Out of the three main male characters, not one of them is entirely good. The words in the novel are not the only triumph, however, as the characters created by Forster deserve much of the credit given to the book as well. The novel is phenomenally written with intricate descriptions of heartbreak and first love as well as a painfully heartrending illustration of Maurice going to a doctor and begging him to help heal him. By Forster not publishing the book, he protected himself against any legal difficulties publishing a queer book in the 1910s would have incurred such as imprisonment. In the novel, Maurice describes his homosexuality as the 'unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort' which both reflects the internalised homophobia experienced by Maurice as a gay man in early 20th century England as well as the sodomy charge against Oscar Wilde that saw him imprisoned in 1895. In the novel, he falls in love with two men: Clive Durham, his best friend and fellow student at Cambridge university, and later meets and falls in love with Alec Scudder, a groundskeeper.įorster wrote the book after visiting Edward Carpenter who was in a relationship with George Merrill. The novel follows Maurice and his struggle with his sexuality during a time where homosexuality was still entirely outlawed in England.

Forster, was written in 1910 but wasn't published until a year after Forster's death in 1970.

Michael's Catholic Grammar School (Image: Pixabay)

OL88877W Page-progression lr Page_number_confidence 93.86 Pages 230 Ppi 500 Related-external-id urn:isbn:0340793864

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 22:02:22 Boxid IA171201 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Harmondsworth Donorīostonpubliclibrary Edition External-identifier

Maurice by E.M. Forster