E. M. Forster to Edward Joseph Dent, 6 March 1915: 'You can scarcely imagine the loneliness of such an effort as this [Forster's novel of homosexual love, Maurice] -- a year's work! [...] Carpenter has read and liked it, but he's too unliterary to be helpful [...] Roger Fry & Sydney [Waterlow] have also read the book, and their opinions, being totally unbiased, are interesting. R. agrees with you that it is beautiful and the best work I have done. S. finds it moving, and persuasive to all but bigots, admirable as a sociological tract, full of good things, but he finds the characters weighed down by these'.