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morrieandlicky · 6 months

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Sweet Moments Between Maurice and Alec That You Have Not Seen Before (From E.M. Forster's 1st Draft for Maurice)

Context: Forster's first version of Maurice, finished in 1914, has a rather different ending than the final published version (no hotel scene, and no boathouse reunion). See here.

Forster's first draft for Maurice is, in my opinion, the rawest in terms of boldly displaying the love shared between Maurice and Alec. This version shows much more of Alec's emotion and tenderness, as well as of Maurice's sentiments and affection towards Alec. It is definitely not as subtle as the final version, with quite a few straightforward declarations of love.

Hence, I'm disappointed that Forster did not manage to integrate at least some of these 1914 texts into the final version: it would've made the love between Maurice and Alec much more pronounced and convincing, as well as made Alec a character with more depth and feelings.

Having read Forster's first draft for Maurice, I share below some of these moments between Maurice and Alec that are not in the final version (ordered on how lovely I think each moment is. Bolded texts are the highlights).

1. After running into Mr. Ducie in the museum and Maurice bursting out to Alec.

M: "I'd possibly have blown out my own brains."

A: "Why?" he asked, stopping dead.

M: "I should have known by that time that I loved you."

A: "You can't, sir, you couldn't."

M: "I love you, sir be damned."

A: "Maurice"—never before had the word been spoken—"you're an angel."

M: "I don't want to hear that."

A: "Maurice, Maurice" his voice failed also; he had once said the rest to a woman. "Maurice - what you've said I feel. Understand?"

M: "I think so, but I want to be sure. Remember those rose bushes in the other rain? - Look at me hard - That's right. That'll do. It's settled." (Maurice is referring to the moment when Alec ran in the rain across the rose bushes at Penge just to see Maurice's face.)

2. The conversation after Maurice refuses to stay the night with Alec—a scenario that only happens in the first draft in 1914. Be prepared for tears.

A: "Come just for a little to me."

M: "If I came it would be for ever."

A: "Ever's the best."

M: "Why, man, you sail Thursday."

Alec found no answer.

...: here's when Maurice explains in a long paragraph why they can't be together because of their class difference and the fact that they're both men. But in this long paragraph Maurice pretty much brings up wanting to marry Alec—"We can't have the particular thing we want (which is roughly speaking marriage) unless we sacrifice something else"

M: I thought from that letter of yours you might want me to come. But, Alec, come where to?"

A: "I'd know if you weren't a gentleman," Alec said. "We'd a' found work together as mates."

M: "Yes, and if you were a gentleman, I'd take you this minute to my home.

A: "I'd a' been what young Clive was to you, then."

M: "He's a saint and we aren't. Leave out him."

A: "I'd a' been yours till death, then." ("I would've been yours till death, then")

M: "Out there if you get a chance to marry, take it. That's what I wish.

A: "Maurice, what'll you do without me, dear? Have you no other friends?"

Maurice dared not look forward to his own future. He rushed on the parting.

M: "And if there's ever a child, I shan't ever have that, so remember me."

A: "I'll remember you, child or none. God bless you. O God bless you, and be with you if I can't."

3. Right after Maurice puts his hand on Alec's back in the museum

"Yes, awfully serious," remarked Maurice, and rested his hand on Alec's shoulder, so that the fingers touched the back of the neck, doing this merely because he knew that he loved Alec, that he loved him not as a second Dickie Barry, but deeply, tenderly, for his own sake, beneath weakness and vulgarity.

4. In the museum, Alec in pain and acting cute

[Alec] had bitten his lip, his eyes were red too; face and body were cramped with pain.

M: "Alec -"

A: "Alec am I?"

M: "I'm sorry I used that other name of yours."

A: "Don't speak to me," he growled, "let me go, you calling me Alec when I"

M: "Did you give me away then on purpose?"

A: "You're correct.

M: "Was it to get money - or only to do me harm?"

A: "I couldn't say."

M: "Come, let's get away where we can finish our talk."

A: "What? What do you say?"

M: "Come along, Alec."

A: "Do you call me that still?"

