Share <Embed>

Buy New

$5.95

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

This item ships to France. Want it Friday, Nov. 9? Order within and choose AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping at checkout. Learn more

Deliver to France

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Add to Cart

$4.70
+ $28.30 shipping

Sold by: allnewbooks

Add to Cart

$8.78

Sold by: Wordery USA

Add to Cart

$5.10
+ $25.28 shipping

Sold by: reboundbookstore

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Of Human Bondage (Bantam Classics) Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1991

by W. Somerset Maugham (Author), Jane Smiley (Author)

425 customer reviews

See all 181 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

"Please retry"

$1.06

—

—

"Please retry"

$25.99

"Please retry"

$9.00

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$5.95

Mass Market Paperback, June 1, 1991

$5.95

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$36.99

Unknown Binding

"Please retry"

—

—

The first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a tortured and masochistic affair.

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Ray Bradbury

3,506

in Censorship & Politics
Paperback
$8.99

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Page 1 1Start overPage 1 1

Feedback

Kelly St Clare

345

Kindle Edition
$2.99
Feedback

Jason Bond

Peter’s school is a scary place, and it gets even scarier when he’s forced to spend the night there. His only recourse is to lean on friends—and God

1

Kindle Edition
$3.99
Feedback

Kelly St. Clare

Shunned by my mother. In love with my enemy. Readers will love this fast-paced romantic fantasy, packed with action and high-stakes.

57

Kindle Edition
$7.86
Feedback

Andrew Turpin

Like modern thrillers with gripping historical twists? You'll love this series. Watch ex-CIA war crimes investigator Joe Johnson uncover dark truths.

172

Kindle Edition
$4.99
Feedback

Shayne Silvers

When shifter dragons invade St. Louis, Nate Temple delivers the cure for a reptile dysfunction. Check out the wizard taking urban fantasy by storm.

1404

Kindle Edition
$3.99
Feedback

William Stacey

Game of Thrones meets Dracula. A sword of power, an unproven warrior, and a deathless evil collide in a mature fantasy world. There will be blood.

56

Kindle Edition
$5.99
Feedback

Jean Grainger

Ireland 1940. Dr Richard Buckley has seen it all in the Great War and he will do anything to keep his children at home, but they have other plans.

580

Kindle Edition
$4.99

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The modern writer who has influenced me the most." - George Orwell

"One of my favourite writers." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"A writer of great dedication." - Graham Greene

From the Inside Flap

The first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a tortured and masochistic affair.

"From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Bantam Classics; Reprint edition (June 1, 1991)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 055321392X
ISBN-13: 978-0553213928
Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 1.2 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 425 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1068 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Classics
- #2805 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Coming of Age
- #6085 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

Sponsored products related to this item (What's this?)

Page 1 1Start overPage 1 1

Feedback

Jane Austen

8580

Paperback
$7.95
Feedback

George Orwell

4083

Hardcover
$17.07
Feedback

Kazuo Ishiguro

872

Hardcover
$18.74
Feedback

Vladimir Nabokov

1444

Hardcover
$21.36
Feedback

Joseph Conrad

3558

Paperback
$6.20
Feedback

Mark Sippings

It’s 100 years since WW1 - The trenches merge with the 70s to produce a novel of love, loss, hope and friendship which will tug on your heartstrings.

29

Kindle Edition
$3.94
Feedback

George Eliot

538

Paperback
$6.75
Feedback

Sam Torode

"This rich and soulful novel is actually a rather well-done coming-of-age story steeped in wanderlust and whimsy." — Publishers Weekly

2129

Paperback
$10.99
Feedback

Jack London

1667

Paperback
$7.21
Feedback

Zane Grey

195

Paperback
$8.29

Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features:

See Kindle Edition

425 customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars

By customer groups & interests

Literary Fiction

4.4

Book Series

4.3

Is this feature helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-4 of 425 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" is one of the best books I have ever read about the trials and ...

March 14, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" is one of the best books I have ever read about the trials and tribulations that a human being goes through just prior to his teenage years, during his teenage years, and just before entering adulthood. The character of Philip, born with a club foot deformity, is a textbook, detailed, and analytic study of the formation and evolution that takes place in the mind and body of person as he passes through these turbulent years. It is also a social commentary about institutions, such as schools and churches, that are so rigid, unbending and unwilling to accept change that they become barriers to the growth and education of the human being and society as a whole.

