PRo:log/BOOKS

Damon Galgut, the twice Booker-shortlisted author of The Good Doctor and In A Strange Room, returns in March after a four-year absence with the publication of his eighth novel, Arctic Summer. Named after EM Forsters unnished seventh novel, the book is a ctional account of Forsters formative trips to India, which provided the inspiration for his most successful novel, A Passage to India, subsequently turned into an Oscar-winning lm in 1984. Forster was, and remains, a fascinating gure in the history of English literature. Having inherited a sizable sum of money at a very young age, he was free to focus on a writing career after his education. He worked prolically, with four successful and highly accomplished novels published by the age of 35, Howards End and A Room With A View amongst them. In addition to these four books, another fth novel remained largely secret until some 50 years later. Maurice, referred to by critic Wendy Moffat as Forsters only, truly honest novel, is the story of a young man struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality in the early 20th century. It remained unpublished until 1971, a year after Forsters death, and just four years after homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK. Close condantes of Forster had read the novel but, such was the climate of fear around the whole issue in the period, the book remained rmly under wraps. In one version Forster even wrote Publishable, but worth it? in the margin of the text, underlining the concerns he had not only for himself but those who knew him best. Forster, just like his novel, remained locked in

James Wilby and Hugh Grant in the 1984 lm adaptation of EM Forsters Maurice

the closet publicly during his lifetime. Inspired by the close relationship between gay activist Edward Carpenter and his lover George Merrill, Maurice follows the eponymous characters journey from primary school, through to his time at Cambridge, and onto his career as a successful stockbroker. While at college, he meets Clive Durham, his rst love, who eventually rejects Maurices affections in favour of a woman he meets while in Greece. This denial of the self is central throughout the book, with Maurice eager to cure himself of his afiction, feverishly visiting a London hypnotist in his desperation. Its not until he nally meets Alec Scudder, a member of Durhams staff, that he nally comes to realise that happiness might be possible. Although the book touches on serious themes, its written with an accessible lightness of touch, and while the usual politics of class is certainly present, its never overbearing. An alternate nish to the book was written, but Forster was determined that Maurice have a happy ending, unlike so many other gay characters, vilied and victimised in lm and literature. While Forster asserted that Maurice was

not autobiographical, Galguts ctional take on Forster exhibits the same fear of sexual intimacy as Maurice Hall. His indecisiveness and inner turmoil is well drawn; he is equally intimidated and enthralled by what he sees in the relationship between Carpenter and Merrill, closely echoing Maurices own struggles. The rush of inspiration provided by the mens relationship came as a great relief to his writing life, struggling at the time to make progress on his own Arctic Summer, and also as a balm to his soul, nally nding some positive re-enforcement of his own life. While 100 years have now passed since Maurice was completed, it remains a ercely potent novel. It also remains deeply relevant. In the 1960 afterword, Forster noted that since the book had been written, there had been a change in the public attitude towards homosexuality from ignorance and terror to familiarity and contempt. Much has changed since the era of the Wolfenden Report but that, sadly, sounds eerily familiar.

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