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isaacblevins 's review for:
Maurice
by E.M. Forster
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.
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.