I am about a third into reading Maurice - feels so good to read something openly gay by an Victorian-Edwardian author. Like it's not just subtext

Trying to reread The Well of Loneliness, so forgive me for laughing at this description from wikipedia of Radclyffe Hall's reaction to the campaign agains the book:

And further down:

MAURICE 1989

IT'S EITHER THEM ANDERPERRY OR THE MARAUDERS AND I WILL STILL CRY

I LOVE THIS FILM TOO MUCH AND I WONDER HOW I HELD IT TOGETHER

I definitely think there was love... but there was also everything else

Watching 1 movie everyday for Pride Month 1/30

Maurice (1987), dir. James Ivory

It certainly is most educational.

The Woodcutters by James Hamilton Mackenzie (1875-1926), Williamson Art Gallery & Museum

artuk.org

e.m. forster was like "i'm gonna write a novel about a sad gay boy who can't experiment at school, is struck with longing for other boys, needs to navigate different ideas of being gay and then give him his ultimate wish - fucking the garden boy. oh and i'm also gonna make everything a foreshadowing" and i adore him for it

Don't we all?

Parallels in Maurice (1987) — I just love the difference in his expressions here. From resigned, quiet bewilderment with Clive to the serene recognition of love and friendship with Alec.

Edward Carpenter's full response letter to E.M. Forster after reading Maurice in 1914.

(The images of the letter can be found here at King's College's archive. Below is my transcription followed by photocopies of the letter. )

PS: 1) "MS" is the abbreviation for "manuscript".

23 Aug. [1914?]

My dear & blessed E.M.,

(I wish you had a name. Why do you always hide behind initials? What do your friends call you? My name is Edward, or ‘chips’!)

I have read your ‘Maurice’ after all, and am very much pleased with it. I don’t always like your rather hesitating tantalizing impressionist style - though it has subtleties - but I think the story has many fine points. You succeed in joining the atmosphere with the various characters, and there are plenty of happenings which is a good thing. Maurice’s love affairs are all interesting, and I have a mind to read them again, if I can find time - so I won’t send the MS back for a day or two. I am so glad you end up on a major chord. I was so afraid you were going to let Scudder go at the last - but you saved him and saved the story, because the end though improbable is not impossible and is the one bit of real romance - which those who understand will love.

I wish I could write more, but I am devoured just now by innumerable things. I expect to be in and about London from the 1st to 8th Sep. - so give me a cue to see you.

Your Edward C.

Transcription of vertical writings on the second page of the letter: 

I am sending my birthday reply to the papers on Sep. 1 with a lot about the war in it. 

Only a small part of the letter has been transcribed then included in reviews, or different Maurice editions. Which is why I wanted to transcribe the whole response from the real-life Maurice to the author of fictional Maurice after he read Maurice. The entirety is far more interesting.

Below: Edward Carpenter in 1886 and 1897.

Some contexts: based on Forster's diaries, Maurice was first finished in June/July, 1914, so Carpenter did read the first complete MS—with or without the epilogue is unclear since there's no solid proof for when the epilogue was written (though it appeared in the novel by February 1915 at the latest.)

However, since Carpenter said he liked the happy ending he read (and fun fact: the first complete MS which he read actually had a fairly different ending between Maurice and Alec than the published version's), we know that even from the first draft, Forster remained unwavering about how a happy ending is imperative.

More contexts: according to a letter from Forster to a friend, he thought Carpenter was "too unliterary to be helpful"—meaning Carpenter probably wasn't much interested in reading literature. And Carpenter sort of confirmed that in writing "I read your 'Maurice' after all", implying he was indeed reluctant to read at first.

Still, it made absolute sense for Forster to send the story back to the man who, in a manner of speaking, held the copyright of Maurice in flesh before Forster even finished it.

So the question is: did Carpenter know that Maurice was inspired by him and his lover George Merrill? Did he know that he was the real-life Maurice and Merrill was the real-life Alec? Perhaps that was why he was reluctant to read the novel at first?

Rupert Graves as Alec Scudder in “Maurice” (1987)

Gratuitous Alec reblog 💚

—E.M. Forster, Maurice

An important difference between Book Clive and Film Clive. Film Clive is mainly about fear and repression. Book Clive's change is more complex.

Free PDF and HTML of book

cap @hunterschafer

For a character that is, in a way, only instrumental in Maurice's development, Clive is admirably complex and multilayered.

I saw a post about Clive Durham from E.M. Forster's Maurice and I had thoughts. But they're too long to put in the tags and I'm not comfortable adding to op's post lol. So I'm just gonna make my own.

The thing is, as an ace person I'm very interested to know what the deal is with Clive's intense discomfort with anything physical. He seems fine with Maurice wrestling and caressing him at first, but this is actually before he and Maurice are together. Afterwards he very quickly convinces Maurice that physical affection brings down romantic relationships.

Then when he marries Ann he avoids seeing her undressed, and never lets her see him naked either. Also, the shock he expresses when Maurice tells him that he slept with Alec - twice - that's not just because he's 'helped'' Maurice ''turn straight'' too, and Maurice chose to accept his sexuality instead. It's not just because sex between two men is criminalised, or because they're not married. All of those things are probably part of it, yes, but there's a repulsion at the thought that anyone would like the act of sex.