M: "Come away, man, don't break down for God's sake...." He took hold of [Alec's] arm. The touch was not reminiscent; it hinted at a relation to come.

A: "Oh but you must, I want it." Alec yielded.

5. Maurice at night thinking about Alec's letter

He tried to forget the treacherous letter, but it stole back to his mind, and he suffered most during moments in bed, when it masqueraded as a real love letter, and offered him the completeness that Clive enjoyed with Anne.

(This is brilliant writing because we, as readers, know that Alec's letter is a love letter, yet Maurice's "muddles" prevent him from seeing it as a love letter, and it is only at night, when he's craving Alec's presence, that he's able to allow himself to see the truth and succumb to his feelings for Alec.

Here, again, is also a suggestion of Maurice wanting to marry Alec, like how Clive married Anne)

6. One version of Maurice's and Alec's first night together

A: "Good evening - sir, said the low voice. Was you wanting something? Couldn't you sleep?" It was the gamekeeper.

On your rounds? gasped Maurice, trying to sound natural, and felt corduroys. Their touch disconcerted him. Whither was he tending from Clive into what companionship?

A: "Just wait till I've set down my gun - eh aren't you trembling?"

M: "So are you - ah don't."

A: "Don't you like that?"

M: "I don't know."

A: "Christ you're fussy. Don't you like me to touch you."

M: "That's you lad."

A: "Yes."

Side notes: hopefully these will shut all the detractors (of the relationship between Maurice and Alec) up—namely Clive apologists, Clive+Maurice shippers, and all of those dark academia classist out there.

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katzblacklyn · 3 months

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the song two birds is so maurice-coded it hurts. like I NEED IT IN AN EDIT NOWWWWW

#maurice 1914 #maurice 1987 #em forster maurice #maurice hall #clive durham #em forster #alec scudder #lgbt cinema #lgbtq #gay academia

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newvision · 2 months

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E.M. Forster, from Maurice

Euripides

Herakles - Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson)

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nostalgicacademia · 4 months

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Cambridge

PS: Here you can download my Dark Academia article in PDF "link".

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transsexualcoriolanus · 2 months

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yeah i'd love to bring e.m forster back from the dead to let him know that maurice was published and made into a film and gay people can get married in britain now and stuff, but on the other hand how would we break the news to him that a significant percentage of maurice fans prefer clive to alec from a combination of classism and being horny for hugh grant

#em forster #maurice #maurice 1987 #maurice 1914 #clive durham #alec scudder #edit: i have just been informed that forster actually arranged for it to be published after his death #(and somehow i didn't know that it was actually only published a year after he died)#rest of the post still stands tho

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july-septembre · 3 months

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be proud of who you are! 🩷🏳️‍🌈

#maurice #maurice 1987 #maurice meme #maurice hall #clive durham #alec scudder #em forster #pride

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templetv · 4 months

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bbc ghosts / maurice

#i love my dead gay captain #bbc ghosts #the captain #ben willbond #the six idiots #them there #maurice #em forster

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oscarwetnwilde · 3 months

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A Request: Yes- a photoset dedicated to Alec Scudder's curly unbrushed hair.

#Rupert Graves #Maurice 1987 #Alec Scudder #James Wilby #Maurice Hall #EM Forster #Period films

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burningvelvet · 1 year

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i want to take a solo-trip to greece like clive durham but instead of having an identity crisis and coming back straight/normal i want to have an identity crisis and come back gayer/weirder

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spocks-got-a-glock · 25 days

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When you get so irked by someone saying that "Clive and Maurice were the better romantic pairing because they truly loved each other while Alec and Maurice's relationship was based on nothing but sex" that you end up writing a small essay in a Pinterest comment section (which had to be broken up into 500 character chunks because of Pinterest's character limit).

Anyway, I actually like what I wrote so I wanted to share it here. I didn't say everything I wanted to in the exact way that I wanted to due to the word restrictions, but I think it did the job.

