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Of Human Bondage

by W. Somerset Maugham, Benjamin DeMott (Introduction), Maeve Binchy (Afterword)

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 19,900 ratings · 1,432 reviews

'It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham,' wrote Gore Vidal. 'He was always so entirely there.' Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Phi...more

Paperback, 704 pages

Published January 2nd 2007 by Signet Classics (first published 1915)

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Mar 30, 2011 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mildrewed Philistines

Recommended to Mariel by: Trevor

Of Human Bondage used to be under my (re)tired "waiting-until-I'm-not-too-depressed" shelf on goodreads (it had no company. What's the time before birth? I'm gonna say purgatory anyway). Yeah, right. Jump, Mariel, jump! I'm glad it is out of the way. It's the uncomfortable conversations like religious people might feel if they are unstable in faith. The glimpses when someone points out to you a fact (weeeelll) about yourself that pulls off every straggled hair as it is yanked off. I started read...more Of Human Bondage used to be under my (re)tired "waiting-until-I'm-not-too-depressed" shelf on goodreads (it had no company. What's the time before birth? I'm gonna say purgatory anyway). Yeah, right. Jump, Mariel, jump! I'm glad it is out of the way. It's the uncomfortable conversations like religious people might feel if they are unstable in faith. The glimpses when someone points out to you a fact (weeeelll) about yourself that pulls off every straggled hair as it is yanked off. I started reading Of Human Bondage after getting dumped by my friend of many years (I'm "too dark"). All things considering, a stupid book choice on my part, if I didn't want to be reminded of these exact type of conversations. Of Human Bondage is a before the dust settles life part story of Phillip. I'd say it is not much a life story as a whole lot of those conversations that look big and mean a lot of things, and at the same time sound big to beat you down. Like when Phillip wonders if thinking ever helped anyone out when they needed it? Backstory! Subtext! Okay, here's some text: My friend told me I waste my life reading books. Fiction is pointless. Those conversations might have SOME point. They aren't the whole point. That gets in the way of living, when those ideas beat down. I don't want to be beaten down. God, I really don't. What was it that M. Ward said about if life is short then why are the nights so long?

Paragraph break. My eyes would glaze over that much of me babbling. Phillip comes to the realization that life has no meaning. Everyone dies. If you can't be great, why bother? Okay, so stories are not real. But what the hell is? Is love real? Imagined, built up, analyzed interactions. Memories don't match. Life then gets rewritten in that hindsight. I comfort myself that nothing I do matters. It's how I can bully myself to carry on despite my intense stupidity. I don't understand much and sometimes this is really painful. (I say this a lot because it is my recurring nightmare.) So what? That's not gonna change. Stories are where it's surprise and multi sided relationships all in one's own brain. The best part? A surprising brain of your own. Of Human Bondage makes me feel my "But that's all wrong!" and crying out in frustration and misunderstanding when confronted with those beat down conversations. That it isn't forever is how I can carry on. What it means to me, and it doesn't matter if I can give back anything worth as much... Yeah, stories.

To be honest? I was a little lost when the ideals were really entitlement. Wrong foot...

I hated Phillip sometimes. I related to Phillip too much sometimes too. He's a quitter like me. His life's work was all along his introspection. His pitying and self satisfied (mostly in pity) inner life. How could he have missed that he only wanted Mildred because she had rejected him? C'mon, Phillip, even I would have seen that. The side of Phillip that thinks more about how good he could look making love instead of just making love... Frustrating, indeed.

Mildred is too pathetic for me to hate. She's just drifting between thoughtless passions. I'd hate her if I had it in me to hate people who picked on me in junior high. I'm needing more than that these days... Mildred is the void that is no stories. Yet she remembers everything about her dreams... Pretty much the only interesting thing about her. It isn't like he didn't KNOW that. She's not even an adult. How could one ever have a relationship with her? Or expect to?

Phillip's ideal was someone beautiful. (Sorry to anyone who hasn't read Lanark! [If you haven't, it's really good.] This relationship made me feel exactly like that. So what? It is your own damned fault.) I'm not inclined to feel that bad for a guy who doesn't try to take a bit more than that looks thing. (Sally reminded me of Mildred with the "If you like" and passiveness, anyway. If she despised Phillip she'd be better off with him. That creeps me out.) Take more! If you can't know how anyone else feels anyway, if you're going to be trapped in your own head... Make that space richer?

Miss Price killed me. Starvation suicide... Phillip's disgust towards her, his impatience with her affection... I mean, he's the same to these other women like Miss Price and Norah that Mildred was to him. Why his Mildred is a bitch talk and poor me didn't get what I deserved? What the hell is deserved?

