Of Human Bondage
By W. Somerset Maugham
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Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham ranked # 66 on The Modern Library's Top 100 Novels list as selected by its Board Members.
Of Human Bondage (1915) is a novel by William Somerset Maugham, generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and with a strong autobiographical nature. However, Maugham himself did not quite subscribe to this, stating in a signed inscription of a copy of the book (dated August 28, 1957) that belonged to the renowned collector Ingle Barr: This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention.
Nevertheless the book deals with the life of its main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned and brought up by his pious uncle. Maugham's severe stutter has been replaced by Philip's clubfoot.
The novel takes the form of a bildungsroman, tracing the protagonist's travels to Germany, Paris, and London, while exploring his intellectual and emotional development and later, in the London period, his destructive relationship with the main female character, Mildred, a self-centered, crude cockney waitress.
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