If Dorian Gray is the dramatic, scandal-creating gay classic, than n  Mauricen is the snobbish yet emotionally moving gay classic. Written in 1913-14 but only published sixty years later, this is a book that is impressive - not because of its romance - but because of the character's personal journey towards self acceptance.

Began 1913, finished 1914. Dedicated to a happier year. With this heartbreaking opening statement, the story begins. We get to follow Maurice Hall as he grows up and starts to realize that he's attracted to men. This is not an easy realization: this story takes place, and was published, in England at the beginning of the 20th century. A time in which gay men (and women) are "nonsense!" or "get send to asylums, thank god!"

So this book is already unique for being so open and honest about (Maurice's) homosexual relationships. Despite knowing society's views, Maurice is certain of his love for his fellow student Clive Durham, a young man fan of the Classics like the story of Achilles & Patroclus. And while Clive and Maurice are a far cry from those Greek heroes - the English men are snobbish and have misogynistic tendencies - their love is treated with emotion and tenderness surprising for its time.

“He educated Maurice, or rather his spirit educated Maurice's spirit, for they themselves became equal. Neither thought "Am I led; am I leading?" Love had caught him out of triviality and Maurice out of bewilderment in order that two imperfect souls might touch perfection.”

Yet it is exactly this romance between Maurice and Clive (and Maurice and his future partner) that didn't convince me. The love between the first couple felt too intellectual and stiff - befitting for their characters - but it made me unable to ‘root’ for them. With the second couple, love became too serious too quickly; their love was more lust instead of true. I had some similar problems with the romance in A Room with a View: I felt for the characters, just not for their (not-existing) chemistry.

But who cares about romance when the author is able to make you feel for a snobbish gay prat? Maurice's struggle and ultimately acceptance of his own sexuality is very moving and remarkable; because as mentioned in the author's final words "it made this book harder to publish. If it ended unhappily, with a lad dangling from a noose or with a suicide pact, all would be well.” [page 220]

It's this bleak and grim reality - which echoes a bit in today's society - that proves all the more why people should read Maurice. Like my friend Lydia said in her review: “it makes me wonder what other books were written throughout history and never published, because they had a theme of same-sex love.”

Maurice is a book, among few others, where I’d like to not only share a select few quotes with you, but transcribe the whole story from start to finish. I’d also love to delve deep into the story behind the book, and its creator E. M. Forster. Maurice is “his story” in two senses of the term: firstly, it is a story that was born from his mind and his hand, and secondly, from his own experiences. 

He begins this book with the dedication: “Begun 1913, Finished 1914, Dedicated to a Happier Year.” Forster made arrangements to have it remain unpublished until after his death in 1970. At the time that he wrote this, homosexuality was illegal in England. A character from Maurice says at one point in the story, “England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.” Homosexuality was eventually legalized in 1967, just 3 years before Forsters death. Imagine waiting and wishing your whole life for your own country's acceptance, and getting it at age 88. Out of his 91 years of living, only 3 were ones of legal freedom. While reading about Maurice’s own internal struggle, I couldn’t help but feel that Forster was using Maurice as a way to give voice to his own private toil. “He had awoken too late for happiness, but not for strength, and could feel an austere joy, as of a warrior who is homeless but stands fully armed.”

Forster showed, in a heartbreaking yet beautiful way, how Society can influence people to the point of dishonesty. Forced to put up walls between their true self and who they think they should be. Leading to them not only betraying who they “love,” but betraying themselves. One of the characters askes the other, “After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?” 

At times Maurice being a “gentleman” seemed sexist, elitist, and proud. Yet, there comes a point when station, position, sex, and education don’t matter. That is the profound truth about love, it conquers all. “He educated Maurice’s spirit, for they themselves became equal. Neither thought ‘Am I led; am I leading?’ Love had caught him out of triviality and Maurice out of bewilderment in order that two imperfect souls might touch perfection.”

Being a novelist, Forster had a power that neither England, God, or anyone could tamper with. That is, he could give Maurice the life and ending that was never given to himself. He held the pen, he was Maurice’s creator, and being so meant that he was in control of his own character’s fate. Fiction warrants everything, all the author needs to do is write. “At times he entertained the dream. Two men can defy the world.”

