[Arctic Summer and Other Fiction contains] the remnants of Forster's unpublished or uncompleted novels and short stories…. All these pieces and fragments date from the earliest years of the author's activity, roughly from 1899 to 1914 and show him experimenting with themes and methods of presentation. (p. 94)

Prominent themes throughout the collection are those for which Forster later became well known as an adept in their handling—class differences; the friendship and affection between men, especially younger men; the contrast between two marked types of young men, namely, the 'aesthetic' and the 'conventional' or 'heroic' he-male. Only one of the shorter stories is overtly homosexual and that in a most bizarre and original way, a kind of weird attempt at sci-fi that somehow totally fails to convince at any level. Its chief interest is as a sign of the weakness of Forster's imagination when he strayed from the 'real' world of 'real' people….

Because all the fragments reproduced in this collection are very early experiments before he had fully developed his power as a writer there are many examples where his writing strikes a false note and appears artificial or strained. Perhaps this is most evident in Ralph and Tony, an essay in contrast between decadent weakness and manly vigour, where the writing sometimes becomes sentimental to the point of absurdity, especially in Ralph's hero-worshipping love for Tony. However, it was written in about 1903.

Some people might object to this publication of work that is more often than not below the high standard of Forster's best, but the editors point out that his reputation is high enough to stand up to this, and that Forster's own occasional scrawled comments on the manuscripts 'not bad', 'nice nonsense', show that he himself might not have been entirely averse to the publication. (p. 95)