41. Of Human Bondage – M. Somerset Maugham.

2001
History: It was published in 1915, and is strongly autobiographical in nature. this book became a substantial addition to the genre variously called the novel of adolescence, or the novel of educational or character development. Maugham’s own mother died when he was eight, and he appeared to have never gotten over it. Two years later his father died and he was sent to live with his Uncle in Kent. Like Phillip, Maugham left school early, and spent some time as an apprentice. He did spend a year in Paris among the art colony, but never chose a career in painting. Phillips club foot is seen as a metaphor for Maugham’s homosexuality, he also had a stammer.
Plot: the story of Philip, who is an orphan whose aunt and uncle are guardians, who is sent to boarding schools, eventually decides to be an artist. His guardians don’t approve, and convince him to go into accounting. Meanwhile he is having a few affairs. His aunt eventually dies. And he does fall in love with a girl, who tells him she is pregnant, but then isn’t, but he proposes to her anyway.
Review: A wonderful book. This book is a study of late Victorian society among other things. Set mainly in England with excursions to Germany and France we see clerical life in rural Kent, Bohemian Paris of the Latin Quarter, office work and medical school in London. The main character Phillip moves from a position of relative wealth and comfort all the way down to poverty and homelessness, and all because of his unrequited love for the mercenary Mildred. This is not a romantic or beautiful love worth suffering for though as Mildred is completely unlovable and is, in fact, incapable of feeling love herself. Nor is it her feminine beauty that enraptures Phillip as he describes her complexion as ‘green’. She is shallow, boring, selfish, promiscuous and stupid and yet Phillip’s passion for her is as great as his hatred of these very traits.
This madness that grips Phillip makes this an uncomfortable read at times. We can only watch on passively as the hero fritters away his small inheritance on the gold-digging waitress. This is a large book in both length and depth and the discussions and musings on Art, religion and philosophy are particularly engrossing and become more so as Philip’s suffering increases and lends a desperation to his search for ‘the meaning of life’, and it is his painful investigations into these areas that leads him ultimately to his own enlightenment in chapter 106.
Opening Line: “The day broke grey and dull.”
Closing Line: “Cabs and omnibuses hurried to and fro, and crowds passed, hastening in every direction, and the sun was shining.”
Quotes: “Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.”
“The important thing was to love rather than to be loved.”
Rating: Wonderful