Discussed in this essay:

The Sparsholt Affair, by Alan Hollinghurst. Knopf. 432 pages. $28.95.

On a “grey, clearish” day in March 1891, a twelve-year-old E. M. Forster won a small victory against his prep school headmaster and was excused from PE, which he hated. He was permitted to walk across the Sussex Downs for exercise instead. During his ramble, he came across a middle-aged man pissing into some gorse bushes. The man invited Forster to sit down on his coat with him, then undid his fly and told the boy to take hold of his penis. “ ‘Dear little fellow . . . play…