Alec by William di Canzio

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2021

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of E. M. Forster's Maurice, William di Canzio gives us Alec, a novel that both enhances and expands the original story. While it isn't strictly necessary to have read Maurice to understand Alec, the decisions Di Canzio has made seem more clear having read both and frankly, readers should do themselves the favor of reading both of these excellent novels.

In Maurice, Forster tells the story of Maurice's relationship with Clive both from Maurice's and from Clive's perspectives. But when it comes to Maurice's relationship with Alec, he only provides the story from Maurice's perspective, preferencing an upper class telling. 

Di Canzio has chosen to give voice to Alec in his novel, providing a brief telling of his younger years (as Forster did for Maurice) and then telling the story of Alec and Maurice meeting and falling in love, but this time from Alec's perspective. The author has even used some direct language from Maurice in this section to create a continuity between the works. Where I think Di Canzio excels is at providing believable alternatives to what Maurice thought was happening in the original text. 

One could really be satisfied with just this much of Alec, taking the reader to the point in time where Maurice ends. Di Canzio opts, however to take us further. He creates a life for the characters that is much more uplifting than Forster's ending, much less his abandoned 1914 epilogue. He takes them into World War I, an area we know from Forster himself that he was unable or unwilling to go.

Like Maurice, Alec is a romance. Di Canzio doesn't shy away from the sex either. In the early chapters the sex scenes read a bit like Victorian erotica but they begin to be described in a more modern way as our characters and the world experience the changes that WWI brings. This is a worthy companion piece, allowing us to spend just a bit more time with these classic characters.

Hemdanziehender Knabe = Boy Putting on Shirt by Helmut Kolle

Hemdanziehender Knabe = Boy Putting on Shirt (1924)
Helmut Kolle (German, 1899-1931)
Oil on canvas
92 x 65 cm.

Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay

New York : Penguin, 2020

Begun in 1929 and significantly expanded by 1932, Romance in Marseille failed to find a publisher. It has existed as two versions in manuscript form in two different archival collections until the 2020 publication as part of the Penguin Classics series.

The story centers around Lafala, a West African sailor who stows away on a ship out of Marseille headed for New York. Having been caught by the crew and held in an unheated area of the ship, he must have his lower legs amputated due to frostbite upon landing in New York. A lawyer helps him sue the shipping company for his loss of limbs due to his treatment and confinement onboard. After winning his case, he returns to Marseille a much richer man. 

Although Lafala's fortunes have changed, he returns to his life among the sailors, dockworkers, prostitutes and pimps of the Quayside in Marseille. Although now a celebrity of sorts, his newfound wealth means many are trying to separate him from it. The remainder of the book sees everyone take a side and numerous plots and counterplots work themselves out.

McKay's dislike of the N.A.A.C.P.'s negative reviews of his 'shocking' work is hilariously highlighted when he includes a reference to a fictitious organization that is an obvious stand-in: The Christian Unity of Negro Tribes, or C.U.N.T. 

The extended text of 1932, sees the addition of two white characters, Big Blonde and Petit Frère. Big Blonde is a sailor who is known to prefer boys to girls and Petit Frère is his little friend, probably a teenage boy who works the ships. Among the inhabitants of Quayside, this is considered a normal relationship variation and is paid little attention. It was not uncommon for teenage boys to work ships and be coupled with sailors or act as prostitutes for the men onboard. The novel, Boy (1931), by James Hanley describes this exact situation in startling detail. 

Gassed by John Singer Sargent

Gassed (1919)
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925)
Oil on Canvas
90½ x 240 in.
Imperial War Museums, London

Queers: Eight Monologues curated by Mark Gatiss

London : Nick Hern Books, 2017

Queers was published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act which partially decriminalized sex between men in England and Wales. It would not become law in Scotland until 1980 and Northern Ireland until 1982.

Gatiss has brought together eight monologues written by himself and seven other playwrights, each taking place around a critical person or at a critical moment in history to illustrate the lives of queers in the Commonwealth over the last 100 years. Covering Oscar Wilde, the issuing of the Wolfenden Report, the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, the rise of HIV/AIDS,  the 1994 lowering of the age of consent, and marriage equality. These are extraordinary snapshots, at times funny and heartbreaking. These brief yet compelling character studies show how much has changed and how little. 

The monologues were first performed on the stage on 28 July 2017 and 31 July 2017 at The Old Vic, London. They were also filmed as the BBC Studios production Queers on BBC Four.

The Man on the Platform

by Mark Gatiss

Set in 1917, pairs the bittersweet train platform parting of a young soldier and his Captain with a childhood memory of Oscar Wilde on the Reading platform on his way to prison.

The Perfect Gentleman

by Jackie Clune

A gentleman in 1929 shares her stories of passing, beginning with growing up a tomboy and playing the part of the husband when she and her friend played 'wedding.'

