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In Maurice (1914/1981), E. M. Forster's suppressed novel about homosexuality, the title character is seduced, while still sexually naive, by Clive, a fellow student at college. They enter into an intense romantic and physical relationship that is terminated abruptly when Clive becomes transformed into a heterosexual while traveling on the continent (possibly as the result of being nursed back to health by a woman after falling ill). Maurice is devastated by Clive's rejection and goes through a period of suicidal self-hatred, secretly seeking remedies to eradicate his homosexuality and become “normal,” like everybody else. After these efforts fail, Maurice falls in love again with Scudder, a gameskeeper on Clive's estate. The final scene in the novel has Maurice confront Clive, who has become a snobbish and prejudiced British gentleman, with the news that he and Scudder intend to go off and live happily ever after, even if their love must ramain secret. In Forster's own words, added more than a half century after the book appeared, Maurice and Scudder join “those who wish neither to reform nor corrupt society but to be left alone” (1914/1981, p. 254)**
Forster informs the reader of Maurice's liberated and gratifying future; however, Clive's eventual fate is not divulged. He is portrayed quite negatively at the end, wishing to deny his youthful romance in order to conform to Victorian standards. There is no indication that he still harbors love or desire for Maurice, or any male, despite the passion described earlier in the novel. It would appear that all of Clive's prior ardor has been erased completely, leaving Clive unconflicted about his new heterosexual orientation.
As a polemic, Maurice is an outcry against the homophobia of its time and a poignant plea for a more liberal attitude toward homosexuality.