A review by adotbooks
Maurice by E.M. Forster

5.0

i absolutely loved this book from beginning to end. i had watched the film previously so i knew the story, but there’s nothing like reading it in the words of em forster’s beautiful writing. it is obvious that it’s come from a place of deep personal experience. at the end of it all, it was forster’s terminal note that really struck me, cementing that at its core this book is about a rebellion against society, the snobbish, conservative, prejudiced society. rebellion comes in the form of taking happiness for yourself when you have been constantly denied of it by society’s norms. not outlaws but gangsters as forster puts it, choosing to dodge civilisation’s norms and ideals to lead their own life, everyone else be damned.

“a happy ending was imperative. i shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. i was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense maurice and alec still roam the greenwood.... the lovers get away unpunished and consequently recommend crime. mr borenius is too incompetent to catch them, and the only penalty society exacts is an exile they gladly embrace.”