Maurice (novel)
Maurice is a novel by the British writer EM Forster (1879–1970), first published posthumously in 1971.
The novel was largely inspired by the author's friendship with the poet Edward Carpenter and his love affair with gay activist George Merrill . Although the novel had been written to an end long before its publication in the 1970s and was sometimes presented to individual friends such as the writer Christopher Isherwood , the author finally decided against publication during his lifetime for fear of reprisals.
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Maurice tells the story of a middle-class young man searching for his identity in late Victorian society in Great Britain. His need to love a man is taboo, ignored or, at best, perceived as an illness by those around him.
The novel begins before the main character's 15th birthday. The reader follows Maurice's life through boarding school, Cambridge University to his late father's brokerage firm.
Maurice is well grown, healthy, athletic, at the beginning of his professional career. This makes it easy for him to pose as a straight man to the outside world . But in his dreams, in his initially only half-understood wishes, he feels differently. To the same extent that his external, bourgeois life fits in and adapts to the social structures, Maurice becomes aware of his homosexuality .
As a student at Cambridge, Maurice experienced a profound emotional and sexual awakening. He falls in love with his fellow student Clive. However, the two young men never have sex. Ultimately, the relationship fails when Clive decides to get married. Clive surrenders to social pressure and denies his homosexuality. Maurice tries in vain to overcome his sexual desires as well. Neither the father's advice (or rather: the father's incomprehension) of the family doctor, nor the attempts of a hypnotist can help him: Maurice falls in love with Alec Scudder, the gamekeeper at Clive's Penge estate. The novel ends unrealistic but happily. Forster wrote that the "happy ending" did not seem plausible, but that he did not want the hero of the novel to fail.
Posthumous publication and background
Written between 1913 and 1914, Forster kept his novel a secret from the public for more than half a century. Only friends who were very close to him were allowed to read the manuscript. Forster ordered in his will that the novel would not be published until one year after his death. There are two versions of the novel. On the cover of the first manuscript In 1914 Forster wrote the sentence “Publishable - but worth it?” (“Suitable for publication - but is it worth it?”). He dedicated the book to "a happier time". In 1960 Forster created another manuscript of the novel on a typewriter, some of which differed considerably from the handwritten version. This second manuscript was eventually used for publication in 1971, shortly after homosexuality was legalized in Britain.
Forster consciously opted for the positive ending in order to send a positive signal. But he also had a real role model for this relationship, namely that between the poet friend Edward Carpenter and the coming from the working class George Merrill (1866–1928). Forster was inspired to write the novel after visiting Carpenter and Merrill, who lived in rural Derbyshire . The character of " queer " Risley is based on Lytton Strachey and that of chaste Clive is based on HO Meredith, whom Forster fell in love with during his time in Cambridge. All three were members of the Cambridge Apostles .
Adaptations
The novel was filmed by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory with James Wilby and Hugh Grant in the lead roles, see Maurice (film) .
There have been several theatrical productions of the novel in English-speaking countries.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Laurence Scott: Laurence Scott: rereading Maurice by EM Forster . In: The Guardian . July 5, 2013, ISSN 0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed October 26, 2019]).
- ↑ Nikolai Endres: Cambridge Apostles ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , HTML page 2, 2005, version of April 4, 2007; in: Claude J. Summers (Ed.): glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture
