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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
'I've missed two lectures already,' remarked Maurice, who was breakfasting in his pyjamas.
What a mood, honestly.
I finally sit down to gather my thoughts on this novel. There's many things I'd like to discuss, but since my procrastination in 'reviewing' this book has reached frightening heights I won't bother with everything. I've noted a few parts I found amusing so I'll just lay them down for the prospective reader to decide whether or not 'Maurice' is worth their time or not; spoiler alert: it is! ( in my opinion).
I picked this up together with A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. Two gay lit classics, as assumed to be by many. This one though carries a bit more significance, considering the time it was written. 'Maurice' was published posthumously, as per the author's request, as during the time it was written (1914) 'three-quarters of homosexual men and women had never read a book dealing with homosexuality' (quote taken by the Introduction).
I'm a bit ashamed to say I have not delved too deep into the history of lgbt literature, so I was surprised to find an old book both dealing with gay people and having them as its focus. As most gay stories I've come across, there is a lot of sadness and anxiety at some parts, but they aren't overwhelming. Also, spoiler but
Spoiler
I was so pleased with the ending in this. I'm sick and tired of gay people having a miserable ending in film and literature, so this well-made and satisfying endingI want to be clear about another thing, which is, besides the lgbt topic, this is a good book all around too. Maurice's character is fun and interesting to read and the story itself is good in a way that there were points when I couldn't stop reading. It covers coming-of-age, youth, disillusionment, introversion, gay awakening, conservatism. It's an experience.
Once inside college, his discoveries multiplied. People turned out to be alive. Hitherto he had supposed that they were what he pretended to be—flat pieces of cardboard stamped with a conventional design—but as he strolled about the courts at night and saw through the windows some men singing and others arguing and others at their books, there came by no process of reason a conviction that they were human beings with feelings akin to his own.
Later on, life seems painful and pointless. I won't discuss the plot, there's excerpts that can be quoted without spoiling anything.
There was something better in life than this rubbish, if only he could get to it—love—nobility—big spaces where passion clasped peace, spaces no science could reach, but they existed for ever, full of woods some of them, and arched with majestic sky and a friend.
[...] there always have been people like me and always will be, and generally they have been persecuted.
Forster was very adamant on the nature of the ending, and reading his notes I wholeheartedly agreed both with the ending and his way of explaining. In general, his notes are well-worth perusing, which isn't something I typically do. I resort to introductions and the like only if I find myself at an absolute loss over the book and what it's trying to do. In this case I was just curious and it paid well.
What else can I say without spoiling this? It's lovely and sad in equal parts. I went through my bookmarks and I'm this close to re-reading this...
They must live outside class, without relations or money; they must work and stick to each other till death. But England belonged to them. That, besides companionship, was their reward. Her air and sky were theirs, not the timorous millions' who own stuffy little boxes, but never their own souls.