Sometimes I worry that I'm like a sociopath who cannot fake human emotions when it comes to romance and religion. I just couldn't feel sorry for Phillip when it came to his "ideals" (coughs entitlement coughs) of perfect beauty. (By that token, he didn't "deserve" love because of his club foot.) It isn't about who deserves what. You take what the hell you can get if you can, I say. I don't know what it is like to lose that because I never had it. Entitlement. I don't want to stop caring.

Sad sigh. I felt a lot of things from this book... I just wish they were the sustaining kind that I'd drink from in my camel's hunch back huddled up for sanctuary. I said this already... It's that "But you're wrong! You HAVE to be wrong!" conversation interlude outside of life that almost sounds like it is getting somewhere and probably really isn't. I know what I can't live without...

I marked off so many passages for future reference. I will probably look them over in the future when I miss having someone to piss me off with being wrong that my life in my head from books is meaningless. Life outside too. There were many jumping off points for inspiration. I'm going to have frames of reference. I guess that's what Phillip had from his own life of introspection. He's too much like me and I don't like me.

My favorite part of Of Human Bondage is when young Phillip gets into the picture books. He stares and imagines and goes to places. I can get that retreat. It was the sensitive like feeling attuned instead of his quick to offense that I relate to entirely too much (on my worst days). Phillip's sweet moments when he feels sensitive. Maybe he likes himself for being sensitive. I don't care about that. I like looking beyond that shitty layers and can feel embarrassed, pained... He's at best when no one wants anything from him. Knowing what to do is really hard. Phillip would be a really good friend to have if he were in a book... And not the parts that were me.

P.s. Damn. Why'd I have to write a review of this before bed time? I'm upset.(less)

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Mar 18, 2013 Jenn(ifer) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-tops, read-in-2010, you-should-read-this, game-changers, 5-f-ing-stars, re-read, beach-reads, own

The following is American Idol judge Nicki Manaj's critique of Of Human Bondage

description

Hello darling. You know that I'm completely obsessed with you right now. I just want to say first of awll that your mustache is very becoming. And that ascot gets me really hot and bothered. It totally Does! I'll be honest with you sweetie, it makes me think very naughty thoughts.

Now listen darling, I have 4 words for you: This book is everything !

Seriously, sweetie, it's on another lev-el. It's completely beyond. Yo...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

A lot of this book is quite harrowing – you know the drill, young boy orphaned and alone in the world and being brought up by people without affection. Public school nightmares, a child with a deformity that causes him shame all his life.

I was not surprised to learn that Maugham was homosexual, or bisexual, or trisexual – or whatever it was that he was. There are subtle hints to the fact throughout the book.

Young Philip, the central character (rather than protagonist, I think – as there is some...more A lot of this book is quite harrowing – you know the drill, young boy orphaned and alone in the world and being brought up by people without affection. Public school nightmares, a child with a deformity that causes him shame all his life.

I was not surprised to learn that Maugham was homosexual, or bisexual, or trisexual – or whatever it was that he was. There are subtle hints to the fact throughout the book.

Young Philip, the central character (rather than protagonist, I think – as there is something of the antagonist about him too) fascinated me. His loss of faith, for example, happens so simply that it had a real ring of truth about it – much of the book is autobiographical and this seemed particularly so here – well, to me anyway.

This was not always the case. There were things that happened in the book where I struggled with the suddenness of his ‘discoveries’ – where Philip finally determines the meaning of life from a Persian carpet, for example – the meaning being pretty much Nietzschean pointlessness relieved by recognising life as a work of art – seemed a little sudden for me. I tend not to have such revelational moments in my life, but I guess I should not deny them to others.

His furious passion and ardent love for Mildred – a slut and callous bitch if there ever was one – is all a bit much. But if the definition of a good novel is how often it gets one to call out, “No Philip, not that!” then this is a great novel. Again, I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never loved someone completely in the way Philip does – not in a way that is insensible to how terribly they have treated me and how completely indifferent they are to me. So, perhaps, in this too, I am lesser than Philip.

Maugham defined himself as ‘among the first of the second rate’ – Philip goes off to study painting in Paris and leaves when he realises he will never be more than mediocre as a painter – and the life of penury that being a painter would necessitate could hardly be justified if he was only ever going to be second rate. The question – what is art and how does one know one has the gift – is a constant theme of the early part of the book.

The conclusion is hard to say – there is much talk in the book that reminds me of Wordsworth, the artist shows the world how to see and how to feel. But there is also a terrible pointlessness to art. In the end I think art isn’t what one does because what is produced is good or bad, it is what one does because there is no other choice. And for most of us there are always other choices.

