Forster’s Alexandria: the Transitional Journey

Abstract

Forster’s sojourn in Alexandria was not less needed than his previous visit to India. The mixture of futility and exaltation generated by that earlier journey had subsequently been superseded by feelings of self-disgust and misery. Firstly, the domestic affairs of his female relations became too chaotic for him to deal with without becoming depressed. Secondly, Maurice, which Forster had just finished and which he had decided to leave unpublished, did not bring with it satisfaction, or the cure to his troubles which he had anticipated while writing it. Thirdly, there was the general mood of the war, in which he found a parallel to his own affairs.¹