Of Human Bondage (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) [Paperback]

W. Somerset Maugham (Author), Carin Companick (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Barnes & Noble Classics | Publication Date: February 1, 2007

Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

One of the most widely read novels of the twentieth century, W. Somerset Maugham’s masterpiece Of Human Bondage gives a harrowing depiction of unrequited love. Philip Carey, a sensitive orphan born with a clubfoot, finds himself in desperate need of passion and inspiration. He abandons his studies to travel, first to Heidelberg, and then to Paris, where he nurses ambitions of becoming a great artist. Philip’s youthful idealism erodes, however, as he comes face-to-face with his own mediocrity and lack of impact on the world. After returning to London to study medicine, he becomes wildly infatuated with Mildred, a vulgar, tawdry waitress, and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life.
 
First published in 1915, the semi-autobiographical Of Human Bondage combines the values left over from the Victorian era with the prevailing irony and despair of the early twentieth century. Unsentimental yet bursting with deep feeling, Of Human Bondage remains Maugham’s most complete statement of the importance of physical and spiritual liberty, a theme that resounds more loudly than ever today.

 

Carin Companick is a freelance writer and a specialist in the field of language proficiency assessment. She studied English literature at Haverford College and completed her graduate work in Victorian and modern literature at Columbia University. She lives and works in Princeton, New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Carin Companick’s Introduction to Of Human Bondage

 

Works such as Portrait of the Artist anticipated the ways that high modernism would disown traditional literary forms and concepts of representation after the war. They anticipated Ezra Pound’s famous injunction to “make it new.” But with Of Human Bondage, Maugham wanted above all to make it known. He was not interested in finding new ways of expressing meaning; he was interested in expressing meaning as plainly as he could. His aim, as he wrote in an essay years later, was “to allow nothing in my language to come between the reader and my meaning” (“Sixty-Five,” in A Traveller in Romance, p. 253; see “For Further Reading”). Wary of faddishness in literature, he had no interest in technical or stylistic innovation. “As a writer of fiction,” he said, “I go back, through innumerable generations, to the teller of tales round the fire in the cavern that sheltered neolithic man” (quoted in Swinnerton, “Somerset Maugham as a Writer,” p. 13). Certainly Maugham’s prose style honors that lineage. His sentences are modest and matter-of-fact; adjectives are used sparingly; fancy or unusual words are rarely chosen when shorter, simpler, everyday words will do. In the sturdy economy of Maugham’s prose, no word is there to look pretty or to indulge the logophile. “The most pleasing compliment I have ever received,” he wrote years later in the preface to a collection of critical essays about his writing, “came from a G.I. in the last war who . . . wrote to tell me that he had greatly enjoyed a book of mine that he had been reading because he had never had to look out a single word in the dictionary” (“Preface,” by Maugham, in The World of Somerset Maugham, p. 10). Modernist writers may have been Maugham’s contemporaries in time, but not in literary aim. And compared to their output, Of Human Bondage, with its traditional narrative progression, straightforward prose, and near-Edwardian realism, must have seemed the product of a bygone era.
To compound matters still further, most reviewers knew Maugham as a playwright, not a novelist. Though Of Human Bondage was Maugham’s ninth novel, he had for some years been pursuing a parallel career writing for the theatre. A series of drawing-room comedies beginning with the long-running Lady Frederick (1907) had brought him popularity and paychecks of a kind unknown to his peers. In 1908 four of his plays were running simultaneously on London’s West End stages, a feat no other dramatist could match. The status of Maugham the playwright was clear (and he had the glittery, A-list lifestyle to prove it), but reviewers were unprepared for this other Maugham who had withdrawn from playwriting long enough to produce a work so starkly unlike his plays.
While immediate reviews of the novel were mixed, most shared, for one reason or another, a patent detachment from the work. Gerald Gould, writing in England’s New Statesman in September 1915, described the novel as having many merits but also an “odd effect” coming from the man who had dazzled theatergoers with his smart dialogue and keen wit. Perplexed, Gould wrote himself into a tangle: “I am not sure [Maugham] has not written a highly original book. I am not even sure he has not written almost a great one.” Others found the novel less palatable. The writer of the unsigned review in the August 21, 1915, Athenaeum dismissed the novel as “a record of sordid realism” with a hero whose values are “so distorted as to have no interest beyond that which belongs to an essentially morbid personality.” In America, The Dial pronounced the novel “a most depressing impression of the futility of life.” But most reviewers were plain overwhelmed. In his January 25, 1925, New York Times piece, “After Ten Years of Of Human Bondage,” Marcus Aurelius Goodrich summed up the general attitude among both Britons and Americans in that summer of 1915 by quoting a “review” from the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph. In it, the writer confesses avoiding the novel as much as trying to take it all in:
 
The reason is that there are 648 pages of the story—300 pages too many for careful reading and candid review. But this much can be said: It opens with a funeral and ends with a wedding. As the author is one of the most successful of the younger dramatists . . . it may be taken for granted that his novel will repay the reading of it by those who have the time to do so (p. 137).
 
In fact, a great many people did have time to read the novel—at least eventually. Although Of Human Bondage did not appear on best-seller lists when it was published, demand for the book grew consistently in the years following. By 1925 Goodrich was calling it a classic. Many who have since written about Of Human Bondage have cited the role played by American writer Theodore Dreiser in the novel’s eventual recognition. In a Christmas 1915 review in the New Republic titled “As a Realist Sees It,” Dreiser took earlier reviewers to task, hailing Maugham’s “genius” and praising the work liberally. His opening sentence marks the tone of his entire piece:
 
Sometimes in retrospect of a great book the mind falters, confused by the multitude and yet the harmony of the detail, the strangeness of the frettings, the brooding, musing, intelligence that has foreseen, loved, created, elaborated, perfected, until, in this middle ground, which we call life, somewhere between nothing and nothing, hangs the perfect thing which we love and cannot understand, but which we are compelled to confess a work of art (W. Somerset Maugham: The Critical Heritage, pp. 130–131).           

As the story goes, Dreiser’s appraisal was pivotal; it effectively “rescued” Of Human Bondage by persuading other critics to look seriously at the novel and find its merits. It also seemed to spur the traditionally American appreciation of the novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159308238X
• ISBN-13: 978-1593082383
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,722,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long, yes; excellent, yes, May 10, 2008

By 

Biblibio - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Of Human Bondage (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Paperback)

"Of Human Bondage" is something of an epic tale. Or an extremely detailed account of one man's life. Enter Philip Carey's life, that essentially begins with the death of his mother. The "cripple" (he has a club-foot) moves rather piteously through childhood, growing up with his childless aunt and uncle.

Philip's story takes us through his time in Germany, studying, to his failed stint as an accountant in London, to his attempted art career in France, to his ultimate decision to become a doctor like his father. In London, he falls in love (or obsession), falls out of love, helps, is helped, and finally finds happiness.

Philip is an intriguing character. He has a tendency to think stupidly and often confuses exaggeration with emotion, but nonetheless is an interesting person to follow. His story is long and thick, but really interesting; we see his friends, his virtues, his flaws, and his overall good, whether in trying to help those he cannot stand, or trying to help those he loves.

Somerset Maugham is an excellent writer. Most would fail miserably at writing a thick life-account such as this, but he succeeds marvelously. Philip's life will remind many of their own (through bis and pieces) and will certainly provide most with much enjoyment. Thick and long, perhaps, but 100% readable, enjoyable, and wonderful. And okay. An edit probably would have helped, but once you get in the story, it's difficult to get out. A shorter read would have been much better, but it's excellent nonetheless.

One of those excellent classics you just have to read. Even if it takes a while. Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maugham's masterpiece, November 5, 2008

By 

Tigger "kkegley" (Little Elm, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Of Human Bondage (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Paperback)

I LOVED this book. I couldn't put it down. It's my first time to read anything of Maugham's, and has instantly gone down as one of my top ten favorites. As it tells the story of one man's life from beginning to about a midway point, it seemed to me a cross between Dickens' David Copperfield and Lawrence's Sons and Lovers - darker than DC but not quite as pessimistic as S&L. Reviewers categorize it as a story of unrequited love, but that's a significant understatement.

