Of Human Bondage
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Of Human Bondage (1915) is a novel by William Somerset Maugham.
Generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and with a strong autobiographical nature. However, Maugham himself did not quite subscribe to this, stating in a signed inscription of a copy of the book (dated August 28, 1957) that belonged to the renowned collector Ingle Barr: This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention.
Nevertheless the book deals with the life of its main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned and brought up by his pious uncle. Maugham's severe stutter has been replaced by Philip's clubfoot. The novel takes the form of a bildungsroman, tracing the protagonist's travels to Germany, Paris, and London, while exploring his intellectual and emotional development and later, in the London period, his destructive relationship with the main female character, Mildred, a self-centered, crude cockney waitress.
Plot summary
In Germany, Philip is the naive young medical student whose heart and mind swivels between a romantic Englishman and a practical American. Maugham's sympathy lies with the practical American, though it is clear his alter ego Philip Carey is more impressed by the romantic Englishman's roseate view of life.When Philip comes back from Germany, he meets a Miss Wilkinson, the daughter of Philip's uncle's colleague. Miss Wilkinson is much older than Philip but is very flirtatious. Eventually, they agree to a rendezvous in which it is implicitly understood something sexually intimate is to take place between them. Maugham leaves it ambiguous as to whether Philip and Miss Wilkinson actually consummated any physical intimacy, for he makes it clear that Philip is repelled by Miss Wilkinson's body. In the course of their interaction, Philip treats Miss Wilkinson with disdain and cruelty. This aspect of Philip's character including his cruelty to Nora, an honorable woman who nursed Philip emotionally after Mildred deserted him for the umpteenth time, makes clear Maugham's own disdain of any notion of a person who is all good or all evil. One can at most try. Philip is ultimately the emotional abuser and the emotional abused.
Film versions
Filmed in 1934 with Leslie Howard as Philip and Bette Davis as Mildred, the girl who torments him through her rejections of him. The novel was filmed again in 1946 with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in the lead roles and in 1964 with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak taking the lead roles.External link
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