Now We Shan't Never Be Parted

I found these events very uncomfortable to read - having moved from the heady potential of their meeting to the gradual and inevitable ending of their friendship, all too aware of how desperate this would make Maurice, the pain that he would experience and the loneliness that would only grow deeper. Forster does not spare us the humiliation Maurice will have to endure.

There was obviously no palliative for either of them when Clive came into Maurice's bed - things had become so sterile and lonely over such a long period. What could Clive have expected, since he himself had set the boundaries almost from the beginning?

Part of me did not want to understand Clive at this stage when I originally read the book (before the film), because he made a decision counter to the one I had wanted him to make. I had been in love with the *romance* of their situation, which never fulfilled its promise.