of under 200 pages, Forster's novel reinvents itself three times and surprises readers with complex insight into the human capacity for hypocrisy, cruelty, and sacrificial love. The story unfolds in San Gimignano, the novel’s Italian setting—a place whose striking beauty heightens both the comedy and tragedy of the narrative. This is a novel readers will want to revisit and a landscape that invites exploration long after the final page.
Required text: Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster. Vintage ISBN: 978-0679736349. This is available in the Calvin University Campus Store or online.
Dean Ward taught literature and writing at Calvin for 30 years, and Where Angels Fear to Tread was among the novels he frequently taught. He has also taught courses for CALL, including The Novels of Edwidge Danticat and Murder Mysteries. His recent visit to San Gimignano, the novel’s Italian setting, gives him fresh insight—and photos—to share with participants.
Dean Ward
Dean Ward, leader, is professor of English emeritus from Calvin University after 30 years of instruction. He never intended to teach English, rather he received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wheaton College and worked three years in a biochemistry lab before pursuing his PhD in English at the University of Virginia. Ward still enjoys thinking across disciplines and often tells his students that God doesn’t waste the things you go through.