Of Human Bondage is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham that tells the story of Philip Carey, an orphan who is born with a club foot. Despite this physical disability, Philip is determined to make something of himself and becomes a medical student.
As he struggles to navigate the challenges of his studies and the world around him, Philip becomes drawn to a series of complex and tumultuous relationships that shape his life.
One of the most significant of these relationships is with Mildred, a Cockney waitress with whom Philip becomes infatuated. Despite her lack of education and refinement, Philip is drawn to her raw, unfiltered personality and becomes obsessed with her. However, their relationship is tumultuous and often destructive, with Mildred constantly rejecting Philip and treating him poorly.
As Philip struggles to come to terms with his feelings for Mildred, he also grapples with the expectations placed upon him by society. Despite his desire to be a successful doctor, he finds himself drawn to the bohemian lifestyle of his artist friends, and begins to question the values and beliefs that have been instilled in him.
As the novel progresses, Philip's relationships and experiences lead him on a journey of self-discovery, as he learns to embrace his own individuality and make his own decisions. Ultimately, he is able to move on from his unhealthy fixation on Mildred and find happiness and fulfillment in his own way.
Of Human Bondage is a poignant and thought-provoking novel that explores the complex and often painful nature of human relationships and the struggles of self-discovery. Its themes of love, obsession, and individuality resonate deeply with readers and make it a timeless classic.
Of Human Bondage (1946 film)
Just as he refuses to compromise in his art, so does he refuse to allow his characters the false security of a harbour. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross. Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five. That was when, some months ago, I was asked to read the first chapter for a record that was being made for the blind. If I'd acted like a blackguard and let Jenny go to the dogs, I should have remained happy and contented and prosperous, and she, I daresay, wouldn't have died.
The popularity of the novel appears to have mounted rapidly. In this case the climber was handicapped by a badly deformed foot. Anything that happened to him henceforth would simply be one more motive to add to the complexity of the pattern. The Modern Library advertised the novel in 1941 as one of its best-selling titles. . From the perspective of the threatened community, the apparent malefactor or a helpless substitute is always guilty; and the punishment, usually ostracism or death, is always justified. The porter, who had been sullen and disinclined to listen, became alarmed; he could not take the responsibility of breaking into the room: they must go for the commissaire de police.
Maugham does, the broad effects and the large issues of a human characterization. Maugham sees in Strickland the frustrated genius, a moderately successful businessman who, at age forty, decides to become an artist, ruthlessly throwing over everything to pursue his ambition, and succeeding. Fictional fishing village on the south coast of England, where Philip substitutes as a medical assistant immediately after qualifying as a doctor. That love had caused him so much suffering that he knew he would never, never be quite free of it. She had moved her own little bed out of the way and had stood on a chair, which had been kicked away. Philip decides he would rather quit and move to France where he can learn to be an artist.
Critical Reception Of Human Bondage received mixed reviews and fleeting attention on its initial publication. The door was locked, and on bending down he found the key was in the lock. Somerset Maugham, a Writer for All Seasons: A Biographical and Critical Study. There is no doubt that Maugham's description of his hero's violent infatuation has more intensity than that which he has given to any other similar situation. As Maugham has said, since the critics began talking about and writing about his novel, "nothing has stopped it. Her affinity with nature becomes evident especially at the end of the novel as she emerges "a Saxon goddess" in the hop fields of Kent.
Maugham and Carey both loved traveling; in his youth, the author convinced his uncle to allow him to travel to Germany when he was sixteen. The protagonist Philip Carey grows from boyhood to young adulthood, suffering from his overly emotional nature and losing his illusions. Bryan Forbes later sued Seven Arts claiming they owed him £5,000 from a £10,000 acting fee. This will not be the last time she seeks his help only to abandon him when a better proposition comes along. Perhaps its greatest effect upon us is that it arouses an eager desire for further knowledge of Philip Carey's future.
Love of beauty alone, however, proves unsustainable; as Philip becomes impoverished and tragedy befalls his friends and acquaintances, his staunch individualism yields to more conventional societal norms. When the end came and it was completed, he would find it none the less beautiful because he alone knew of its existence and "with his death it would cease to be. A short time after Heinemann in England and Doran in the United States simultaneously published Of Human Bondage in 1915, the perfunctory unenergetic ripple that it had caused in the critical puddle had smoothed out. The difference between the first three-quarters of the book and the last quarter, the part describing Philip's marriage, which, according to Maugham, is largely wish fulfilment, shows how necessary it is for Maugham, if he is to write convincingly, to rely fairly solidly on what he himself has seen and felt. Fiction is an art and the purpose of art is to please. She did not know how to manage money. Maugham notes, as it were, in a casebook: this man is dying of pneumonia because, curious creature, he insists on going out in the rain.
Gale Cengage 1996 eNotes. The hypocrisy reported in Of Human Bondage arouses not so much indignation as distaste. The second date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. Ward complains of a certain "rigidity" in Of Human Bondage, arising out of "a stubborn determination to plough right on from the beginning to the end, to extenuate nothing. In the following excerpt, part of a longer essay illuminating the differences between "chronicle" novels and "dramatic" novels, Brewster and Burrell classify Of Human Bondage as a dramatic novel, citing what they consider the reader's ability to sympathize with the self-pitying, imperfect Philip Carey.
It is obvious that a writer who works with this method of detailed photographic realism can "go far," and the story runs to nearly three hundred thousand words. He would have the churches pulled down and sterlized, and he has already planned the temples to the Life Force which should be built in their place. This disappointment unleashes a doubt that finally causes Philip to reject the religion in which he has been reared. Of these, 13 are French, five English, and one, Of Human Bondage was published in 1915. And Theodore Spencer, in one of the more recent, dispassionate evaluations of the book, declared in 1940 that the success of the novel is definitely limited.
For a reason I have never known it attracted the attention of writers who were then well-known columnists, Alec Woollcott, Heywood Broun, and the still living and still scintillating F. I suggest to you that the knowledge the novelist imparts is biased and thus unreliable, and it is better not to know a thing at all than to know it in a distorted fashion. Proust wanted a certain French periodical to publish an important article on his great novel and thinking that no one could write it better than he, sat down and wrote it himself. It should have a coherent and plausible story, a variety of probable incidents, characters that are living and freshly observed, and natural dialogue. He saw what looked like the truth as by flashes of lightning on a dark stormy night you might see a mountain range.
Having been born with a clubfoot, which becomes a source of ridicule among school boys, and having lost both parents in childhood, he becomes overly sensitive. However his teacher offers to operate his feet first and Philip becomes a normal man. In spite of the fact that he did not love her, he made her his mistress and companion, and had some measure of satisfaction until Mildred deserted by Emil came back. When Philip later decides to marry Sally, a girl whom he believes he has gotten pregnant, he accepts Dr. Philip decides to go anyway. Naik essay date 1966 " Contemporary Literary Criticism Ed. We skip his philosophical disquisitions.
