lovers get away unpunished

I finally found a letter of Stan talking about civil rights and the American South

Is that so?!

“A happy ending was imperative. I shouldn’t have bothered to write otherwise. I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense Maurice and Alec still roam the greenwood. I dedicated it ‘to a happier year’ and not altogether vainly. Happiness is its keynote – which by the way has had an unexpected result: it has made the book more difficult to publish… If it ended unhappily, with a lad dangling from a noose or with a suicide pact, all would be well, for there is no pornography or seduction of minors. But the lovers get away unpunished and consequently recommend crime.”