Repeatedly, as someone is about to die, Philip is struck by how pointless their lives have been. In the end Philip is grateful for his acceptance of the meaninglessness of his existence – which reminds me of that quote from Stendhal, “God’s only excuse is that he does not exist.” There is a terribly interesting scene towards the end of the novel where this is brought home with full power. It is a favourite ploy of the faithful to think that atheists on their death beds convert to join in hope of salvation. While his uncle is dying, and Philip has been sitting contemplating murdering the old man to relieve his own intolerable poverty, he knows the old man is almost panic stricken at the idea of losing his life. This resolves differently to how I expected – leaving room for the faithful to celebrate at the comfort their faith offers in the end – but it seems a somewhat hollow victory when their own saviour’s last words were – “Oh Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me?”

The central idea of this book is that life has no meaning – no overarching meaning – that most of life is pain and bitterness and at times punctuated by tiny moments of joy and happiness – and these ought to be accepted and celebrated equally – both the pain and the joy – as part of the tapestry of life. Love is almost impossible and is never equal – it is a sad and bitter vision.

In the end the real lesson seems to be to live in the present. I would have liked to have read this book years ago, I’m terribly sorry I have only read it now for the first time – I would have liked to have read it when I was 18, when I would have had no means to understand it. I would have liked to have had it with me during darker times than this. It was quite a read and I enjoyed it, if enjoyed is at all the right word, very much.

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Jan 11, 2010 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites, favorites, good-fiction, to-read-again, read-in-2010, romantic-love-and-hate, growing-up, memorable-characters, transformative-experience

I fell in love with this book; it spoke to me, and I will aways have a strong affection for it. After three weeks of opening its pages virtually every night, I now find myself saddened that I can no longer turn to it. How can anything else compare?

Of Human Bondage is a classic in every positive sense of the word. Aside from The Brothers Karamazov, it is the only book I've read, whereupon finishing, I was able to say to myself: "This novel is life itself: it contains all of its complexities, emo...more

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Sep 10, 2010 JSou rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, classics, favo-u-rites, i-own-you

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A GUY WITH A CLUBFOOT HIS GIRLFRIENDS A BITCH

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Feb 02, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fiction, read-and-reread, lplib-classics, bildungsroman

One of my favorite novels; yet, strangely, I have difficulty understanding the hero (anti-hero?) Philip Carey. Philip, like the author himself, is orphaned and brought up by his uncle. Harshly treated, he is burdened with liabilities, both physical, a clubfoot, and intellectual, a habit of making the least of his opportunities through bad choices and/or lack of talent.
As I reread the novel I am immediately impressed by the importance of reading for the young Philip Carey. He turns to reading to...more

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Jul 07, 2008 Martine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who are looking for the meaning of life

Shelves: british, early-twentieth-century, film, modern-fiction, psychological-drama

Of Human Bondage is a Bildungsroman which frequently makes you groan and mentally exclaim 'Oh, no!', only to blow you away with the power of its message and the perfection of its ending. Over the course of the 656-page book, the main character, Philip Carey, a young orphan born with a clubfoot, takes many wrong turns, mostly because he has taken it into his head that he wants to live the life of a romantic hero. He makes unwise career moves, recklessly spends money he should have saved, and gets...more Of Human Bondage is a Bildungsroman which frequently makes you groan and mentally exclaim 'Oh, no!', only to blow you away with the power of its message and the perfection of its ending. Over the course of the 656-page book, the main character, Philip Carey, a young orphan born with a clubfoot, takes many wrong turns, mostly because he has taken it into his head that he wants to live the life of a romantic hero. He makes unwise career moves, recklessly spends money he should have saved, and gets obsessed with a woman who is so obviously awful that even he himself, at the height of his passion, calls her an 'ill-mannered slut'. But such is the depth of his obsession and extravagant generosity that he goes on treating her nicely even when she grossly abuses him, because hey, you never know -- she might realise one day that he's a much nicer fellow than the rakes with whom she likes to hang out. And so he drags himself down into a hell of masochistic misery, very nearly ruining himself in the process, only to find that happiness of a kind he had never given any serious thought is within his grasp, if only he cares to accept it and let go of the false dreams and ideals that he has cherished for years.

The most autobiographical of all Somerset Maugham's novels, Of Human Bondage is a frequently maddening but always impressive account of the education of a shy, bullied young man who seeks to free himself from the shackles of existence without realising what exactly these shackles are. Following a strict and unhappy upbringing, Philip goes on to look for freedom, romance and adventures in the world of art, ideas and ideals, not realising how dangerous and seductive these are, and how they will lead him astray. For much of the first half of the book, Philip is a somewhat unlikeable, self-pitying snob whose bad decisions and obsessive love for an obviously horrible woman occasionally exasperate the reader. In the final third, though, he learns important lessons and meets genuine friends, and by the end of the book he has improved so much that you really find yourself rooting for him, hoping he'll recognise the goodness of the life and wife that are placed before him, and accept them. Maugham paints his journey towards awareness in exquisite detail, looking deep into Philip's soul but also sharing the outsider's perspective on him. He also does a great job drawing the large cast of secondary characters. Many of them are vain, selfish and pretentious, but that only adds to the 'Oh, no!' quality of the story. As for the book's message, which is that life has no meaning and that it's better to accept this before one drives oneself mad searching for it, this is brought home in magnificent detail, especially in the superb final third of the book, which has more depth than just about any other novel I've read. Granted, the story is a bit long, and the first half drags a bit, but it's worth sticking with it for the final chapters, which are so cathartic and revelatory that you cannot but come away impressed and converted. I know I did. Twice.

I'd give the book 4.5 stars if I could, but alas...(less)

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Mar 08, 2013 Eric Aiello rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 50-book-challenge-2010

What we have in Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest and all-encompassing stories to ever come from human kind. Written in the early 1900s, Maugham's novel is not only incredibly relevant in today's society but should also be required reading in our schools. I, for one, had never heard of this book until I was well into college (and even then it was not by professors but by the internet). The novel is essentially a bildungsroman tale (coming-of-age tale - allow me to also recommend Nervous Co...more What we have in Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest and all-encompassing stories to ever come from human kind. Written in the early 1900s, Maugham's novel is not only incredibly relevant in today's society but should also be required reading in our schools. I, for one, had never heard of this book until I was well into college (and even then it was not by professors but by the internet). The novel is essentially a bildungsroman tale (coming-of-age tale - allow me to also recommend Nervous Conditions of the same genre) that follows the life of Philip Carey, a club-footed boy orphaned at the age of 9. He goes to live with his aunt and uncle, neither of whom are parents, and from here the novel surges through Philip's life until he is about thirty. Surges may be a poor word choice. This book is, after all, rather long, but not a word could have been spared by editors. I savoured every last one of them until the end.

Considering the novel deals with quite literally the ENTIRETY of Philip's experience as a person in society, it would be a daunting task indeed to review every aspect of this story. So I won't attempt it. Alas, I have other books to read! But I will address a few specific aspects of the novel which had me reeling in delight (and sometimes reeling in annoyed frustration!).

As the title implies, the story has everything to do with the enslavement of the human spirit by various societal institutions and physical and psychological tendencies. The story also has everything to do with the human liberation from such bondage. Philip's tale is our case study here - he is who we will follow and examine as we consider human bondage in a world largely operated by humans!

I was able to identify with Philip on many levels. One such level was that of religious fervour and then the dismissal of that fervent belief. Philip was raised religiously, even professed the beauty of his faith. Soon, he realized the absurdity of religion. He noticed that so many religions sought after the one valid and universal truth, that they all claimed eventually to have found that truth, and that theirs was the legitimate faith and all others illegitimate. Philip saw the problem in this. He realized that this bred a prejudice world, one that would enslave Philip to the Anglican life. This was his first liberation. He shed his faith, realizing that if God would punish him for honestly not believing then there was nothing he could do about it (also touching briefly on Pascal's Wager here). The world was his to explore, and in his exploration he wished to seek a new meaning for his life.

I'm not going to go crazy summarising the rest of the novel and I will let you read it on your own to discover his new views of life as they mature. I'll simply say his journey is quite wonderful and the meaning he finds is a meaning I happen to share. His arrival at this meaning is beautiful and poignant and it is in the last 100 pages of the book that I truly came to care deeply about Philip. Before then, I found him quite insufferable yet I was deeply invested in his life. His relationships with other people and his ludicrous behavior towards some of them left me nearly shouting at the pages, begging the other characters to club Philip over his head with his own club foot. Harsh and insulting, perhaps, but Philip should have been served what he dished.

I say that reluctantly, actually, because there was that one ill-mannered slut, Mildred, who did not deserve one one-hundreth of what Philip offered her. While I hated Mildred passionately, I was so disgusted by Philip's continual love for her that I came to no longer care what pain he suffered on her behalf. I was in Philip's corner the whole time (except for when he acted like a stalking creep), I just gave up on him. His final two experiences with Mildred left me fuming!

I was only slightly disappointed by the end of the novel. Considering the book was nearly 700 pages, it's sort of strange to say that I thought it ended too abruptly, but none-the-less, I think it sort of ended rapidly! That said, the ending did do a brilliant job highlighting the overlaying message of the story, the inanity and absurdity of life, and Philip's intense transformation.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I thought Philip was gay. I expected him at any minute to shed his heterosexuality (admit it, Phil, it was all a deception!) just like he shed his fear of God! But alas, he never did. I also swore that Sally was a lesbian, but I was apparently wrong there, too.

