The epilogue
For those who have read E.M. Forster's abandoned epilogue to Maurice...do you think he made the right decision to cut it?
Forster himself said it gave "universal dissatisfaction."
I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts.
(Oh, and many, many thanks to devo79 for the opportunity to finally read it after many years of desperate curiosity!)
I had always thought, before reading it, that something, anything, more about Maurice and Alec would be so welcome. Especially if it showed them living happily ever after! But now I have to admit I think he probably did the right thing...
To try and be positive, here are what I thought were the good things about it:
Maurice and Alec still together, still in love, still happy. Maurice in particular glowing with an "inward health."
Unfortunately there were quite a few things that upset me a bit. Such as:
The way it was written. All through Kitty's perspective. Not that I dislike Kitty or anything but everything feels so reported and filtered through her sensibility. Stripped of vitality.
Almost no dialogue to make Maurice and Alec come alive. One sentence from Alec and what, two words from Maurice? Argh, Edward Morgan, your devoted readers were surely hoping for a bit more here!
But the worst part is, I absolutely hate the idea of Maurice and Alec sleeping rough. I think it would be disastrous, possibly end their relationship and at the very least result in eventual grinding poverty and illness.
Someone here noted a while ago that it was a bit of a shock to realise that Forster meant the Greenwood as an actual reality rather than just a metaphor.
I really feel he had totally over-romanticised the concept of living homeless in the great outdoors!
Almost every Maurice fan-fiction I've read has the two living in a cosy cottage and I can see why. Isn't that what we'd all like for them?
So, what did you think?
Disclaimer: I was so dissatisfied that I ended up writing a story myself, that takes as its starting point the moment when Kitty blows her top and cycles away...I just thought she gave up too easily, that she'd want an explanation out of her brother. I hope that's not too presumptuous of me, but I figured the epilogue's unpublished, so not canon(?), so maybe it wouldn't be so horribly terrible to mess with it?
Anyway, I'll post it one day when it's finished.