Maurice Paperback – International Edition, 28 July 2005

Maurice is a great read and a wonderful film too in my opinion.The many different editions of this novel and the reviews are very confusing. Be aware that the Pengin edition is NOT the edition referred to in this review: "ISBN 0233996044 is the Abinger edition - it comes with all the alterations Forster made to the novel over four decades, notes to clarify words like "pi-jaw", the Epilogue which Forster deleted from the later versions of "Maurice", and the Editor's Introduction - the best essay I have ever read about Forster and his work, which explains how and why Forster changed this novel over four decades of his life." For the edition noted in that quote we need to search out ISBN 0233996044 .The Penquin Edition has some interesting notes but does not contain the different versions of the story contained in the full Arbinger edition. Where to get that edition I have not worked out yet.

I've got school to thanks for turning me against E. M. Forster's books. A Passage to India saw me off for more than 30 years. I am glad that I have returned with Maurice.It is a book which I have always meant to read. I recall watching the 1987 film version when it was on TV - probably in the early '90s. That would have been before I had even 'come out' to myself, but even then I had the hots for Rupert Graves's Scudder.Maurice is a classic gay novel. It is a lovely romantic tale.Set in 1912, it is about the loves of three men at a time when society was straight-jacketed by tradition. The world order is decaying. The class system is creaking. World War One is on the horizon. And all the central charcter, Maurice Hall, wants is to be free and to love as comes naturally to him.It is an old fashioned world with Edwardian prose, attitudes and morals. But is is not entirely outdated. That is the sad thing. More than a century on, and some of our attitudes and morals are still outdated.Maurice wants to escape with his lover to the greenwood to live as an outlaw. In moden Britain today, we are lucky that homosexuality is respected, at least by the state if not by the church. This particular battle is nearly won.But we still have a long way to go in breaking down those class barriers. In Maurice, E. M. Forster underlines the appalling superiority felt by the upper classes over those who they consider to be the lower orders. Their Edwardian attitudes go some way to explaining the behaviour of our current Conservative-led government when it comes to dealing with benefit recipients and those on low incomes.The greenwood for some groups is still a long way off.

I had seen parts of the film back in the 1980s and 1990s but was unaware, until the new Millennium, that its basis was such an engaging read. It has been usual for the process of acknowledgement of homosexuality to include a lot of debating of self-loathing; the difficult date with a girl at the school disco or the unfulfilled fumblings of adolescents with an over-arching question of "Do I like girls?" attached. This journey into the burgeoning growth of sexuality within a young man is viewed from both a child and young adult perspective without the need to affirm that it's a choice or that it's a "straight man gone wrong" which has troubled other serious media portrayals of gay men coming to terms with their position in life. The words are emotional and rather unrestrained for its time of creation - where homosexuality was a criminal offence and, to all intents and purposes, seen as a mental disorder - which lends itself to an engaging read and a moving story of a world that hated 'the love that dare not speak its name' but how its simple tenderness and heartache is just as valid a love as any heterosexual story of emotional upheaval.

This version of "Maurice" (ISBN 0233996044) is the Abinger edition - it comes with all the alterations Forster made to the novel over four decades, notes to clarify words like "pi-jaw", the Epilogue which Forster deleted from the later versions of "Maurice", and the Editor's Introduction - the best essay I have ever read about Forster and his work, which explains how and why Forster changed this novel over four decades of his life. This introduction is fascinating, and far better researched and more carefully thought out than the Furbank introduction normally used in copies of this book.An excellent book to read if you love the novel, and utterly invaluable for students of Forster - I wish I'd had this when I was writing my dissertation - it would have saved me so much time, and given me lots of new things to think about. There is a good deal of information here that you are unlikely to find anywhere else including excerpts from unpublished letters. Don't let the price put you off - it's really amazingly cheap for something that is both useful and enjoyable and right now I'm working out which other Abinger edition to read next. Just buy it!

When the "used book" specification said there would be some minor pencil markings, I was not expecting an ex library book with pencil lines and notes on every page! Surprise! It also came without the dust jacket, leaving it with a blank black cover. However, the book itself was in very good condition for its age, being a first edition, and I was able to erase the pencil markings on the pages. This would have been a 5 star review if the report of the book's condition was more honest. Just be aware of what you might be getting, and if you're fine with it then go ahead!