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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is a wonderful character study of three quite different men in a particular moment in English history. This is my first Forster and I found it incredibly lucid and self-aware for its time. The afterword by Forster detailing how he set up each character and how he designed them to be challenged was fascinating. He mentions that he made Clive twist into this uppity snob and that he enjoyed punishing him for it - I do enjoy hearing authors talk about their characters as living people.
The book itself is expertly crafted and very funny at times. The love story was really touching, particularly the first part where Clive and Maurice discover each other at Cambridge.
I loved it, I'm going to have to read all of his books now. Highly recommended.
Penge?
The book itself is expertly crafted and very funny at times. The love story was really touching, particularly the first part where Clive and Maurice discover each other at Cambridge.
I loved it, I'm going to have to read all of his books now. Highly recommended.
Penge?
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
9/7/2025: I love how much Forster cares about his characters and how affectionate the prose is to Maurice, all while making fun of him constantly. Which allows him to make fun of Maurice (and everyone else) even more deeply than he would be able to if he didn't love these characters so much in the first place. Love the afterword, I love when authors talk about writing 😌
oh Maurice… this movie is one of my favorites, although I admit after the first time, I just watch the first 30 minutes and pretend it ends there. I was so excited to read this and I feel like the fact that I started it in october and finished in may speaks for itself given how short it is. it was insufferable. I think this book singlehandedly killed my love for the movie. the two main characters are self described misogynists and are two of the biggest self-consumed d**che b*gs on the planet. I found all of it rather unbearable, so as far as i’m concerned: watch the first 30 minutes of the movie, then call it a day.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is one of those books I've been meaning to get to for a while, and I'm glad I finally did! In terms of the literary merit of the text I don't think it quite gets to five stars, mostly because it felt like there were some pacing issues, and Maurice himself is a less interesting character than Clive, who I'll talk about in a moment. I've got to check out some of Forster's more highly regarded works, because this was certainly good enough to pique my interest.
But, like, I was so enormously moved by this book, and it's hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't be, really. The fact that this was originally written in 1914, over 100 years ago, and thinking about the way the world was then, the way the world was in 1971 when the book was first published posthumously, and then the way the world is today? It's just... giving me all sorts of feelings. I really *felt* that this book was from a different time in a way that appeals to me a lot. Other depictions or suggestions of homosexuality in the British canon from around the same time period were always couched; they were innuendo, they were suggestions, and even if everyone "knew," nobody had technically "said."
So to read a book that was so frank and straightforward about Maurice being romantically and sexually attracted to men, and to see him actualize that attraction, to see him get as close to a happily ever after as would have been possible? Gosh, it's something really remarkable and it feels like such an important artifact of the moment.
There were things about this book that felt so counter to our current way of understanding and thinking about things, in a way that was enlightening: the class contempt that Maurice feels for the poor was shocking through a modern lens, but really illuminating. And then the way that Clive "becomes normal" was also so different to how we'd imagine that subject being talked about today. In the movie they lean much harder on the idea that Clive is scared and has decided to go through with a socially acceptable life, but in the book it's pretty explicitly stated that he no longer feels attraction for men and has learned to be attracted to women. The depiction of Clive is almost... like, asexual, or something? Because even the brief description we get of his sex life with his wife is very "we do it in the dark under the covers and that's all I want." Which is. Hmm. Interesting.
I loved the moment when Maurice realizes he can't be "cured" and just very frankly talks about how there have always been men like him, and they've always been persecuted. The book makes the case that it's all very natural. That's not to say that the progressive message is identical to how we might talk about it today, like, there's definitely still the sense that it's a disease or something "wrong", but there's the very sympathetic conclusion that people are going to be different and that's just human nature. It's so fascinating.
We don't get nearly as much time to know Alec, but I believe in the connection there with Maurice. The end of the book is this massive risk they're taking, but they're taking it together and they'll figure it out!