Philip Carey, like David Copperfield, loses both of his parents young and is removed to unfamiliar territory with less-than-loving relatives (although here Philip definitely fares better than poor David). Besides the loss of his parents, Philip's primary grievance in life is the physical defect he was born with - a club foot, for which there was no treatment at the time. His deformity and the noticeable limp it forces him to walk with makes him the butt of the cruelest of taunts and tricks, and long into adulthood - even after undergoing a new surgery to partially correct it - it's a source of humiliation and despair for him, coloring a little bit of everything he touches and lives through.

I think everyone can relate to Philip's childhood, teen and young adult years, though, when he struggles mightily with the same questions many of us do, especially in regards to philosophy, morality and religion. His family expects him to enter the clergy, and don't know what to do with Philip's sudden need to question and challenge the church, and in fact alter his entire foundation of belief.

After leaving school and starting life as a young man out in the world, I swear I was right there with him as he yearned desperately to find his path in life, to nurture a passion for something and be good at it. He tries a desk job and hates it. He discovers a love of art and tries to turn that into a career, before finally admitting to himself that although he has some aptitude, he's not an artist at heart. Medical school is the next stop, and it's during this time that he meets Mildred, a waitress who becomes the bane of his existence and nearly destroys his life emotionally, financially, and spiritually. His relationship with her is complicated and destructive, because although in every way he's consciously aware of he actually despises her, yet deep inside he loves her desperately and has no idea why. She's coarse, not particularly attractive, and treats him with contempt and disdain except when she needs money or something else from him. A user and manipulator, she finds just about every other man acceptable except Philip. One's first instinct is to think, "Ah, he's just one of those losers who likes being treated like dirt," but it's really not quite that simple. Philip's feelings for Mildred are something he can never explain to himself or anyone else, and as readers we never fully understand it either, but we do clearly feel and lament what this dark, toxic attachment does to him. She comes in and out of his life when he least expects or wants it, but each time she returns, no matter what betrayal and abuse she heaps on him, he can't let her go.

Even as he's dealing with his emotional conflict over Mildred and the dire financial situation that forces him to temporarily drop out of medical school and sleep, literally, on the streets, he's still growing and evolving as a person, trying, as we all do, to uncover that elusive philosophical holy grail: the meaning of life. The passages in the book - too lengthy to reproduce here, although I wish I could - exploring his thought processes over the randomness of life's events, the sources of happiness and despair, and the sudden insights into consciousness both sordid and joyful, are perceptive and powerful.

Above all, Philip is very human - so much so that it's almost uncomfortable, as Maugham brings out and painfully examines every fault and foible in Philip's soul, and it's uncomfortable because those flaws lie in all of us, deeply hidden. There are times when Philip seems very cold and almost cruel, yet at other times his heart is full and his kindness genuine and bottomless. He's a real person, in other words, not a two-dimensional character. Maugham's use of language is simple and straightforward, much like Lawrence but maintaining the early Edwardian flavor of the day.

I just loved this fascinating portrait of a man trying so hard to find out who he is, what he believes, whom he loves, and what he needs. I recognized myself in it, and I imagine most others would, too, because in many ways it's the story of all of us. It's truly a masterpiece about the often excruciating process of soul-searching and finding oneself. I loved it and will enjoy reading it again to catch any details I may have missed the first time around.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars And, where do the ducks go in the winter?, April 28, 2010

By 

C. Wagner "cecilkunkle" (On the banks of the Wabash far away) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Of Human Bondage (Hardcover)

So, Holden Caulfield, before being shipped to the rubber room, kept asking what happened to the ducks in Central Park in the winter. No one knew or cared. But, one thing for sure, Holden had an affinity for "Of Human Bondage," which made me wonder how a literary character who could not stay on track could actually read, comprehend, and appreciate this classic. Indeed, was Holden or, perhaps, Salinger himself a spin off of Philip Carey?
The proverbial loose cannon, Philip, after having a hard time knocking around with a few women with results ranging from indifferent to catastrophic, resolves his wanderlust to marry the daughter, whom he had taken advantage of, of his best friend, and don't forget the clubfoot business.
And, that, my gentle reader, is what a classic is all about. "Of Human Bondage" is on all the should read lists. The author was wildly popular and rich in his own time. You know you should read the "should read" books. So, do it and consider the relationship of this title to "Catcher in the Rye."
The Wildside Press edition is well constructed and easy to hold. A nice classic package...