#maurice em forster #maurice 1914 #maurice 1987 #maurice 1971 #maurice #maurice/alec #maurice/clive #em forster #e.m. forster #maurice hall #alec scudder #clive durham #queer literature #queer liberation #classic literature

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sunsfawn · 4 months

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They’re of the Oscar Wilde sort x

the quality is rubbish, i also posted this on my twitter and instagram! :) @ sunsfawn

#maurice #maurice hall #alec scudder #maurice 1987 #maurice 1914 #em forster

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morrieandlicky · 1 year

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All Different Endings of Maurice and Alec from E.M. Forster's Maurice

Having been to the King's College archive myself, as well as read the Abinger edition of Maurice (which examines the differences between various versions of the manuscripts stored at the archive), I can conclude that there are 3 main different versions of the novel: from 1914, 1932, and 1952-1959, each differing from one another in Forster's treatment of the relationship between Maurice and Alec after the British Museum.

1914 version:

Order: British Museum - Southhampton - Penge with Clive - Epilogue

NO HOTEL SCENE, NO BOATHOUSE

In this version, Maurice and Alec do not spend the night together after the British Museum; Alec asks Maurice to but Maurice refuses with a long speech about how they shouldn't be together because of their class differences. So they part ways instead.

Maurice, however, does go to the Southhampton to see Alec off. After not seeing Alec there, Maurice leaves with Reverend Borenius at end of the chapter directly to Penge to say goodbye to Clive.

The reunion between them is implied first during Maurice's farewell to Clive—"I've wired to him (that I understand why he missed the boat)"—and then specifically illustrated in the written epilogue.

1932 version:

Order: British Museum - Southhampton - Penge with Clive

NO HOTEL SCENE, NO BOATHOUSE, NO EPILOGUE

The British Museum chapter is pretty much the same as the published version.

Maurice and Alec stay the night but there is NO hotel chapter written out. Their night together is only described in 4 lines at the beginning of the Southampton chapter as an "unwise escapade".

The scene thus goes from Maurice saying "To hell with with it" directly to him at the Southampton.

The end of the Southampton chapter as well as the farewell chapter with Clive conform to the 1914 version: i.e. no boathouse reunion.

Epilogue by 1932 had already been disregarded by Forster, so the only clue we have to the reunion between Maurice and Alec is Maurice's line "I've wired to him (that I understand)".

Therefore the 1932 version is the least hopeful in regards to the happy ending between Maurice and Alec.

1950's version:

Order: British Museum - Hotel - Southhampton - Boathouse - Penge with Clive

This is basically the final and published version that we all have read.

The hotel chapter was drafted out in 1952 and added to the 1932 manuscript.

But it wasn't until 1958 that Forster was able to finally and fully pen out how Maurice and Alec reunite at the boathouse.

It must be noted that Forster had troubles finding a way to bring Maurice and Alec together, and in fact refused to reunite them for decades. The boathouse reunion, Alec sending a wire to Maurice, and Maurice not receiving that wire but instinctively knowing where Alec is nonetheless—all were only conceived by Forster in 1958.

Therefore—and this is really the most touching and important part—according to scholars and editors of the Abinger edition...

"now we shan't be parted no more, and that's finished" were by logic the very last words Forster had written for the novel. Alec's promise marks the end of Maurice's search for a friend, as well as the end of Forster's writing progess for Maurice. It is both a fictional and a real-life farewell.

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katzblacklyn · 3 months

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i just finished reading maurice then went on and watched the movie. my heart is in shambles...

#em forster maurice #hugh grant #maurice 1987 #maurice 1914 #maurice #james wilby #rupert graves #clive durham #maurice hall #alec scudder #em forster #gay academia #lgbtqia #gay

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declanslander · 10 months

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yes they're at the british museum folks

#alec scudder #alec william di canzio #maurice #maurice 1987 #maurice em forster

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queer-frenchmermaid · 1 year

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The fact that Maurice by E.M. Forster start with this dedication breaks my soul

#maurice 1987 #maurice #maurice novel #em forster #clive durham #maurice hall #alec scudder #james wilby #rupert graves #hugh grant

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cordeliass · 9 months

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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

#em forster #maurice #maurice hall #clive durham #alec scudder #modernist literature #english literature #someone pls yell with me about maurice i have so many feelings #also this analysis will drive me insane

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