Are you wondering what to read this Pride Month? Have you already read every trending BookTok recommendation from The Song of Achilles to Call Me By Your Name? Are you looking for something to fill the void these novels have left in your heart? Well, how about going back to the 20th century and reading Maurice, the predecessor to all of the iconic novels you have come to know and love. Maurice was written by acclaimed English author E.M. Forster in the early 1910s, however, it was only published posthumously in 1970 as homosexuality was considered a criminal offence in England up until the late 1960s.
The novel centres on the relationship between Clive and Maurice, initially following them through their years at Cambridge University as undergraduates and then into their young adult life in the English countryside. It is a so-called “bildungsroman” that explores homosexuality and societal expectations as well as the repressive nature of English society.
Despite heavy themes such as internalised homophobia, (“I’m an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort”), Maurice has a happy ending, bittersweet but at least none of the characters are ever arrested, punished or harmed due to their sexualities (this is a low bar but a pleasant surprise nonetheless). In fact, when writing about Maurice in subsequent years, E.M. Forster said that “a happy ending was imperative” and he truly achieved this, with all the characters deciding their own fates in a way that leaves the reader satisfied and hopeful. This is an unexpectedly modern approach for a 20th century author, considering that Forster’s contemporaries who were also writing about homosexuality were doing so within the tragic genre, for example, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh in which the homosexual character ends up descending into isolation and alcoholism.
Maurice contains all the elements of books like Call Me By Your Name that we all love: a secret love, a tragic and melancholy tone, an idyllic setting, an abundance of references to Ancient Greece, a nice dose of pretentious references, sexual awakenings, an unwanted marriage, and beautiful, poetic language with lines such as “Maurice, shall we rewrite history?”, “… two imperfect souls might touch perfection” and “I would have gone through life half-awake if you’d had the decency to leave me alone.”
‘The novel is written with a poignant self-awareness that at times reads like an open letter of condemnation directed towards 20th-century English society.’
Forster explores problematic subject matters in a delicate way and seeks to humanise the characters and provide insight into their motivations. For example, as the relationship between the two main characters begins to develop, their relationships with the women in their families gets progressively worse and it becomes apparent that Clive and Maurice see their mothers and sisters as representations of the constraints that society places on them. As a reader, you accept that the characters are representative and reflective of the misogynistic and conservative society of the early 20th century and do not expect more from an author who was raised within the same society. However, Forster is clear to denounce this behaviour and mindset as he explicitly declares that Clive and Maurice “were misogynists”. Forster does not dance around any topic no matter how taboo it would have been when he wrote it, and you will find yourself forgetting that this book was written in the early 20th century.
However there are minor parts of the novel that have become dated for a 21st century reader and could maybe even be called problematic. For example, one of the characters decides to subject himself to hypnotism in order to convert himself to hetrosexuality (he obviously fails) while another character almost overnight comes to believe himself to be straight. This is a strange turn of events for the reader and the message it sends is somewhat problematic but aren’t there other more contemporary novels that contain moral grey areas as well? Life is not unproblematic so why should literature be held to such an idealistic standard?
By reading things that make us uncomfortable or leave us with questions we become more tolerant and isn’t that the point?
While there is a movie for Maurice starring Hugh Grant and directed by James Ivory, who also wrote the screenplay for Call Me By Your Name it does not live up to the beauty of the book. Maurice retains a tone of modernity, a longing for change and a refreshing narrative of strength and defiance against all odds, and, most importantly, upon finishing you can honestly say that you’ve read a classic.
WORDS: Ciara Gallagher
IMAGE: Thomas Kelley