Clive is the stand-out most interesting part of the text to me, and I find it so interesting that he's given the final scene of the book, as Maurice slips away from him in the garden never to be seen again, and he's left to wonder over that final moment, wonder over the shape of a friendship that has ended without him meaning it to. He's the kind of person who can lie to himself so deeply that it becomes a truth, and in that framing, his continued friendship and efforts at being warm towards Maurice are quite lovely. That scene where he kisses Maurice's hand is like... somebody should study this man's brain. What the fuck.
Anyway, the movie is also quite good and it features the babiest-faced Hugh Grant you ever did see. Released at the height of the AIDS crisis to quite a bit of praise but also maybe a little bit of disquiet. I think it's worth watching.
But, like, I was so enormously moved by this book, and it's hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't be, really. The fact that this was originally written in 1914, over 100 years ago, and thinking about the way the world was then, the way the world was in 1971 when the book was first published posthumously, and then the way the world is today? It's just... giving me all sorts of feelings. I really *felt* that this book was from a different time in a way that appeals to me a lot. Other depictions or suggestions of homosexuality in the British canon from around the same time period were always couched; they were innuendo, they were suggestions, and even if everyone "knew," nobody had technically "said."
So to read a book that was so frank and straightforward about Maurice being romantically and sexually attracted to men, and to see him actualize that attraction, to see him get as close to a happily ever after as would have been possible? Gosh, it's something really remarkable and it feels like such an important artifact of the moment.
There were things about this book that felt so counter to our current way of understanding and thinking about things, in a way that was enlightening: the class contempt that Maurice feels for the poor was shocking through a modern lens, but really illuminating. And then the way that Clive "becomes normal" was also so different to how we'd imagine that subject being talked about today. In the movie they lean much harder on the idea that Clive is scared and has decided to go through with a socially acceptable life, but in the book it's pretty explicitly stated that he no longer feels attraction for men and has learned to be attracted to women. The depiction of Clive is almost... like, asexual, or something? Because even the brief description we get of his sex life with his wife is very "we do it in the dark under the covers and that's all I want." Which is. Hmm. Interesting.
I loved the moment when Maurice realizes he can't be "cured" and just very frankly talks about how there have always been men like him, and they've always been persecuted. The book makes the case that it's all very natural. That's not to say that the progressive message is identical to how we might talk about it today, like, there's definitely still the sense that it's a disease or something "wrong", but there's the very sympathetic conclusion that people are going to be different and that's just human nature. It's so fascinating.
We don't get nearly as much time to know Alec, but I believe in the connection there with Maurice. The end of the book is this massive risk they're taking, but they're taking it together and they'll figure it out!
Clive is the stand-out most interesting part of the text to me, and I find it so interesting that he's given the final scene of the book, as Maurice slips away from him in the garden never to be seen again, and he's left to wonder over that final moment, wonder over the shape of a friendship that has ended without him meaning it to. He's the kind of person who can lie to himself so deeply that it becomes a truth, and in that framing, his continued friendship and efforts at being warm towards Maurice are quite lovely. That scene where he kisses Maurice's hand is like... somebody should study this man's brain. What the fuck.
Anyway, the movie is also quite good and it features the babiest-faced Hugh Grant you ever did see. Released at the height of the AIDS crisis to quite a bit of praise but also maybe a little bit of disquiet. I think it's worth watching.
challenging
hopeful
reflective
slow-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
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I started this in October, read a chunk of it on the bus home from college and then promptly didn’t touch it until June when lockdown lifted. The language was a bit hard going at times and in the second half I found it dragged a lot (something that I also felt when watching the film so it was the story not the writing that I tired of). Overall my reading experience wasn’t great. I didn’t really enjoy reading it at all.
That being said, I am very glad I did read it. With the story behind it - written in 1914 and not published until 1971 after E. M. Forster’s death - it’s amazing that this book is in my hands at all. I probably won’t reread it in it’s entirety but I may dip in and out in the future.
That being said, I am very glad I did read it. With the story behind it - written in 1914 and not published until 1971 after E. M. Forster’s death - it’s amazing that this book is in my hands at all. I probably won’t reread it in it’s entirety but I may dip in and out in the future.