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Title: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0-553-21392-X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (100 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Classic Maugham
Comment: Of Human Bondage is Maugham's most note worthy piece of work. It made the top 100 for this century. It is an epic novel about the life of Philip Carey: a boy whose parent's die and is forced to live with his aunt and uncle. The story takes place in England in the late 1800's.
Philip is a smart boy and enjoys reading. This is his saving grace being that he was born with a club foot and is unfit for physical labor. He grows up under a harsh religious life, his uncle being a Vicar in a country church. Philip is quick to lose his belief in religion when he goes off to boarding school where he was relentlessly teased for his limp and foot. He is unsure of what he wants out of life, but eventually tires of school and desires to be an artist.
In Paris, while studying art, he meets several friends. In addition, he realizes he is a mediocre artist. Giving up art he attempts to take on accounting and then tries to be a doctor. The story becomes a little more traumatic when Philip meets a waitress named Mildred. Much of the book is dedicated to her and his unrequited love for her. She is plain and not very winsome, however Philip falls for her hard. Mildred takes him for several rides: borrowing money and eventually moving in with him (platonically). However, Mildred continues to see other men while seeing Philip and takes advantage of Philip horrendously.
This book is not for those who are shy at large page counts. It is long and often times fairly dry. Maugham has several key pages though that he uses to describe the meaning of life, which is the point of this book. Maugham seems to feel that there is no point in life except misery, which is a curse of being human. Also there are strong atheist view points expressed. However, Maugham does seem to hold some redeeming value in the human aspect of love.
Despite Philip being handicapped, I didn't find feeling much sympathy for him. Many times I felt he whined a bit much. However, the times in England were tough and the descriptions of the poor rival Jack London's "The People of the Abyss." Overall, though, this book failed to meet my expectations. It was good reading, but "A Christmas Holiday" by Maugham was much better.
Rating: 5
Summary: Possibly the best book I have read
Comment: This book has everything - a fascinating main character, interesting minor characters and exploits the theme of human suffering at an emotional and physical level.
Maugham is masterful in the way he carries the reader on Philip Carey's journey so that you are almost pleading with the character not to follow the road he is taking.
Possibly the best description is when he falls to his lowest point as a shop assistant and the indignities he is forced to endure in order to survive. Although there is a tendency sometimes to criticize him for his foolhardiness, as a reader you are ultimately drawn into sympathising with the plight of this relatively inexperienced young man.
I am hard put to think of any modern novel that has it all as this book does. Although I have read his other novels, I believe Maugham really surpassed himself when writing this fantastic book which I re-read every few years and always enjoy. Only Thomas Hardy comes close in terms of examining man's emotional suffering at the hands of a woman - something that he strongly experienced in his married life.
Rating: 5
Summary: In the speed of Maugham
Comment: W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" follows a very well known tradition in the western literature. The same one that Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist", among others, belong to. These kinds of novels are known as Bildunsroman, i.e. a novel that tells the story of the education of a young man. In "Bondage" we can follow Philip Carey's personal journey through life in order to achieve full development as a man.
In this novel, known as Maugham's masterpiece, the narrative only focus on Carey's life, and although it is not told in first person --Carey's POV-- it feels like, because all we learn is through his personal experience and conclusions. Moreover, he is virtually in every scene in the book. And because it is the story of one's life, not every incident that happens has an importance in the narrative course. Many things only happen because they do, like in real life, there is no much sense or connection with the events that happen everyday. In this sense, this can be a hard reading for some. Many may complain that --mostly the childhood and adolescence's facts --have not much to do with the end of the novel. But of course they do, after all, every thing counted to make of Carey a man.
And while the first half is quite slow, once Philip is a young man and meets a waitress name Mildred, who has 'green skin', not only does the narrative speed up, but it also heats up. The youngster develops such an obsession for this girl that it will consume his existence. Once dealing with this issue, Mangham made his novel very ahead of its time. The sexual obsession, however never explicit, was a very modern theme for his time. And it is funny to think of how contradictory the writer was. He was able to deal with such modern themes, but opted for using a very old formula to write his book.
Moreover, "Of Human Bondage" has more to do with Maugham's real life, than one might think. Although he wrote two autobiographies, it turns out that his fiction with biographical touches is famous nowadays, and not those books. And, while he touches upon controversial issues, like religion, politics, arts, public health, he does not take sides.
The Ban Tan edition features an Introduction written by novelist Jane Smiley, and while it is very insightful, with many information, I suggest reading it once finishing the novel. She gives away many important points of the plot and it may spoil the experience of reading this book.
"Of Human Bondage" is an excellent book, but it may be a little difficult for readers used to contemporary, fast and easy narratives. This novel takes time and needs concentration, but it is a great experience once one is able to adapt him/herself to Maugham's velocity, and that's what makes this book so unique.
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Title: The Razor's Edge by W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM ISBN: 1400034205 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0140185976 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: March, 1993 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Collected Short Stories (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0140185895 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Great Exotic Novels and Short Stories of Somerset Maugham by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0786708131 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: 30 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham ISBN: 0375725024 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 05 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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