So, it's very possible that he's ace and that he uses his big brain to convince himself (and others) that a lack of interest in physical affection is a higher state of being, as many before him have done, and makes himself believe it to the point of sex-repulsion. As Mr Emerson would say: he's in a muddle. (I just finished A Room With a View - also by E.M. Forster - for the second time lol) Honestly who can really blame him..

I'm glad it's not his discomfort with physical stuff that villainizes him (if you can call him a villain - arguable), but mostly his ''rational'' brain and his internalised phobias of things that make him who he is. He finds his intellect way too impressive and that combined with his insecurities make him selfish and manipulative. You could argue that his ace tendencies are meant to illustrate a coldness in him, but it didn't really come across like that to me.

It's actually really tragic that when Maurice and Clive are together, Clive talks so confidently about being critical of their culture and of what is expected of them, and he ends up conforming, while Maurice - who had/has trouble thinking for himself - learns to accept who he is.

Nice analysis from a personal perspective

short essay about maurice (film/novel) analyzing clive durham and the line “why don’t you stop being shocked and attend to your own happiness?” (imo one of the best quotes from the story and one that speaks to the audience and society as a whole as much as it does clive directly)

it’s wrong to paint clive as a cartoon villain. sometimes it can be funny to diss clive, i do it too and so do a lot of fans, but ultimately his story is extremely tragic. in the beginning we fall in love with him the way maurice does, but around the middle of the story when he starts in on the greece trip, he becomes extremely difficult and frustrating, and we initially agree with maurice when he vows to win clive back (although maurice + the audience both realize he ultimately deserves better, which is where alec comes in). clive doesn’t start out an ass, he becomes an ass throughout the story. but that’s bc he’s been chronically depressed for nearly his whole life and he’s dug himself into a pit of rumination, anxiety, and fear. i believe that’s why forster lets us into his POV only when he falls out of love w/ maurice, to give us more insight & understand that from his POV the relationship was always precarious to begin with, that maurice’s initial rejection gave him a mental breakdown over their vac, and that it wasn’t the first time he had experienced a major depressive episode. his entire arc parallels maurice’s in that maurice chose to be brave + leave safety in pursuit of love/happiness whereas clive acted out of fear/cowardice. those are at the center of their characters. i think clive deserves some sympathy and to “attend to his own happiness” and that by the end of the story he somewhat realizes he’s made a mistake. from clive’s POV it’s noted that he was tortured by his identity from a very young age and had a lot of religious/societal guilt and was even much more aware of it than maurice was growing up. both of them suffered and lived in fear for years, but maurice chose to climb out of it or die trying, and clive sort of became resigned to his fate and chose to live a lie because it was safer that way. i love both the characters, and i love maurice/alec’s story and their happy ending, but i also believe that clive has an equally interesting story and my heart breaks for him the way maurice’s did. in the line “why don’t you stop being shocked and attend to your own happiness?” i believe maurice was conveying that a part of him would always love him and wish him happiness, just like a part of forster always loved meredith (one of the real life inspirations for clive). if most people were in clive’s position and were born as the heir of a super wealthy family in edwardian england… most people never would have even admitted their love for maurice in cambridge the way clive did, let alone try to pursue the relationship before ending it out of an entire lifetime of rising fear. in the book, when clive prepares his “i’m normal now” speech, he says that he didn’t want to hurt maurice: “it was scientific and impersonal, as that would wound maurice least.” but in the movie they made clive’s mentality even clearer by showing the fact that homosexuality was still illegal then, by having a fellow upper-class gay man be persecuted, a la wilde, which scared clive and caused him to want to do what he thought was best for him and maurice. clive thought that what was best for men like them was to hide in the closet, whereas maurice (and forster) was revolutionary and knew that what’s best for men like them is to be open, be out of the closet, and have total freedom. clive isn’t some cartoon villain who intended to hurt maurice, he’s basically a victim of society/religion/his family/himself, who i believe deserves sympathy too even though he’s a morally questionable character, and in “attend to your own happiness,” maurice attempts to make him see that and give himself the permisson to accept himself—what clive chooses to do with that statement is up to him. he has something like paralysis analysis, and words come easier to him than action, so he’ll likely remain in his shell forever whether he wants to or not. but that is the tragedy of his character. as forster said, clive is extremely frustrating. but it’s also what makes him interesting and well-written, and the story wouldn’t be the same without him.

Blog post about Hugh Owen Meredith

There is a truly epic amount of smoking in Maurice and its deleted scenes - up ladders, moving pianos, flirting with smoke rings and even cigarettes as Alec's Christmas present. Maurice breaks up with Clive in the smoking room (his house has a special room, wtf), and his only ever dalliance with a Lady is with nicotine addict Miss Olcott. Luckily he ends up with Alec who doesn't mind him smoking in bed..

Fun fact - Maurice and Clive smoke pipes in the book

gifs and caps by @oscarwetnwilde @expo63 @aworldofgoldfish @shazadlatifgf @lalalaugenbrot @fear-o-phobia me and two I forgot - bollock me in a pm

when you're trying to intimidate someone..

..and they just used your name like they're your wife

gif @expo63 <-amazing Maurice blog

This is a really important scene in the book, which I feel was rather underdone in the film - shortened and should have used two cameras :(

Nerd fact - filmed in Bedford Square, a minute's walk from the back door of the British Museum. The houses built in 1775 are typical of Bloomsbury.

gif @jazzandpizazz