Reviews - Maurice | The StoryGraph

4.09k reviews for:

Maurice

E.M. Forster

4.08 AVERAGE

amurray's review against another edition

4.0

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

isaacblevins's review against another edition

4.0

Though it has sat upon my shelf for years - it wasn't until my Kindle needed charging that I reached for E.M. Forester's novel Maurice. Once I began reading, I couldn't help but remember reviews I had read that said that while the novel was groundbreaking for the time in which it was written, it now read as little more than a pot-boiler or melodrama. Now that I've finished the book - I'm not sure that I agree.
The novel tells the story of two love affairs which end in wildly different ways for the protagonist. Forester's prose is good; his descrpitions of the guilt and pleasures that come from secret love are particularly strong. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as Forester himself had some experience of the emotions that Maurice feels. What really shocked me was the ending. I knew that the story didn't end in tragedy the same way that most stories about homesexuality ended until the early 1990's. What I didn't expect was the sheer triumph over self-denial and shame that Maurice exhibits in the final chapter. This isn't simply a happy ending - it's a shout of defiance and victory that came long, long before it's time.

dkwaye's review against another edition

4.0

emotional fast-paced

itwasthetwinbrother's review against another edition

5.0

reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

god i love this book so much

dedicated to a happier year :(

rachhhhhk's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

18ck's review against another edition

4.0

It's easy to forget today, when publishers are practically firing romance about gay teenagers into our front room windows with trebuchets that there was a time, not that long ago, when a man confessing love for another man was a matter for public shame and criminality. This book was written a little over a hundred years ago and published a little later, so you can feel the hand of the law close to the necks of not only the characters but if the author, who was risking prosecution just for not having the protagonist come to a bad end.
Weird to us now of course. What the fuck were people thinking back then? But that's how it was, and that's how it still is in a lot of places.
It's a really well-told story, full of drama but with that added pressure-cooker element of societal disapproval. It's much better than Lady Chatterley's lover which is a similar vintage and deals with similar taboo-breaking (an illicit relationship between people of different classes) but is a bit cringey.