Of Human Bondage

Categories: Books & Authors | English | Literature | Books | Fiction | Novels
    • Author: W. Somerset Maugham
    • Publication Date: 1915
    • Setting: United Kingdom, early 1900's
    • Genre: Novel/Drama
    • Protagonist: Phillip Carey
    • Is considered Maugham's greatest work
    • Maugham denies novel semi-autobiographical
    • Mentioned in [http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye The Catcher in the Rye]

  • Of Human Bondage, though denied by author W. Somerset Maugham, is considered to be semi-autobiographical. The main character, Phillip Carey's parents die when he is a young boy, as do Maughams. Carey is sent to a vicarage to be raised, as is Maugham. Maugham stutters, Carey has a clubbed foot. These are just a few of the similarities that lead readers to draw the conclusion that Of Human Bondage is semi-autobiographical in nature.

  • Phillip's ups and downs

    The beginning chapters of the book relate Phillip's years in the vicarage, and the lack of caring that he receives there. Soon he is sent to a boarding school by his guardians, where he is taunted by his peers because of his clubbed foot. A lonely boy, Phillip buries himself in reading books as a means of escape. Having an aptitude for academics, he is later sent to Germany to study, where he meets many people who influence his life and his beliefs, not necessarily for the better.

  • Women in Phillip's life

    Phillip meets an older woman, Mrs. Wilkerson. They have a short relationship, but he soon breaks it off. He then meets Miss Price, a fellow student who falls in love with him. He doesn't return her affection, so she kills herself leaving Phillip to tend to her affairs. He later meets another young lady, Mildred, and falls in love with her. She, however, doesn't return his feelings and informs him that she is about to marry another. Phillip sometime later again meets up with Mildred, only to find that her marriage didn't take place, she now has a child and has turned to prostitution as a means of support. Phillip takes pity on her, giving her a home and a job as his housekeeper. No longer in love with her, however, he rejects her advances. Mildred then leaves him, but not until she destroys all of his possessions, forcing Phillip to lower his standard of living.

  • Phillip finds love and happiness

    Having given up art, Phillip turns to studying medicine. While at the hospital he meets Thorpe Athelny and they become friends. Having been ill advised to invest in the stock market, Phillip looses everything in the stock market crash of 1929. An inheritance from his uncle, however, gets him back on his feet financially and enables him to finish medical school. Not long afterwards, he discovers that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, likes him. They begin a relationship, she gets pregnant, but loses the baby. Although very disappointed over the loss of their child, Phillip proposes marriage to Sally, she happily accepts, and they are wed.

  • Quotations

    1. "You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action"
    2. "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 ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded"
    3. "Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind"
    4. "Art... is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life"
    5. "I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the world"
    6. "Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure"
    7. "People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise"
    8. "There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood...Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five"
    9. "You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent"
    10. "It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late"

  • Of Human Bondage, though denied by author W. Somerset Maugham, is considered to be semi-autobiographical. The main character, Phillip Carey's parents die when he is a young boy, as do Maughams. Carey is sent to a vicarage to be raised, as is Maugham. Maugham stutters, Carey has a clubbed foot. These are just a few of the similarities that lead readers to draw the conclusion that Of Human Bondage is semi-autobiographical in nature.

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  • Phillip's ups and downs

    </small>

    The beginning chapters of the book relate Phillip's years in the vicarage, and the lack of caring that he receives there. Soon he is sent to a boarding school by his guardians, where he is taunted by his peers because of his clubbed foot. A lonely boy, Phillip buries himself in reading books as a means of escape. Having an aptitude for academics, he is later sent to Germany to study, where he meets many people who influence his life and his beliefs, not necessarily for the better.

  • Women in Phillip's life

    </small>

    Phillip meets an older woman, Mrs. Wilkerson. They have a short relationship, but he soon breaks it off. He then meets Miss Price, a fellow student who falls in love with him. He doesn't return her affection, so she kills herself leaving Phillip to tend to her affairs. He later meets another young lady, Mildred, and falls in love with her. She, however, doesn't return his feelings and informs him that she is about to marry another. Phillip sometime later again meets up with Mildred, only to find that her marriage didn't take place, she now has a child and has turned to prostitution as a means of support. Phillip takes pity on her, giving her a home and a job as his housekeeper. No longer in love with her, however, he rejects her advances. Mildred then leaves him, but not until she destroys all of his possessions, forcing Phillip to lower his standard of living.

  • Phillip finds love and happiness

    </small>

    Having given up art, Phillip turns to studying medicine. While at the hospital he meets Thorpe Athelny and they become friends. Having been ill advised to invest in the stock market, Phillip looses everything in the stock market crash of 1929. An inheritance from his uncle, however, gets him back on his feet financially and enables him to finish medical school. Not long afterwards, he discovers that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, likes him. They begin a relationship, she gets pregnant, but loses the baby. Although very disappointed over the loss of their child, Phillip proposes marriage to Sally, she happily accepts, and they are wed.

  • Fast Facts

    1. Author: W. Somerset Maugham
    2. Publication Date: 1915
    3. Setting: United Kingdom, early 1900's
    4. Genre: Novel/Drama
    5. Protagonist: Phillip Carey
    6. Is considered Maugham's greatest work
    7. Maugham denies novel semi-autobiographical
    8. Mentioned in The Catcher in the Rye

  • Quotations

    1. </small>
    2. "You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action"
    3. "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 ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded"
    4. "Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind"
    5. "Art... is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life"
    6. "I do not confer praise or blame: I accept. I am the measure of all things. I am the centre of the world"
    7. "Men seek but one thing in life — their pleasure"
    8. "People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise"
    9. "There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one's means of livelihood...Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five"
    10. "You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank, and independent"
    11. "It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late"
    12. </note>

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