Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Maurice

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

erynlasbelin's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

I love this book more than I could possibly say.

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saskia_ej's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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thepictureofromance's review

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The writing in this book was superb, I like Forester's style and he's really quite funny!!

I unfortunately am giving it three stars rather than four because every single character in this story is a bit of a twat, Although I enjoyed the story, I could not find myself rooting for any of them and having a character I can truly root for is what takes a story from good to great in my opinion!!

I was also frustrated at the ending. I am not a fan of books with open endings. Is it so hard to give proper closure?!

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jwells's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective

Eye opening to read about what life was really like, for a gay man a century ago. There's no way to find a community, not even language for him to describe himself. It's a very honest book, especially considering when it was written.

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torismazarine's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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aliss_'s review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

J’aime le concept de ce livre. J’aime aussi l’aspect très “réel” voir même cynique de l’amour. Toutefois, j’ai trouvé l’histoire difficile à suivre et la formulation des phrases ainsi que les 2000 personnages plus ou moins pertinents n’ont pas aidé. J’ai trouvé ce livre généralement ennuyant et je continuais à le lire en me disant que quelque chose de plus intéressant allait arriver. De plus, bien que ce livre se veut triste, je n’ai pas été touché car je n’avais pas bâti d’attachement envers aucun personnage. Mais c’est queer so je suis obligé de donner une bonne note

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jemappellecat's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. This book was truly an amazing read and one I’d totally recommend. Despite being written nearly 110 years ago there is a strange element of modernity to it - the writing and references aren’t but more the tone and my overall relationship with the book. For a quick plot summary it follows the protagonist Maurice Hall over roughly ten years (14-24) where he comes of age and into himself, encountering two love affairs with his Cambridge equal Clive Durham and later the gamekeeper Alec Scudder. Evidently things happen but I believe to get the best experience out of ‘Muarice’ you should go into it knowing little of the plot - all I knew of it was that it’s a gay classic. Something I love about this book was the way Forester writes the characters as very real with good qualities but their flaws too, this was just amazing and I could totally see them in the flesh. Additionally, the ending with its ambiguity was great, I guess I did want more and this can be said for most of the book in all honestly, it was one I could easily have read a 500 page version, not just 230 - that being said, the impact and conciseness of the book would likely have been impacted. I don’t think there’s anything I didn’t like really, it’s a very accessible classic, flows great with a clear structure, great characters and wholly an enjoyable experience. I also listened to the audiobook narrated by Ben Whishaw which I absolutely loved, his voice totally suites an Edwardian-era gay man and again I’d so recommend ‘reading’ it this way too (I got it via BorrowBox with my local library)

Now to hear my ultimate favourite part of this book I have to put a SPOILER WARNING on it first. Being written when homosexuality was still criminalised and a little over 50 years since it was punishable by death in the UK, in the context of many (well little did) books demonising queer people or having endings where they die (naturally, by suicide or are killed), the fact the ending of ‘Maurice’ is a happy one is truly delightful. It’s amazing and one I didn’t really expect so… yay. If it had been published when written in 1913-14, it would likely have changed many of other queer literature to follow but we’d never know. The author’s terminal note and David Leavitt’s introduction in my ‘Penguins Classics’ edition (that I read after completing the novel) are also fascinating reads and one’s I’d really recommend. In the former Forester makes the remark ‘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 this sense Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood.’ I find this amazing and in some essence changed the way I viewed the ending with both men escaping the confines of Clive’s estate but also the British society at the time that was unwilling to accept a happy ending for a gay couple. Additionally, the reader is kept in the dark regarding their future, maybe I wished for that epilogue at first but now I see that letting our imagine run wild is a far better consequence.

I do want to give this book a reread and possibly annotate it but for now I’ve a few quotes to share.

‘The storm had been working up not for three days as he supposed, but for six years. It had brewed in the obscurities of being where no eye pierces, his surroundings had thickened it. It had burst and he had not died. The brilliancy of day was around him, he sood upon the mountain range that overshadows youth, he saw.’ - exploring his personal awakening to what and who he is, quite relatable

‘“I should have gone through life half awake if you'd had the decency to leave me alone. Awake intellectually, yes, and emotionally in a way; but here -“ He pointed with his pipe stem to his heart; and both smiled, “Perhaps we woke up one another. I like to think that anyway.”

“When did you first care about me?”

“Don't ask me,” echoed Clive.

“Oh, be a bit serious - well - what was it in me you first cared?”

“Like really to know?” asked Clive, who was in the mood Maurice adored - half mischierous, half passionate; a mood of supreme affection.

“Yes.”

“Well, it was your beauty.”

“My what?”

“Beauty... I used to admire that man over the bookcase most.”

"I can give points to a picture, I dare say,” said Maurice, having glanced at the Michelangelo. “Clive, you're a silly little fool, and since you've brought it up I think you're beautiful, the only beautiful person I've ever seen. I love your voice and everything to do with you, down to your clothes or the room

you are sitting in. I adore you.”’ - so sweet

‘“Maurice - I'm a fool.”

“Be a fool,” said Maurice…’ - sometimes us best to be one, no?

‘“Will the law ever be that in England?”

“I doubt it. England has always been disinclined to accept human nature.”

Maurice understood. He was an Englishman himself, and only his troubles had kept him awake. He smiled sadly. “It comes to this then: there always have been people like me and always will be, and generally they have been persecuted.”

“That is so, Mr Hall; or, as psychiatry prefers to put it, there has been, is and always will be every conceivable type of person. And you must remember that your type was once put to death in England.”

Was it really? On the other hand, they could get away. England wasn't all built over and policed. Men of my sort could take to the greenwood…”’ - I love the notion (expanded on in Leavitt’s introduction) how Forester makes the rural the place for queer escapism and freedom and not the urban centre like other books did and still do often do, rather refreshing and an interesting take

‘After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven?’ - is it? Maybe?

‘Love had failed. Love was an emotion through which you occasionally enjoyed yourself. It could not do things.’

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