Of Human Bondage

W. Somerset MaughamChina Friendship Publishing Company · ChinaOct 2015

Rating 4.5
Word count
449K words
ISBN
9787505734371

Tags

Foreign Literature Human NatureLife PhilosophySpiritual ComfortGrowing UpSelf-Reflection

Summary

Of Human Bondage is an autobiographical novel. Life itself is the best novelist and the best biographer; every day and every hour, reality shapes thousands of novels and biographies — only life never writes them, unless occasionally there emerges a shaper of life to portray it. Maugham is such a shaper of life. This is also a great novel of apprenticeship and initiation. It recounts a series of adventures through which the young hero reaches a certain maturity. Such novels typically emphasize spiritual and intellectual development rather than external action. Through many unpleasant experiences the hero is made purer and nobler, and in these trials he finally finds himself and his proper place in life.

Editor's review

Of Human Bondage is Maugham's strongly autobiographical novel and a milestone in his career. Tracing the thirty years of its protagonist Philip Carey's life from childhood to middle age, it explores eternal questions of faith, art, love, money, and the meaning of life. With a touch so cool it borders on cruelty, Maugham strips away the veneer of idealism and shows how an ordinary man struggles and gasps for breath within various "bondages"—congenital disability, religious constraint, financial hardship, emotional entanglement—and ultimately finds some way of making peace with himself and the world.

The novel's value lies not only in its refined psychological portraiture and narrative craft but in the question it raises, one that transcends its era: when life has no preordained pattern or meaning, how should the individual conduct himself? Philip's experience—from devout belief in God to rejection of religion, from the pursuit of art to contentment with the ordinary, from feverish infatuation to a calm marriage—is no heroic triumph but the record of a soul's slow growth through disillusionment and reconstruction. Maugham offers no cheap answers, yet through the metaphor Philip finally grasps—that life is itself the pattern—he suggests that meaning may lie in accepting the disorder and contingency of life itself.

For contemporary readers, this work, written in 1915, retains a startling immediacy. The longing for freedom, the search for belonging, the fear of mediocrity, and the eternal tug-of-war between ideal and reality that it depicts remain tasks every modern mind must face. Reading it is like undergoing a profound spiritual checkup: it promises no consolation, but it offers a rare honesty—honesty about life's limits, and about the possibility of keeping one's dignity and warmth within them.

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Reading tips

  1. Set aside uninterrupted, quiet reading time; the emotional density is high, and fragmented reading diminishes its power
  2. Read alongside Maugham's biography (especially his medical training, stammer, and complicated love life) to deepen understanding of the text's autobiographical nature
  3. At moments of major choice or disillusionment in Philip's life, pause for self-reflection: how would you react in similar circumstances? This helps turn reading into an inner dialogue

About the publisher

China Friendship Publishing Company China · Founded in 1983

China Friendship Publishing Company is a comprehensive publisher known for its literary titles, covering classical Chinese literature, foreign literature, folk literature and cultural appreciation. According to the books in the database, its classical list includes celebrated dramas and novels such as The Peony Pavilion, The Romance of the Western Chamber and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, as well as note-style classics like Hong Mai's Rongzhai Suibi. In foreign literature it offers translations of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Kawabata Yasunari's Snow Country and Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, involving translators such as Zeng Siyi. It also publishes The Complete Literary Works of Lu Xun and titles associated with the "Xue'er Shuguan" editorial group, balancing the collation and popularization of classic texts. Public information on its publishing features and plans is limited; the above is summarized only from the books in the database.

FAQ

How does this book differ from The Moon and Sixpence? Both explore art, freedom, and worldly constraint, but with very different emphases. The Moon and Sixpence centers on a genius artist's defiant withdrawal from society and his burning passion, and is more dramatic and symbolic; Of Human Bondage depicts an ordinary man, Philip, slowly trudging through muddy reality, and stays closer to the trivia, compromises, and resilience of ordinary life. It is more autobiographical, and its philosophical reflection is more systematic and profound.
What exactly do the "bondages" in the book refer to? Maugham's "bondages" are multidimensional: physical (Philip's clubfoot), religious (the harsh doctrines instilled in him from childhood), economic (long-term poverty limiting his choices), emotional (the torment of infatuation, the burden of friendship), social (class attitudes, career expectations), and even metaphysical—the futile pursuit of meaning and pattern may itself become a bondage. Together they form a web of existence from which the individual cannot fully escape.
Why is Philip's final calm described as a "sober compromise" rather than a "total victory"? Philip ultimately gives up his dream of painting, chooses the steady career of a doctor, marries the plain-spoken Sara, and accepts the insight that "the pattern of life is woven from trifles." This is no heroic triumph over all bondages but an acceptance and settling grounded in reality after recognizing his own limits and the nature of life. Maugham suggests that true freedom may not lie in casting off all constraints, but in seeing them clearly and still building within them an order of life that is one's own and retains warmth.

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About the author

W. Somerset Maugham Author · British · 1874–1965

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) was a British novelist, playwright and short-story writer, born in Paris. He trained in medicine and turned to writing after publishing his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, in 1897. His representative works include Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale and The Razor's Edge, as well as a substantial body of short stories. His plain, direct style and his insight into human nature and society place his works among foreign literature and classics. Maugham excelled in both the novel and the short story; his restrained narration and penetrating observation have earned him a wide readership in Chinese, and this site holds 176 of his works.