Reviews with content warning for Classism - Maurice

I've been meaning to read this book for so long and, for one reason or another, I kept postponing it but what a mistake, I really really loved it! It was not an easy read emotionally, the characters go through a lot and are not always likeable but it is a very engaging narrative and it makes you feel deeply. Also, the final payoff is so worth the very bumpy road to get there, bless you E.M. Forster.
Maurice's final speech to Clive was just *chief's kiss*, so so satisfying, I was in the background cheering him on and screaming "You tell him, you tell him!".

The prose was so rich and impactful, I've just finished reading it and I can't wait
to immerse myself in it again in the future.

His journey was nearly over. He was bound for his new home. He had brought out the man in Alec, and now it was Alec’s turn to bring out the hero in him. He knew what the call was, and what his answer must be. 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.

The novel had already been a roller coaster of emotions and then came the author's terminal word and I have to say he finished me off for good, but what a lovely way to go, what a lovely way! I hope we will come to an even kinder year.

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. I dedicated it ‘To a Happier Year’ and not altogether vainly.

And in my experience though loyalty cannot be counted on it can always be hoped for and be worked towards and may flourish in the most unlikely soil.

Content Warnings

ghostcheerio's review

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emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

bill369's review against another edition

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challenging reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I read this book for the Classics Reading Challenge and enjoyed it!

In the book, I didn't like any characters but in the movie, I did like Maurice's sisters. They were quite charming and stuck together. At least that's how I see it. I wouldn't say the characters are unlikable however they aren't very likeable either.

One of the first books with the homosexual theme and a happy ending. For its time it surely was revolutionary however because of its age there is a little nonsense regarding Clive's „recovery“. I like the way the story's written. The depth of the internal monologue makes the book quite arresting and only thanks to it I could understand the film in which it is quite hard to capture the part of the book happening in the character's mind.

Page 19, the average bliss.

The school clapped not because Maurice was eminent but
because he was average. It could celebrate itself in his image.

Page 135, the supreme achievement of humanity.

Yet he was doing a fine thing—proving on how little the soul can exist. Fed neither by Heaven nor by Earth
he was going forward, a lamp that would have blown out, were materialism true. He hadn't a God, he hadn't
a lover—the two usual incentives to virtue. But on he struggled with his back to ease, because dignity
demanded it. There was no one to watch him,
nor did he watch himself, but struggles like his are the supreme achievements of humanity, and surpass any
legends about Heaven.

I'm satisfied the story ended the way it did.

Forster is a well-known author and I'm glad I educated myself and read one of his novels. In the future, I plan to read some of his other works too. It didn't make a strong impression on me but it was well-written.

Content Warnings

miamcmillan's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

very beautiful for its time; i think the authors note at the back put a lot of it into perspective and rounded off the novel nicely. i loved the concentration on a ‘happy ending’ for maurice and alec from forster, but clive just randomly turning straight one day was just so odd. the romance between alec and maurice also felt rushed and i found myself not enjoying the novel as much the further i got into it, but it was still good and an interesting look at maurice as a character. i get what forster means by the whole thing being peculiarly english - i honestly think if i had the effort a comparison to the atmosphere of the remains of the day would be really interesting just to examine that decaying time period. there were a few lines in the novel that were just breathtaking and as a product of its time it was very lovely to read.

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prrttyodd's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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mmefish's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Hall was a man who only liked women—one could tell that at a glance.

“Maurice” is a sweet book that touches on topics such as identity, love, religion and class. It’s a shame that it couldn’t be/wasn’t published earlier, since I think it would tremendously help other men struggling with their sexuality in 1920s.

“To make the most of what I have.” Not to crush it down, not vainly to wish that it was something else, but to cultivate it in such ways as will not vex either God or Man.

Even though I struggled a little bit with the writing (outdated British slang maybe?), the realistic portrayal of the characters made it worth it.

‘After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?’

Content Warnings

michelangelo1987's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is sooo beautifully written. every emotion the mc has is accurately conveyed through the writing. since english is not my first language, i’ve always had the fear of not understanding books that were written so long ago but this wasn’t as snobby as i expected it to be. tbh it wasn’t complicated nor simple it was just cleverly written in an in-between. as for the actual story, as devastating as it was, i’m glad it developed the way it did. the messy process of heartbreak and self-doubt and shame was so hard to read and definitely heart-wrenching and it’s exacerbated once you realize that this was the 1910s meaning that if you were queer, finding someone like you and who you liked must have been excruciatingly difficult and a heartbreak must have felt 10 times worse. it also meant having to deal with the shame, disgust, and sense of wrongdoing inflicted upon you by society. and none of this was easy. and more so if you take into account there was almost no source of information you could get to realize you weren’t actually wrong. you weren’t damned. also there was no representation out there for you to see yourself reflected on and know that there were people out there like you and there was nothing wrong with it. which meant that believing whatever bullshit you were being fed by people was easy. on the other hand, i really loved how the effects of religion on queer people are addressed. i’m generally a sucker for that kind of conversation around religion and queerness and this book served to the point where it made me reconsider a few things. as for clive, i never quite understood him. i want to think that maybe he was ace but i honestly can’t tell.

the fact that he suddenly stopped liking men was weird to say the least. i mean it served for a heartbreaking plot twist but was it realistic? at first i tried to think that maybe he wasn’t really attracted to men to begin with but thought he was because of his misogyny but by the way he described his feelings for maurice and for other men in his past he was genuinely attracted to men at least in a romantic way. so he definitely did like men at some point. then i thought maybe he’s bi and just stopped loving maurice and started loving a woman and that’s why he feels like he doesn’t like men in general anymore but he said that he’s no longer interested in men and actually thinking about men disgusts him. when it comes to sexualities i tend to accept them as they come but this didn’t make much sense to me. and after he stopped liking men he became a completely different person from who he was just close to a year earlier going from happily wanting to spend his whole life with a man to being a homophobe who slut shames his ex lover and gaslights him into believing he has a disease he can be cured of. he went from being free from conventions to enforcing them. and i don’t say this as a complaint for the writing because i could see this happening as a result of his newly found socially accepted heterosexuality but it still feels weird that he found it in the first place.

now for the negative side. the only reason i’m not giving 5 stars is because of the main characters’ classism, elitism, and misogyny. their takes on poverty and class were outrageous and privileged af and i’m glad that other characters noticed them because that means that the author is aware that they weren’t okay and made sure there was someone calling them out. aside from that, it is explicitly said that they were misogynists because they saw women as incapable of doing anything that wasn’t trivial and whatever they did seemed silly to them. despite the mcs having intellectual debates about things, they failed to maybe take into consideration the fact that sexism and misogyny might be at fault for women not being able to participate in their intellectual exchanges since their opinions were always disregarded.

in conclusion, despite it having some questionable decisions and some problematic things going on, this story paints an excellent picture of the struggles of queer people in a heteronormative society of the twentieth century and is one of the most touching and heartbreaking stories i’ve ever read and one i will definitely remember for a lifetime.

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