Top 30 Modern Classics - XV

Of Human Bondage

W. Somerset Maugham

Of Human Bondage, by W. Someret Maugham was published in 1915.

Philip Carey, born with a club foot becomes an orphan at the age of nine. He finds his home sent with his Aunt Louisa and Uncle William Carey.

Louisa is affectionate to Philip but William is not. Philip enjoys reading books from his uncle's collection. Less than a year later, Philip is sent to a boarding school. Philips goes to Germany against the wishes of his uncle who wanted him to study in Oxford.

In Germany, Philip lives at a boarding house. Philip, as per the advice of his guardians, takes up an apprenticeship in Germany. He does not fare well. He goes on a business trip to Paris and is inspired to study arts in France. In France, he makes he becomes a friend of Fanny Price, another art student. Fanny is short on talent in art and also does not get well with people. Fanny falls in love with Philip. which is not reciprocated by Philip. Fanny commits suicide.

Philip falls in love with Mildred and supports her financially. Mildred, however, loves Harry, a friend of Philip, and leaves. Philip runs into Mildred again when she is a single mother and, feeling sympathy for her, takes her in again, though he no longer loves her. When he rejects her advances, she becomes angry at him, destroys most of his belongings, and leaves forever. In shame, and quickly running out of money, Philip leaves the house for good. He meets Mildred once more towards the end of the novel, when she summons him for his medical opinion. As she is probably suffering from syphilis due to her work as a prostitute, Philip advises Mildred to give up this life. Mildred declines and exits from the plot, her fate remaining unknown.Philip realizes that he will never be a professional artist.

He returns to his uncle's house, and eventually decides to go to England to pursue his late father's field. He struggles at medical school and comes across Mildred, who is working as a waitress. He falls desperately in love with her, although she does not show any emotion for him. Mildred tells Philip she is getting married, leaving him heartbroken; he subsequently enters into an affair with Norah Nesbit, a kind and sensitive author of penny romance novels. Later Mildred returns, pregnant, and confesses that the man for whom she had abandoned Philip never married her.

While working at a hospital, Philip befriends family man Thorpe Athelny who has lived in Spain. Meanwhile, Philip invests in mines but is left nearly penniless because of events surrounding the Boer war. Unable to pay his rent, he wanders the streets for several days before the Athelnys take him in and find him a department store job, which he hates. His talent for drawing is discovered and he receives a promotion and raise in salary, but his time at the store is short-lived. After his uncle William dies, Philip inherits enough money to allow him to finish his medical studies and he finally becomes a licensed doctor. Philip takes on a temporary placement at a hospital with Dr. South, an old idiosyncratic physician. However, Dr. South takes a shine to Philip's humor and nature and offers Philip a stake in his medical practice. Philip refuses.

He soon goes on a small summer vacation with the Athelnys at a village in the countryside. There he finds that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, likes him. They have an affair, and when she thinks she is pregnant, Philip decides to marry Sally and accept Dr. South's offer, instead of traveling the world as he had planned.

Please read the book to know the rest.

It s probably the best creation by Maugham.

Namaste

Prabir