And for anyone who thinks "old" books are harder to read, think again! This book is incredibly readable. Maugham takes pride in his succinctness, and reasonably so. Wonderful, simple, and beautiful prose that begs to be read.
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Jul 19, 2007 Siobhan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone, but especially young adults and boys

It's hard for a bildungsroman not to seem trite, when we've all gone through much the similar phases as the protagonist - there's something slightly embarrassing about revisiting the gradual death of innocence, the flailing search for Meaning, and all that comes inherent with becoming an adult.

So it's pretty impressive that Somerset Maugham manages to capture the reader's attention so completely, as we follow Philip Carey through death, exclusion, lust, discovery, disillusionment, love, poverty...more

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Jan 27, 2008 Lenny Husen rated it 5 of 5 stars

This, like Tapping the Source, is another ultimate Coming of Age novel. And the descriptions of unrequited love are the truest I've ever come across. I love the descriptions of med school in the 1920's. The main character isn't likeable for most of the story, but he's a real person, and the ending is the best ever. Truly my favorite book of all time.

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Nov 27, 2010 Jana rated it 2 of 5 stars

You know those people that are scared of silence? So, if you find yourself in a situation where talk isn’t necessary, you can just enjoy the view, those people will ridiculously blabber just because they think they have to.

'Isn’t this traffic jam just exhausting. Every day the same, oh, look, this guy with a guitar is crossing the street, I wonder where he is going. See, that blue car didn’t even see this tram, nearly knocked this lad over! Omg, luckily, it’s such a nice day, imagine if it were...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Carol rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-lit-american-lit, fiction, my-ebooks, favorites

This was a very long and arduous read but in the end, to me at least, a great work of literature well worth the effort. I had written a lengthy, self-indulgent, overly analytical exercise in verbosity that qualified as a review but, alas, I have opted to not post it here. My hesitation was due in part to my overall lack of confidence in my skills as a writer as well as my complete inability to communicate symbolically or think abstractly. I'm of a more rigidly scientific mind to be sure. Howeve...more

This was a very long and arduous read but in the end, to me at least, a great work of literature well worth the effort. I had written a lengthy, self-indulgent, overly analytical exercise in verbosity that qualified as a review but, alas, I have opted to not post it here. My hesitation was due in part to my overall lack of confidence in my skills as a writer as well as my complete inability to communicate symbolically or think abstractly. I'm of a more rigidly scientific mind to be sure. However, my reticence in posting this review was also because doing so just seemed so gratuitous. Of Human Bondage has been around for quite awhile; surely the goodreads community can do without another superfluous amateur review. So, I have concluded that there are 2 more
significant points to be made that would sufficiently present an accurate portrayal of the book. They are as follows:

1) Suffering is inherent to human nature and life is meaningless. Suffering is neither unnecessarily bad nor particularly beneficial, it is just the way life is. It need not be a means to an end. It is neither tragic nor comic. That life is ultimately meaningless was explained in a way i found truly beautiful.

"Life had no meaning. On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment."

Furthermore, this idea is effectively depicted as Philip reflects upon and finally grasps the meaning behind Crenshaw's cryptic riddle involving the Persian rug:

"As the weaver [of a Persian rug] elaborated his pattern for no end but the pleasure of his aesthetic sense, so might a man live his life... There was as little need to do this as there was use. It was merely something he did for his own pleasure. Out of the manifold events of his life, his deeds, his feelings, his thoughts, he might make a design, regular, elaborate, complicated, or beautiful...it seemed, so to him it was. In the vast warp of life (a river arising from no spring and flowing endlessly to no sea), with the background to his fancies that there was no meaning and that nothing was important, a man might get a personal satisfaction in selecting the various strands that worked out the pattern...His life had seemed horrible when it was measured by its happiness, but now he seemed to gather strength as he realised that it might be measured by something else. Happiness mattered as little as pain. They came in, both of them, as all the other details of his life came in, to the elaboration of the design...That he had suffered was no more than part of a decoration which was elaborate and beautiful; he told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.

2) Mildred is a complete and total bitch. She epitomizes all that is evil. Stay away from crazy bitches like Mildred. (less)

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Aug 05, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, british-isles, autobiography-memoir, fiction

I pulled this off my parents shelves, a slightly battered paperback with a pale cover and read it at some point between my teens and early twenties. Looking over other reviews I can't say I recognise what they have to say, so I suspect it's not a book that made a big impact on me.