E. M. Forster on writing the ending of Maurice:
“A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, Maurice and _____ still roam the greenwood.”

I really did like Maurice, (though maybe not quite 4* because of the ending); I liked the deft, airy and generous tone Forster has towards his characters, even when they’re behaving badly. But it’s a great shame the book wasn’t published any time before about 1950, when a story about homosexual love that didn’t end badly would still have been revolutionary. By the seventies, when it was, it had become unremarkable; more of an Edwardian period piece, though you still have to love the language.

Maurice is not a lovable or heroic character – Forster highlights his careless disdain and unintentional cruelty towards his mother and sisters – and he doesn’t really redeem himself when Clive says their affair is over – “self-centred” describes him well, like many of his class.
But he is still portrayed sympathetically, and Maurice captures well the utter loneliness of the loveless. Maurice himself thought he had a disease and was desperate enough to try being “cured” (even the word was unmentionable to him and he could say no more to his doctor than “he was like Oscar Wilde”). And then at Cambridge he met Clive.

In many ways, their relationship was not unlike male-female relationships of the time, but without a chaperone; it was an era where years of unconsummated longing were considered quite normal, after all – and it was completely acceptable for men to have close friendships with each other, far easier than with women. So the word, the act and the condition may have been unmentionable, but its practical realization certainly wasn’t.

But for me, the contrast in Maurice is not so much between hetero- and homosexual love, but between love across the class divide. It had become acceptable if rather avant-garde for affairs to bridge Clive’s upper class world and Maurice’s merchant class. But Maurice is seduced by Scudder, Clive’s servant - a man without even the privilege of owning his first name (Alec). Love between their world and the lower classes? That to Clive, who was able to “give up” his affair with Maurice and marry Anne, is incomprehensible.

Until very near the end it isn’t clear whether Maurice and Alec can overcome that divide. All that intensity packed into such a small book! (it is only 230 pages). But unfortunately I was quite unsatisfied by the actual ending  when they more or less walked off into the sunset. I know Forster wanted a happy ending but I was left feeling he had run out love or ideas for his own book at that point.

A coming of age story, Maurice tells us about a young man who is handsome and rich, but not sensitive . He is not attuned to the life of the mind or the heart, and is snobbish and cold to his mother, sisters, and servants. Conservative and conventional, Maurice goes through life barely alive.

He has an awakening at college and falls in love with Clive. He hardly seems to know what is happening and makes no move, until Clive does. Clive is brutally rejected. All of Maurice's conventional upbringing makes him act spontaneously with force and hard words to push Clive away. They later reconcile to love each other, but do not become lovers.

Here is where the book ventures into strange territory, Clive becomes heterosexual and doesn't want anything more to do with Maurice. Forster wrote this in 1914 and he didn't release it until 1971, when homosexuality was no longer considered criminal behavior in England. I don't know what he was trying to do with Clive's character, but it seems nonsense. If Clive had married to fulfill family obligations, but still was gay, it would make more sense to me, not this.

Maurice is suicidal now and though he thought he understood something about life and love is back where he began. He's actually in a worse place, having connected with one man, he now feels there is something really wrong with him, especially since Clive has gone straight and feels revulsion for Maurice. While there is life, there is still hope though, and Maurice triumphs in the end.

Se existem livros que um dia irei reler, este é sem dúvida um deles!
Acredito que daqui a 10 anos, a experiência desta leitura será ainda melhor!

Em Maurice, acompanhamos a descoberta sobre a homossexualidade, conflitos interiores e solidão, de um jovem inglês de boas famílias, que encontra o primeiro amor em Cambridge.

Forster escreve brilhantemente este romance, entre 1910 e 1913, mas que só veria a “luz do dia” em 1971, um ano depois da sua morte, pelos motivos mais óbvios.

Entre regras de classes sociais, política, misoginia e muita ignorância, Forster decide escrever uma história com final feliz. Melhor, uma história sobre homossexualidade nos anos 10’s, com final feliz!

