Maurice

this book started off really slow in the first 1/3 but it got better after that and i couldn't put it down in the last third of the book. this is a book that is better read not solely for its plot, which is generally slow-going, but for the introspection that it offers on how it might feel like, and the different paths open, to gay gentlemen in early 20th C England. Maurice pretty early on realises that his sexuality cannot be reconciled with Christianity so he gives up on that, but he takes a much longer time to face up to the realities of living as a homosexual man in his society. i like the idea near the end where the book says that Clive and him are descended from the same Clive from their time in Cambridge - they were both in almost identical positions in life, but one chose respectability and the other rebellion. man, Alec's letters to Maurice also twisted knives in my heart :( it's also interesting that Maurice's love of his life ended up being a gamekeeper, and presumably of a different class. i'm sure class hierarchy was still a big thing even at that time, so i think in having this relationship be doubly taboo in that it also transcends class boundaries, it also rebels against the Greek ideals that Maurice had initially based his sexual awakening on, because (iirc) Greek homosexuality was only amongst men of the same class? and it felt like in making big sacrifices for each other and deserting their own classes, both of them ended up becoming equal with each other. frankly i skimmed through some parts of this book but i enjoyed it overall because in writing fiction instead of a biography, we can sort of have a more intimate insight into the inner workings of perhaps Forster himself, and the generally-hidden world of homosexuality he was a part of at the time.