The scene in which the other art student is found when she has hung herself in her brown dress sticks in my mind along with the scene towards the end with the hop picking with the girl looking slyly at Philip to see his...more

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Jul 02, 2007 Katherine M rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, british-authors

Maugham mastered all the techniques necessary to be an excellent writer. The book flowed easily pulling the reader deeper and deeper into the story, the detailed descriptions allowing the characters to rise alive and unique from the story. The strength Maugham used to pull the reader into the story, however, created a few hundred unbearably emotionally taxing pages. Philip's unrequited, obsessive love for Mildred felt akin to smashing one's head repeatedly into a brick wall, and as a frustrated...more

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Aug 16, 2007 Meredith rated it 1 of 5 stars

I tried and tried to get through this book. I stuck by Phillip hoping that eventually he would get his act together. It became quite tiresome to read about him making one pathetically wrong choice after another. He was a complete weakling and I could not get through the book because of it.

This novel has been stated to be one of the best books written. Perhaps I missed something great by not sticking it out to the end, but I just could not. There are too many other great stories to read.

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Nov 06, 2007 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Has one of literature's great lines about reading:

"Insensibly he formed the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading: he did not know that thus he was providing himself with a refuge from all the distress of life; he did not know either that he was creating for himself an unreal world which would make the real world of every day a source of bitter disappointment."

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Jan 03, 2013 K. Jared Hosein rated it 5 of 5 stars

“He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.”

There are many types of addiction. When we think of it, we usually think of substance abuse. But then there is the addiction of television, fame, adrenaline, company and much more. Of Human Bondage deals with the addiction of love, or what one may perceive as love. The novel opens with Philip Carey, now a nine year old orphan due to hi...more “He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.”

There are many types of addiction. When we think of it, we usually think of substance abuse. But then there is the addiction of television, fame, adrenaline, company and much more. Of Human Bondage deals with the addiction of love, or what one may perceive as love. The novel opens with Philip Carey, now a nine year old orphan due to his mother's death, and his father's demise several years before. What ensues is a telling of Philip's experiences while staying with his uncle, a vicar in the hamlet of Kent, in true bildungsroman style.

Maugham sets out to detail the transmogrification of Philip as he escapes into his imagination while in his uncle's library, and how his changing personality affects those around him. A touching one relates to the motherly notion that is bestowed upon his aunt, who cannot bear any children of her own. When reading it from the theme of addiction, it can be seen that the opening tragedies and contingencies are a reflection of it.

See, this is a novel about unrequited love. Many examples of it occur throughout. Just as Philip's aunt loves him, it is hard for Philip to love her in return. And we can understand his reasons why. The real conflict of the story comes into play when Philip crosses parts with a waitress named Mildred. I thought Mildred was such an appropriate name, though I am not sure if the "dreadfulness" (pun intended) of these two syllables were Maugham's intention. It echoes the name of the vile protagonist of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - Nurse Mildred Ratched. Perhaps it was Nurse Ratched who was named after this vile Mildred.

Mildred knows how to manipulate men with that potent drug - love. She drugs Philip with all the oxytocin and dopamine throughout the novel, dragging him into realms where words such as "reason" have no belonging. Just as Philip could not love his aunt in return, Mildred could not love Philip in return. A sense of need is vastly different from a sense of respect and love. Philip needed Mildred, just as an addict needs his fix. The entire novel - the orphaning, his uncle's neglect, his badgering at the boarding school, his feeling of mediocrity as an artist - before the meeting with Mildred, was the set-up to show how Philip was raised with a festering tumour of self-doubt and discontent in his brain, making him feel as if he did not deserve all the other women who truly loved him.

True love was embarrassing to him, because he always felt like he lacked the virtue to be worthy of it. He yearned to have Mildred drag him back down. He felt out of his element with being righteously loved. When I reflected on the novel like this, I think this novel shows, even through its pessimistic lenses, a deep understanding love that could only come from disappointment and heartbreak. It's really a journey to show how an addict shakes off an addiction, and how he can rebuild himself from that point onwards.

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Jan 16, 2013 Corey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've told myself I'm going to stop writing reviews of books as I always feel horribly inept at articulating my thoughts on the books I read, especially the "classics" such as this one. However, I feel that anytime somebody gives a three star-rating, an explanation is required. Did you really like it, as a three-star rating is supposed to imply or was it just "meh"? Or, as in this case, was it somewhere in between the two? In any case, here's some thoughts I had on this book/reasons why I felt it...more I've told myself I'm going to stop writing reviews of books as I always feel horribly inept at articulating my thoughts on the books I read, especially the "classics" such as this one. However, I feel that anytime somebody gives a three star-rating, an explanation is required. Did you really like it, as a three-star rating is supposed to imply or was it just "meh"? Or, as in this case, was it somewhere in between the two? In any case, here's some thoughts I had on this book/reasons why I felt it could not receive a higher rating.