Safest Spot in Town

by Keith Jarrett

A black man in 1941 describes the places that gay men meet in the years leading up to and during the war.

Missing Alice

by Jon Bradfield

Alice tells of being married to a gay man and the life they forged together before the issuing of the 1957 Wolfenden Report.

I Miss the War

by Matthew Baldwin

In 1967, an older gay man reminisces about the excitement of meeting men when things were less open and things like the use of Polari kept men safe from Lilly Law.

More Anger

by Brian Fillis

A young actor in 1987, laments that his only roles are of gay men dying of AIDS, while simultaneously trying to navigate his own personal life and reluctance to get tested.

A Grand Day Out

by Michael Dennis

A 17-year-old boy is among those gathered outside the House of Commons as the vote is announced for the lowering of the age of consent to 18 in 1994.

Something Borrowed

by Gareth McLean

A man remembers all of the challenges and changes in his life and in society that lead up to the possibility of this day, his wedding day.

Queers | BBC America

October 11, 2017

Junglinge im Gartenpavillion by Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann

Jünglinge im Gartenpavillion = Young Men in the Garden Pavillion (1904)
Frederich Ahlers-Hestermann (German, 1883-1973)
Oil on canvas
100 x 120.5 cm.

 

Maurice by E. M. Forster

New York : W. W. Norton, 1971

Maurice, published posthumously in 1971, is at its heart a coming of age novel and a coming out novel. The novel opens with Maurice Hall at age 14-and-a-half and just finishing up his prep school studies. When one of his teachers explains relations between men and women, Maurice doesn't feel it has much relevance to his life and says that he thinks he shall never marry.

The novel quickly moves through the public school years which are defined by maintaining a facade  to show adherence to the expected behavior. Maurice is aware of this in himself, but because he is equally aware of it in his classmates, he doesn't connect it directly to his sexuality. 

While at Cambridge, Maurice befriends Clive Durham who talks to him about his shunning of religion and  educates him on the Greek classics, in particular those which defend or describe male relationships—Plato's Symposium for instance. What should be an obviously increasing closeness between the two is not at all obvious to Maurice who is surprised when Clive suddenly professes his love. 

If anything is known about the book's storyline, it is the relationship between Maurice and Alec Scudder, the game keeper at Penge, the Durham estate. The arc of the book, however is Maurice's journey toward being ready for that relationship.  The confusion about one's feelings, the searching for a cure to one's feelings, the desire to be normal, are all too familiar for many future gay lives as well as the later novels that describe them. 
 

The problems of class are on full display in Maurice. Early in the novel, it is quite clear that Maurice doesn't spare a thought for the lower class, and in some cases is actively unkind to those who inhabit it. It isn't simply that different characters are from different classes, it's how it is possible for them to live based on their position and that they have to always consider it when making choices in their lives. While Clive and Maurice are ostensibly from the same class, Clive's family is landed and have served in government, so have a very different role than Maurice's family which runs a financial firm. And, of course Alec, who works in service, has yet different possibilities for his life. Maurice and Alec's relationship, while already complicated by sexuality also has the added layer of class difference.

Abinger Edition : 5
London : André Deutsch, 1999

1999 saw the publication of the Abinger edition of Maurice, which like all Forster titles in the series, presents the work based on all manuscripts and notes available on a particular work. The 1971 edition of Maurice uses the 1959 manuscript as its core with minor changes to deal with issues of consistency and punctuation. The Abinger edition uses the manuscripts from 1914, two different versions of the 1932 manuscript and two versions of the 1959 manuscript to present a version of the novel that reads more smoothly. As well, notes are provided that discuss and show the additions and subtractions from the text through time. 

A key piece from the original 1914 manuscript that was dropped early by Forster is an epilogue that gives the reader a window into Maurice and Alec's life five years on. When Maurice's sister, Kitty, runs into him, he is working with Alec as a woodsman. The chapter, written primarily from Kitty's point of view, makes it clear that Maurice's choice has left himself and his family in disgrace and that he is no longer in contact with them. While he and Alec seem as committed to one another as ever, their life is not easy. After running into Kitty, they decide they must move on. It is interesting to see that Forster was realistic about what the future might hold for his characters, but by eliminating the epilogue he gave the reader a more uplifting ending with possibilities for Maurice and Alec.

One of the important things about reading classics of gay literature is a consideration of gay legacy and understanding the history of those that came before. Maurice is a beautiful example of acknowledging the long history of gay men and culture through the use of classics of Greek literature within the storyline, showing Clive and Maurice trying to understand themselves and their feelings by knowing their history. As well, the basis of the novel grew out of of the relationship that Forster saw between Edward Carpenter and his working-class partner George Merrill. It is the honoring of gay men who came before while passing the torch to the next generation. 

Bibliographies & Ratings:  Young (1298*)

Bibliographies & Ratings II: Gunn (Britain 11b)