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Maurice: A Novel Paperback – December 17, 2005
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"The work of an exceptional artist working close to the peak of his powers." ―Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times
Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and into his father's firm. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way―except that he is homosexual.
Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time in its theme and in its affirmation that love between men can be happy. "Happiness," Forster wrote, "is its keynote.…In Maurice I tried to create a character who was completely unlike myself or what I supposed myself to be: someone handsome, healthy, bodily attractive, mentally torpid, not a bad businessman and rather a snob. Into this mixture I dropped an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him."
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateDecember 17, 2005
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
- ISBN-100393310329
- ISBN-13978-0393310320
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- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reissue edition (December 17, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393310329
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393310320
- Item Weight : 7.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #50,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #548 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #1,890 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #4,248 in Literary Fiction (Books)
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Although not published until after E.M. Forster’s death in 1970, Maurice was written immediately after Howard’s End during the years of 1913 and 1914. Forster follows an adolescent Maurice Hall though public school, Cambridge, and the great love affair that transitions him into adult life.
Maurice is an enchantment. A powerful tour de force that challenges the assumptions in which Forster’s highly structured society placed all of their spiritual faith and scientific belief. Although set in an England where, according to Forster, “it was still possible to get lost,” its relevancy to our time and the battle we continue to fight is shocking. The construction of the story, the depth of the main characters, and the sweeping tides of fire that move beneath the still poetry of Forster’s words at once bring you to your feet and drive you to tears.
I am currently in the throes of a paper on Forster. In the last six months I have read through his body of work and live in awe of his irrevocable genius and capacity as a human being. He is a man who loved England, mourned the loss of the “greenwood,” and evoked its memory in the inky realms of its written descendants. In his intelligence and commentary on society, he is an extension of Austen. He is a unique voice that understands, communicates, and ponders the morphing identity of Britain.
Maurice and Clive are psychologies of epic proportion. Their experiences, both together and separate, move the novel forward, one minute gliding smoothly along and the next spiking off course with ferocity. They balance each other so well in growth and magnitude that when they break apart the reader is just as crushed and confused as Maurice. The internal and external restrictions they face are battled with developing self-awareness and an imbedded rejection that Maurice overcomes with the presence of Alec. At the end, Clive remains within the world that he has placed himself in, with a wife and social standing, while Maurice is set free, saved from a life that threatened to entrap him. Even Alec, who is not introduced into the novel until the beginning of the close, is properly flushed out and hints at an individual that at once resonates with the raw reality of earthly beings, while bearing transcendent qualities of the poet’s muse.
At its core, Maurice is a gorgeous tale of the homosexual man’s journey towards identity and companionship. It is also a giant middle finger towards all of the people who promised Forster that homosexuality was a disease, an illness, a crime. It continues to be a middle finger towards all of those bigots that still believe such notions and poison the minds of our children with their discrimination and zealotry. Forster does not punish Maurice. Far from it. Instead, Maurice is rewarded, gifted with the love of another and the love of himself, finding clarity in self-recognition. It is this grand gesture and the author’s notes at the end that give us hope for the future.
It is Clive whose fate is tragic and, at the end of the novel, Maurice states, “I was yours once till death if you’d cared to keep me, but I’m someone else’s now – I can’t hang about whining for ever – and he’s mine in a way that shocks you, but why don’t you stop being shocked, and attend to your own happiness?”
Forster, E.M.Maurice: A Novel.New York:W.W.Norton, 1993.
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Everybody thought that the story - even though it was written in 1913 - reflected very modern feelings about being gay and coming out. It mirrored a number of our coming out stories in college. We discussed the very strict class distinctions and how it affects both Maurice and Clive, and then Maurice and Alec. We considered the possibility that Maurice could follow Alec to The Argentine, but decided that the class ties couldn't be broken this way. We also discussed what might have happened to Maurice and Alec after the novel ends. (This is very "Downton Abbey.")
Forster writes people and characters very well. He doesn't describe places and environments as well. We did think that the women's roles, however, were week. Maurice's sister Kitty is only lightly drawn and Clive's mother is conspicuously shallow. Only Clive's wife, Anne, seems slightly interested and interesting in her very Victorian, very well dressed sexless marriage.
We discussed two of our favorite scenes: Maurice and Clive ride off to the country together on a motorcycle to spend the afternoon in a way that would never be re-created. Maurice and Alec meet in the British Museum and are confronted by all of history and their new-found emotion.
While we all understood the visit to the hypnotist (and the emerging Freudian world that was emerging at this exact time), we questioned Maurice's appearance in the open window at night, mystically calling to Alec. This might have seemed out of place, but we were reminded of Maurice's grandfather who had mystic theories about the sun, which were somehow transferred to Maurice.
We discussed why Forster was compelled to write such a novel, even though he knew he couldn't publish it and the comparisons to his life. Richard (thanks for your research!) discovered a discussion of Forster's diaries (entitled "Poor Dear, How She Figures") written by Alan Hollinghurst in the London Review of Books. This explains much of Forster's relationship with his mother and women, and describes the world in which "Maurice" was written.
I also uncovered the Andrew Holleran review in the Gay & Lesbian review (entitled "The Last Englishman") of the Forster biography, which describes Forster's attraction to the lower classes and more about his novels.
While written 100 years ago, "Maurice" has not aged much and still seems relevant, almost more than the James Baldwin "Giovanni's Room," (which we read in the group several months ago) which was written 40 years later and seems much more of the period when it was written.
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Reviewed in Spain on April 9, 2023