This is the first book that I have read by Mr. Maughan. It will not be the last. I loved this book.

12 people found this helpful

Comment

A genuine masterpiece

March 26, 2014

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

If you've never read this book, I urge you to give it a try. Maugham's classic has been in print for almost a hundred years with good reason. Its a long book, filled with fasciating minor characters, almost all whom reflect universal human traits that are as valid and important today as they were in 1915. The main story follows Philip Carey on his journey from a school boy to a successful doctor in England in the 1890s. Carey is burdened with a club foot and gets himself trapped in an obsessive relationship with a waitress named Mildred which almost ruins his life.

The book is written in a straight forward, simple style that moves the story along at a fast clip. Maugham consistently violates the current taboo that tells young writers to "show don't tell." Maugham tells a lot and the technique works amazingly well. The book also serves as a historical document, detailing life in London, Paris and Germany in the 1890s. Overall is a great story about people the reader really grows to care about as the plot progresses. The emphasis on story telling and the absence of literary flourishes and tricks makes this a delightful reading experience. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a big, old fashioned novel about people and ideas that matter.

6 people found this helpful

Comment

The coming-of-age novel worthy of a master!

May 21, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Mr. Maugham's magnum opus unquestionably lived up to the hype. For many years I had started this book, only to be dissuaded by its overwhelming somberness and what seemed to be a bleak outlook on life. But that's just how it starts out!! The rest of the novel is as dynamic and filled with as much depth and soul as "Great Expectations" or Joyce's "Portrait." A bildungsroman like no other.

The story follows the hapless Phillip Carey, as he makes his way through adolescence and young adulthood. He learns from an early age that life is brimming with tragedy: orphanned and club-footed, he is taken in by his vicar uncle and later attends a religious boarding school. These formative years, in which he experiences constant disappointment, have an irrevocable impact on his spirituality and worldview; God no longer exists for him and he's forced to search for another meaning to life. He travels through Europe, jumping from one occupation to another, ever indecisive about his calling. The novel carries through all his ups and downs, from the stimulation of Paris to the stagnation of London, from painter to healer.

He experiences one existential crisis after another, as he goes through all his trials and tribulations. An especially bitter one for him is his dalliance with the femme fatale who becomes an object of obsession for him. Mildred is an odious human being, embodying just about every negative quality imaginable, and she manipulates poor Phillip every chance she gets. Never has unrequited love been quite so embraced by anyone other than Phillip. But it is only through her pettiness and selfishness that Phillip can realize who he is.

As we see in the course of the novel, the world is a rich tapestry, and we must discover its meaning for ourselves. Phillip eventually realizes what this is, and it is this realization that allows him to endure the pain and emotional turmoil of it. It is truly an ordeal at times. But he learns to embrace another possibility, one pregnant with hope, a counterpoint to tragedy and misfortune.

Besides Phillip and Mildred, the novel is rife with Dickensian characters, from the lovable Thorpe Athelny to the histrionic Miss Wilkinson to the poetic Cronshaw and the diffuse Hayward. Maugham's heart was always in the nineteenth century, as Gore Vidal notes. The influence of that era's literature and art is unmistakeable in every facet of his writing and the characters, in particular. They are a heart-warming cast that play off of Phillip's idiosyncracies and enrich all of his life experiences.

This novel has my unreserved praise. Here is the bildungsroman at its finest, a novel that rightfully deserves its place in the canon. It exceeded all my expectations and left me craving more. What every book should be.

Comment

June 21, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I've never wanted to yell at a fictional character as much as I wanted to while reading this novel. Philip is just a glutton for punishment and his story is so wonderfully told that it's no wonder this is a classic. He is very real - who hasn't felt conflicted sometimes, knowing you're being stupid but doing it anyway? And that ending... simply wonderful!

One person found this helpful

Comment

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Of Human Bondage (Bantam Classics)

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: Of Human Bondage (Bantam Classics)

Set up a giveaway

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: human form

English United States

Conditions of Use
Privacy Notice
Interest-Based Ads
© 1996-2018, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates