Clive Durham
Maurice’s Cambridge love, who later claims heterosexuality, marries Anne, and returns fully to conventional upper-class life.
To preserve an orderly public life—marriage, estate, and political future—after deciding that his relationship with Maurice no longer belongs in it.
The book
At a glance
- Cambridge
- Penge estate
- Anne Woods Durham
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeAt Cambridge, Clive gives Maurice the intellectual courage to name their love while also restricting it to an idealized, nonsexual form.
His later marriage offers safety and status, but it also requires him to treat his past with Maurice as an error that can be closed.
How the book draws them
- Refined Cambridge intellectualEducation and class shape his bearing.
- Elegant featuresHe appears more cultivated than robust.
- Slightly ascetic posturePhysical restraint is central to his early ideal.
- Formal Edwardian clothesHis appearance anticipates the life he chooses.
- Close engraved bustNo college architecture appears.
- Muted plum accentThe color distinguishes him from Maurice.
Clive marries Anne and cannot understand Maurice’s choice of Alec. Maurice’s final disclosure leaves Clive confronting the life he refused.
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