Maurice: A Novel
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."
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Community Reviews
I love Forster's novels - Howards End and Passage to India are two of my favorites. I had never got around to Maurice because I was so busy with grad school reading, etc, and I'd heard Maurice just wasn't up to the level of Forster's best. Most of the discussion of the novel talked about its publication history - having been written in 1914 but left unpublished until after Forster's death in 1971 - or its historical importance as a document of what it was like to be gay at the time. But the novel itself, as a reading experience and artistic object, was often seen as lesser, flawed.
That is mostly true. The novel doesn't have those startling moments of insight that you get in HE. Or the sort of mysticism you get in HE or PtI. There are hints of those things, but only hints. He spends comparatively more time just describing the inner states of the characters, which may appeal to some. But that's not what I go to Forster for. And it's not like the story doesn't afford opportunities for his usual narrator digressions.
The novel also has a happy ending that feels a little bit forced. Of course, in HE the ending is almost spiritually pre-ordained and comically so. But here the subject matter having such a historical grounding made the ending feel a little misrepresentative. Just look at what happened to Alan Turing, and that was decades later. And he was a war hero. But the bigots still made sure he couldn't lead a happy life.
Unfortunately, this novel also shared a trait with The Longest Journey - unclear syntax and diction in significant chunks. In this case, it was almost always down to the use of slang and the sort of loose grammatical constructions that make tons of sense if you're reading the book in 1914 or even more if you're having a conversation with someone you know in 1914, but which for a contemporary read are just obscure. I ran into a paragraph like this, on average, about every 15 pages or so. Enough to where it got in the way of understanding precisely what was happening or what was being said. And the book, which I think is the only edition available, has no footnotes or endnotes.
But at the end of the day, it was still a moving story - well-constructed, all too believable, all too real. It's a good example of why the people who want to go back to this sort of a society need to be stopped - I don't care what good they think are doing or defending. What they want to put other totally innocent people through is evil. It is unempathetic. Unchristian. A relic of a barbarous and ignorant time best left in the dustbin of history.
That is mostly true. The novel doesn't have those startling moments of insight that you get in HE. Or the sort of mysticism you get in HE or PtI. There are hints of those things, but only hints. He spends comparatively more time just describing the inner states of the characters, which may appeal to some. But that's not what I go to Forster for. And it's not like the story doesn't afford opportunities for his usual narrator digressions.
The novel also has a happy ending that feels a little bit forced. Of course, in HE the ending is almost spiritually pre-ordained and comically so. But here the subject matter having such a historical grounding made the ending feel a little misrepresentative. Just look at what happened to Alan Turing, and that was decades later. And he was a war hero. But the bigots still made sure he couldn't lead a happy life.
Unfortunately, this novel also shared a trait with The Longest Journey - unclear syntax and diction in significant chunks. In this case, it was almost always down to the use of slang and the sort of loose grammatical constructions that make tons of sense if you're reading the book in 1914 or even more if you're having a conversation with someone you know in 1914, but which for a contemporary read are just obscure. I ran into a paragraph like this, on average, about every 15 pages or so. Enough to where it got in the way of understanding precisely what was happening or what was being said. And the book, which I think is the only edition available, has no footnotes or endnotes.
But at the end of the day, it was still a moving story - well-constructed, all too believable, all too real. It's a good example of why the people who want to go back to this sort of a society need to be stopped - I don't care what good they think are doing or defending. What they want to put other totally innocent people through is evil. It is unempathetic. Unchristian. A relic of a barbarous and ignorant time best left in the dustbin of history.
This was so good — read it! ❤️
I ended up binge-reading this for my book club right after telling the leader I’d be pretty MIA this year because of my intense curriculum… and then, of course, this book got voted in as our first pick. So I had to read it. I’ve actually had it on my TBR since I was younger and just never got around to it.
I’m glad I finally picked it up after reading Virginia Woolf, because being eased into that older style through Orlando made this flow so much better for me. (I had to pause Orlando for this, but I’m almost done and loving it!)
This is definitely a book I’ll reread—I want to catch all the little details I probably missed while speed-reading. I only reread books I really enjoy… so yeah, it’s good. 😂
I’ll come back and write a more detailed review later this once I do that reread. Even just from what I caught this first time (which was actually a lot), it gave me similar vibes to other gay-relationship stories I’ve read, in the best way. It also surprised me by giving me a ton of inspiration for my own novel. I didn’t expect that going in—maybe because I purposely avoided knowing too much about it beforehand, something I tend to do when I know I want to experience a book fresh.
REREAD IN 2024:
No matter what valid criticisms I read/have about this book (biggest one probably being: what exactly prompts Clive to faint in that moment? also: I think they happily self describe as misogynists?), this book will always mean so much to me. The endnote always makes me so emotional. The note about the Wolfenden report? :( Tears. And the last scene is so good. GAH!! It's not just the book itself, it's everything it represents that really gets me. A happier year indeed
No matter what valid criticisms I read/have about this book (biggest one probably being: what exactly prompts Clive to faint in that moment? also: I think they happily self describe as misogynists?), this book will always mean so much to me. The endnote always makes me so emotional. The note about the Wolfenden report? :( Tears. And the last scene is so good. GAH!! It's not just the book itself, it's everything it represents that really gets me. A happier year indeed
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