A) Maugham's prose, while adept and brilliant in some places, is downright sloppy and lazy in others. I remember coming across one line that described Sally's eyes as being "like apples". What does that even mean, Mr. Maugham?

B) The book is way too long. There's so much repetition in this thing, it makes you wonder what sort of person was editing it. Over and over and over again, Maugham tells us how "vulgar" Mildred is and how unhappy Philip is, and how totally, desperately, hopelessly, passionately, completely in love he is with her. Also his obsession with certain words-- "manifold" for example--, was used over and over and over again on the same page.

C) Philip Carey, therapist's wet dream that he might be, is not a very believable character. We're told over and over and over again that he is in "love" with Mildred, but he does nothing to show us that. Instead, he spends pages and pages talking about how "vulgar" and "anemic" she is, how simple she is, and how cold she is. She's not attractive, she's not smart, she's not even kind, and Philip clearly hates her. Yet he insists that he loves her. Now, is it possible that Maugham is trying here to make a comment on love? Perhaps that people who claim to be in love often don't show much proof of it? Certainly. But in reality, people do show SOMETHING. They go out of their way to find beauty in the plain, or a charming quirk, or SOMETHING. But Maugham doesn't give Philip any reason to even like, let alone love, Mildred, and he winds up becoming cartoonish. (less)

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Dec 18, 2008 Anjali rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this just before going on my recent quest to read (at least some) novels by women of color. I decided on doing this out of frustration with the fact that the mostly "classic" lit I'd been reading was almost overwhelmingly, inappropriately, disgustingly dominated by white men. This book, I think, was the ultimate white male literary send off. It is long and simply told, without any of this "look at me I can write fancy sentences!" nonsense. In my opinion, Maugham does orphanhood better tha...more

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Oct 09, 2012 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: All classics lovers

Shelves: classics

This was my first Maugham book and I'm very glad I was recommended it. The story was essentially the coming of age story of an orphaned boy who was born with a clubfoot.He tries to find himself in many different ways and places; in Germany, in Paris, in London etc.

I loved the parts of the novel which dealt with the Bohemian lifestyle in Paris. It was basically the stereotypical image one gets when imagining poor, struggling, artists. The characters I met in this section were among my favourites...more

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Apr 26, 2007 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who likes descriptions and Brit Lit

This was my Spring Break project. Just to give you an idea of what my "projects" often look like, my trip-to-San-Francisco project last August was Anna Karenina. Large in scope, lengthy of page.

This was no exception, though I must say I found it much more enjoyable that Anna K. I had previously read The Razor's Edge and Christmas Holiday, so I knew basically the style I was in for.

I found Of Human Bondage to be a good deal more readable than expected. It's enormous, and the print is small, but...more

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Oct 01, 2007 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: most everyone, I dug it

This is one of those 600 pagers that slowly but surely begins to feel like one of your own appendages. I became very fond of the feel of this 2 pound monstrosity in my work bag and in my hands on the subway. I'm sad that Of Human Bondage is over. I became so attached to Phillip and his tumultuous love life, so pissed at that stuffy vicar, and don't even get me started on Mildred. What a bitch. Sure the steps that Phillip takes in his life and the language used are a little dated in an it-all-ha...more

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Sep 29, 2009 Laurele rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2009, audible

Just as I was beginning to wish this novel was a short story, it took an unexpected turn and I was glad that I had 300 more pages or so to go (it's a 700-page book). It was fortuitous that I read it just after finishing _Nicholas Nickleby_. Like Nicholas, Maugham's hero, Phillip Carey, keeps reinventing himself and varying his stage and adventures. Phillip Carey, though, has no dependents for whom to toil. He is on a quest for freedom while all the time being bound by his own passions. Not until...more

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Jul 03, 2007 Sergey rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2006, own, fiction, read_in_english

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 16, 2007 Matthew Klobucher rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I first picked up this book, I was chiefly interested because the author was an athiest. I was subsequently surprised to find the story enthralling. Entrenched in the banality of modern life, but punctuated with pathetic attempts at romance and art, the main character struggles through the story in a confused and quietly desperate manner. The writing is lucid and raw, though very intelligent. The melancholy is well hidden under the events of the story. I don't know if I really enjoyed the b...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Cherie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

A- No, not an S&M book; a terrific classic! The story of Phillip, a young man whose clubfoot shapes his life, but not as much as his inability to ask for what he wants (or even to think what he wants has value in this world). Love, death, happiness, passion, career dreams, and relationships play major roles. Highly recommended to those who like a good book with an interesting storyline; I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, but it passed the time on several arduous bus rides on un...more

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Jul 25, 2007 Skipp rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone

Amazing. My favorite book. A long, beautifully written, intimate portrait of the human condition. Maugham is a genius. I felt very connected to the protagonist and his life even though it was set in England almost 100 years ago. I recommend this to anyone, but I feel that young people (20s-30s) still exploring their place in life will get the most value from it.

