Lara

Lara’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (17)
currently-reading‎ (2)
read‎ (68)
did-not-finish‎ (0)

classics‎ (51)
2025‎ (36)
2026‎ (29)
queer‎ (13)

non-fiction‎ (8)
reviewed‎ (8)
2024‎ (5)
2023‎ (2)

annotated‎ (1)
poetry‎ (1)

Stats | More…

Lara is Currently Reading

Lara is currently reading

Sanditon

by Jane Austen

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

progress:

(page 84 of 196)
— 2 hours, 40 min ago

Jul 15, 2026 12:04PM

Lara is currently reading

Maurice

by E.M. Forster

bookshelves: classics, queer, 2025, reviewed, currently-reading

Reading for the 4th time

read in August 2025

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Lara said:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

" Let me start by saying that I love, love, love the 1987 movie adaptation and that it perhaps quite heavily influences my perception of the book, even though I‘ve seen the movie only after reading the book for the first time. It‘s become one of my abs Let me start by saying that I love, love, love the 1987 movie adaptation and that it perhaps quite heavily influences my perception of the book, even though I‘ve seen the movie only after reading the book for the first time. It‘s become one of my absolute favourite movies of all time, for sure; gorgeously crafted with great and authentic chemistry. At the same time, I cannot say the book and its characters / relationships would have quite touched me as much if the movie did not exist.

I think a massive part of "Maurice"‘s appeal, to me, is that it‘s such a unique and important artifact for queer history and literature. Written from 1913 to 1914, it offers a valuable account of what gay love would have been like during that time and in that particular country, from someone who was a gay man himself and thus almost certainly wrote parts of it from his own experience, as well. "Maurice“ therefore has incredible value, and it‘s super interesting to read such an account of homosexuality from 1914 (!!). For anyone interested in queer history, this novel is an absolute recommendation. For anyone looking for a grand love story… hm.

Going into the book, I already vaguely knew what it was about (which, actually, isn‘t all that much: The plot itself can basically be summed up by 'Maurice gets together with Clive - they split, Clive gets married - at Clive‘s estate, Maurice meets a servant, Alec, and sleeps with him - there‘s a bit of back and forth but eventually Maurice and Alec become a couple'; I feel like it‘s more about following Maurice‘s struggle with his sexuality and journey to self-acceptance than having a super intricate plot). I rather enjoy E. M. Forster‘s writing style and I think it‘s not hard to follow per se (except for some archaic words, which can be expected from a work of that time obviously), but I think a problem for me was the pacing. Everything seemed to be moving on and jumping from scene to scene so fast. At first I thought that the reason I was perceiving it like that might be that the book I read directly before "Maurice“ was "Les Misérables“, which is… well, the opposite in terms of pacing, but I didn‘t have a much different experience on my second read. While reading, I just kept wishing everything would slow down a little, that we might get more insights into what‘s happening, that we might (in some cases) get more reasoning for why characters were doing what they were doing. The story has a lot of potential and it‘s definitely not all unused, but I felt like wanting to savour it more than I was able to because everything kept happening so QUICKLY. Well, not all the scenes - some had great pacing, dialogue, and atmosphere; for example the entire last chapter in which Maurice confronts Clive was amazing and such a great and bittersweet way to end the book that it really stuck with me - but a good deal of them.

I think it is partly because of this flaw in pacing and "clearing up things" that the love stories (in the book, not in the movie, which had amazing chemistry for both main relationships!) also fell a little flat for me. Clive and Maurice had really sweet moments together and I did feel for them, but I much preferred the movie‘s approach to their split-up, resulting from Clive‘s internalised homophobia and fear of prosecution. I mean, maybe the book was also trying to imply this, but if so, it was done so subtly that it honestly reads more like him actually having turned heterosexual out of nowhere, which is just nonsense. The main problem for me were Alec and Maurice, however, and I hate saying that because I actually much prefer Alec and Maurice together in the movie (might mostly be Rupert Graves though, hah). Their dynamic in the book came across as rather weird, though, and up until their last scene in the boathouse, they barely seem to be in love. I know the movie portrays the same events and, technically, the same dynamic between them, but it did so in such a way that made it feel less… off-putting, I suppose. A good example is the scene in the museum in London. Seeing it acted out made a lot more sense, but reading it just kind of confused me as to why they would act this and that way, why Alec was blackmailing him or at least threatening to (I mean, I somewhat get it now, he just wanted his attention and wouldn‘t have actually gone through with it, but it just all seemed strange on my first read), etc. I mean, it is interesting to read about such a volatile start of a romantic relationship instead of all the stereotypical love stories that exist, and of course there is going to be tension in a couple consisting of a classist snob and a free-spirited working-class man who essentially started having sex before anything else, but hm, I don‘t know. As I said, I adore Alec and Maurice as a couple in the movie, so it‘s not really about them as characters, but rather about the fact that it all, again, felt too rushed and, at times, random in the book, where the movie at least makes up for it in the visible chemistry between the actors (which you obviously don’t get while reading a book). Alec felt a bit like an afterthought and it was interesting to find out afterwards that a relationship between two male friends of Forster’s who were from different social classes was actually what inspired the entire book in the first place. Yet, much more of the plot was filled with Clive and the interlude in which Maurice attempts to have himself cured.

Okay, this may seem like a lot of criticism, and you may be wondering why I‘ve still decided to give the book 4 stars, and the explanation is mostly that for whatever flaws it may have, it still managed to leave a huge impression on me. This may, again, be related to the movie (I simply can‘t really view them separately) and my adoration for it, but the book itself has been one of the few of my reads this year which has managed to continually stay with me. Though this is, once again, likely massively due to the film, there is barely a day that passes where I don‘t think about these characters and their relationships. In other words, the story has won my heart to an extent which is really special. Also, there is a lot to praise about the book itself, as well. I actually like the fact that many characters are rather unlikeable, namely Maurice himself; I think it‘s really clever to follow an entirely average, classist, misogynistic guy on his self-acceptance journey instead of some Gary Stue who can do no wrong and who is the perfect human being. Pretty much all the characters are more or less flawed, which makes everything seem very human and authentic. There were some really beautiful images and metaphors in the writing (e.g. Clive‘s dilapidated estate, essentially the focus point of (forced?) heterosexuality in the novel, being compared to the ultimately unstable and crumbling societal notions which are supposed to guide humanity, or Maurice feeling anger at nature‘s perceived imperfections), and as I‘ve said, I did enjoy the writing as such, and would like to read more by Forster. I‘ve read "A Room with a View" so far, which I‘ve preferred and which didn‘t seem to have the problem of being rushed, though that might also be because it‘s a much more light-hearted read than "Maurice", which just has a bigger objective in discussing this (at that time) hugely controversial topic.

So, despite its flaws, "Maurice“ is a story that really stayed with me and Alec and Clive especially are characters that I‘ve come to love. Even though their dynamic felt a bit weird at times, I feel very happy about Maurice and Alec’s happy ending, and the fact that there’s a happy ending at all. The book could really have profited from being a bit longer in some parts, but overall, it is still an enjoyable and recommendable read and watching the film adaptation afterwards clears some things up. It is also simply a super important work of literature for its open treatment of gay relationships in Edwardian England by an author who has probably lived through many similar thoughts and struggles. ...more "

Nov 01, 2025 03:09PM · see review

Lara’s Quotes

“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

tags: love

4674 likes