Mas a surpresa veio quando cheguei ao fim do livro, e me deparei com as notas finais do autor, escritas em 1960. Que maravilha entender toda a perspectiva de Forster, como se no final estivéssemos a debater o livro num clube de leitura! Mas desta vez, era a opinião do autor ao seu próprio trabalho!

Lindo!
Aconselho mesmo que leiam esta obra maravilhosa!

3.5 stars - I think the part of this I most enjoyed of this book was the window into the social moires around gay love in the early 1900s that it provided as a type of primary source documentation. As a novel, I felt the motion of the story was a bit herky jerky (in a way I didn't experience with the previous 2 books I read from him?), so that dinged down my overall enjoyment of it as a book. That said, I'm so glad I read this, as I was so invested in poor sweet Maurice finding his way in a world that doesn't have room for him... in that respect, I was so glad that the story ended the way it did. I loved the "terminal note," as well, as it gave even more insight into Forster's artistic vision

listen that might be just my opinion but if a lgbt book from 1913 has a happy ending there is absolutely no excuse for gays dying in books in 2019

Forster dá-nos a conhecer o jovem Maurice Hall, inglês, de boas famílias e com um futuro brilhante pela frente que começa a ser traçado em Cambridge. Na universidade e, de certa forma, livre de repressões, acaba por criar algo mais que uma amizade com Clive Durham, também ele universitário e com uma vida em tudo semelhante à de Maurice. No entanto, enquanto um quer viver livremente o amor, outro já não vê isso com tão bons olhos.

Estamos no início do século XX e a homossexualidade é bastante atacada. E também por isso, a relação entre Maurice e Clive sofre uma reviravolta, o que também contribui para que o nosso protagonista se questione se a sua atração pelo sexo masculino será normal, inclusivamente tentando uma espécie de "cura".

O autor chega direto ao coração com uma escrita cuidada e belíssima. Tanto Maurice como Clive são personagens intricadas e que dá vontade de conhecer melhor, em especial o protagonista.

Foi o meu primeiro contacto com a escrita de Forster e foi uma delícia! Seria uma leitura para me acompanhar durante todo o mês, mas durou apenas 10 dias. Não conseguia parar e só queria saber se tudo terminava bem.

No final do livro, há uma nota final em que o autor fala do porquê de esta obra ter sido guardada durante tanto tempo antes de ver a luz do dia. Há também uma nota sobre a homossexualidade bastante interessante.

“I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.”

it's 1912 and E.M. Forster said I'm gonna write a book with a gay main character who falls in love with a bisexual man and end it happily and fuck the homophobes

From the author's note: "A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood."

"You do care a little for me, I know... but nothing to speak of, and you don't love me. I was yours once till death if you'd cared to keep me, but I'm someone else's now... and he's mine in a way that shocks you, but why don't you stop being shocked, and attend to your own happiness.”

A queer book written more than 100 years ago with a happy ending feels revolutionary and beautiful.

Maurice was a really interesting read. Most of the characters weren't likeable, including Maurice himself for much of the book, yet I got so overwhelmed and moved by Maurice's journey and development. Getting a look into society, and class differences within it, as well as attitudes to homosexuality at the time, and people who feel they don't belong in that society was fascinating and frustrating both.

Part 4 really tied the book together for me. I haven't read a lot of classics but this surely ranks as one of my favourites.

From E.M. Forster's notes at the end:

“A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn't have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense, [they] still roam the greenwood.”

“”You care for me a little bit, I do think,” he admitted, “but I can’t hang all my life on a little bit.””

"I was yours once till death if you'd cared to keep me..."

Reading this book was a unique experience, and I know this is said a lot about various different books but the truth is I have never read anything like this.

I went into this knowing certain spoilers, but the truth is they didn't spoil the book at all. I got so attached to the characters and the way that they interacted with each other that when the thing (the part I was 'spoiled' for) actually happened it sort of shocked me, and made me so much sadder than I'd thought it would.

I won't say that this book was too short, because it contained so much in just over 200 pages - conveyed so many emotions and messages - but I will say that I would gladly have spent 500 or more pages with Maurice.

The bottom line of this all is: Please read this.

Edit: Adding this to my favourites shelf because I had a very real desire to re-read it literally two days after I had finished it.