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Jul 29, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those who like books that make a statement about human behavior

Shelves: fiction-classic, fiction-historical

Set mostly in England and Paris, and written 100 years ago, this novel explores the way society and individuals are enslaved by themselves and others.

Philip Carey is orphaned at a young age and goes to live with his childless aunt and uncle. Philip has a clubfoot and is very sensitive about it; he also lacks confidence in his relationships with others.

Philip seems to drift through school and life, setting a path one way, only to give up and head off in another direction. Philip changes career p...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Kurt Brindley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

I suppose the easiest, and quickest, way to sum up Maugham's OF HUMAN BONDAGE would be to write something along the lines of "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," which is certainly the case for the story's protagonist, Phillip Carey.

If, however, that was all I wrote, then not only I would I be overly brief in this review (which probably is not a bad thing), I would also be overly unoriginal since we all know the above quote belongs to the great Henry David Thoreau.

Unfortunately, be...more I suppose the easiest, and quickest, way to sum up Maugham's OF HUMAN BONDAGE would be to write something along the lines of "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," which is certainly the case for the story's protagonist, Phillip Carey.

If, however, that was all I wrote, then not only I would I be overly brief in this review (which probably is not a bad thing), I would also be overly unoriginal since we all know the above quote belongs to the great Henry David Thoreau.

Unfortunately, because I do not have Thoreau's genius for writing simply (which requires skill and patience that most writers, to include me, do not possess), I will have to deploy many more words than just Thoreau's for my own summing up of Maugham's masterpiece.

But what Thoreau wrote so poetically is undeniably what the essence of Maugham's story is about:

Carey, born with a clubbed foot and who grows up to be shy and insecure because of it, lives a life yearning to be someone he can never be, to love someone whom he can never love, and to be somewhere other than where he happens to be.

His yearnings, we find, go mostly unfulfilled.

What I enjoy most about the story is Maugham's descriptive ability. His writing magically places me deep within the England and the Germany and the France of the early twentieth century. I can hear the cart wheels rolling along the cobble-stoned streets. I can see the crowded, smoke-filled cafe. I can taste the absinthe and feel the immediate allure and rush as it blissfully numbs away the bite of reality.

What I enjoy least about the story is Carey's excessively drawn-out infatuation with Mildred Rogers, the cruel and insensitive simpleton who fancies herself to be of a station in life much higher than the one she is unable to escape, no matter how hard she tries. While she does not have the capacity to improve her lot in life through earnest devices and effort, she does have enough smarts about her to understand early on in her relationship with Carey that she has a power over him from which he is also unable to escape no matter how hard he tries. She uses and abuses Carey with her power so often and for so long that I found myself becoming impatient and bored with, not only Carey's unbelievable weakness, but with the story as a whole. However, by that point, I was already deeply hooked, addicted to the tale and desperate to know whether Carey would find a way to ween himself from his deadly addiction to Rogers, or if he would die unfulfilled and, as Oliver Wendell Holmes writes in his poem "The Voiceless," with his music still in him.

While I find the tortuous, one-sided love affair between Carey and Rogers to be a bit too much, through it I am reminded that any unhealthy dependency, be it our dependency on love, on money, on drugs, or on whatever, often takes us down a long and troubling path that, if we stay on it, will eventually lead us to the point of our destruction. And it usually is not until we nearly reach that point that we are finally able to realize just how destructive our dependency, our yearning, really is. Only then, if we are lucky or blessed or both (for unfortunately, many are unable to stop before reaching the point of their destruction and continue helplessly, fatally on), can we find the strength to separate ourselves from that which is destroying us and begin on a path to recovery.

But I guess that's how life goes, and how it has always gone throughout the desperate ages -- if we do not somehow find a way to come to peace with our satiated yearnings, our unrequited desires, they will most likely be the sad and desperate songs we sing until we finally, and at last, are placed within our cold and lonely graves.

~~~~

This review is also posted at amazon.com and bojiki.com/reviews/(less)

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Mar 13, 2007 Dave Russell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, classics, favorites

Have you ever felt an author had stolen your thoughts and feelings and put them in a book? I felt that way through this entire book.

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About W. Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.

His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in 'Of Human Bondage' , Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he alm...more

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“He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other.” — 478 people liked it

“It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideal which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy; for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who look back upon the past through a rosy haze of forgetfulness, prepare them for an unreal life. They must discover for themselves that all they have read and all they have been told are lies, lies, lies; and each discovery is another nail driven into the body on the cross of life.” — 237 people liked it

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