'Maurice' by E.M. Forster is a groundbreaking novel that focuses on homosexuality as a fact of life in Edwardian England. The story follows Maurice Hall as he discovers and comes to terms with his homosexuality, navigating relationships with his first love Clive and later finding happiness with a working-class man named Alec. Forster's writing style is praised for its depth and humanity, portraying the struggles and complexities of same-sex relationships in a society that condemns them.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of societal repression, homophobia, and mental health struggles related to sexual identity.
Has Romance?
The presence of romance in Maurice is high, centering around love stories between male characters.
From The Publisher:
Maurice Hall is a young man who grows up confident in his privileged status and well aware of his role in society. Modest and generally conformist, he nevertheless finds himself increasingly attracted to his own sex. Through Clive, whom he encounters at Cambridge, and through Alec, the gamekeeper on Clive's country estate, Maurice gradually experiences a profound emotional and sexual awakening. A tale of passion, bravery and defiance, this intensely personal novel was completed in 1914 but remained unpublished until after Forster's death in 1970. Compellingly honest and beautifully written, it offers a powerful condemnation of the repressive attitudes of British society, and is at once a moving love story and an intimate tale of one man's erotic and political self-discovery.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970) was a noted English author and critic and a member of the Bloomsbury group. His first novel, Where Angels Fear To Tread appeared in 1905. The Longest Journey appeared in 1907, followed by A Room With A View (1908), based partly on the material from extended holidays in Italy with his mother. Howards End (1910) was a story that centred on an English country house and dealt with the clash between two families, one interested in art and literature, the other only in business. Maurice was revised several times during his life, and finally published posthumously in 1971.
Ratings (18)
Incredible (4) | |
Loved It (6) | |
Liked It (4) | |
It Was OK (3) | |
Did Not Like (1) |
Reader Stats (85):
Read It (18) | |
Want To Read (53) | |
Did Not Finish (3) | |
Not Interested (11) |
3 comment(s)
I loved this book and read it in one sitting. The beauty in the writing encapsulated me and I felt fully emerged throughout the entirely of Maurice’s journey. The intricacies of discovery your sexuality in a homophobic society is written in such a sensitive way and I found it very realistic. The character may not always be likeable as he’s higher class and treats others as inferior but his development is incredible to see. Highly reccomend.
It's beautiful written and with a really important subject about being gay in 1914. E.M Forester writes so skillfully and I was always so invested into the story and the function and disfunction of the relationships. But the characters where not likeable, sure I wanted to root for them but Maurice where not a nice man. I did still enjoy the story but it's a 3 star or a 3.5 stars for me
This book was really interesting to read and showed the experience of being a gay man of the upper class at this time (originally written in 1913-14) rather well.
It only took Maurice some twenty years to figure out that other men also had feelings and their own internal lives, ideas, and problems; I'm sure he will realize that women, too, are people when he is sixty, and maybe he will even discover that women also have independent lives when he becomes eighty.
What can you read after
Maurice?
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