Reviews
I think this book has withstood the test of time because everyone has loved someone who is so completely wrong, and yet has been powerless to stop it. With every page you turn, you feel Phillip's addiction to this woman to the point that it almost physically hurts to keep reading. But you do because you also feel a happiness in knowing that you're not the only sucker on this planet. This book is for all those love addicts out there...you know who you are.
Of Human Bondage is like a really long meal with probably a bit too many dishes, a bit too copious and tiresome. However, by the time you've had dessert you end up feeling incredibly satisfied, and can't picture it being any other way.
I have recently discovered Maugham and absolutely love his books. This one was a bit lengthy but absolutely worth the read. There are so many types of bondage: physical, mental, spiritual, toxic relationships, poverty, self doubt, the future, the past, the present, the will to live, etc. This book included it all. Phillip, an orphan, is sent to live with his aloof, self centered vicar uncle and his aunt. He is sent off to private schools where he experiences bullying for his club foot. The rest of his life includes indecision of the future and as he’s struggling to find himself, he is thrown into toxic relationships, poverty, self doubt and unsure of his future. A coming of age book with well rounded characters and a frustrating villain.
The blurb on the back of my edition describes this book as a "Bildungsroman" which is one of those words that you start seeing everywhere once you learn its meaning. A Bildungsroman is a coming of age story- and boy, is this ever a good one. As a 21 year-old who, by all appearances, is thorax-deep in this "Coming of Age" business, I found Of Human Bondage exhilarating and cathartic. O to be understood! .....Or misunderstood. Maugham's Bildungshero (I made that word up, but please help me make it popular), Phillip Carey, suffers every calamity that can befall disillusioned youth; existential crisis precedes obsessive passion followed by existential crisis finally arriving at near despair and possible material and spiritual poverty- and throw in a good pinch of self-loathing to really bring out the flavor- and it is not until quite a bit of existential suffering has been inflicted that Phillip is allowed to enjoy a sunset in a parenthetical way, rather than with a tortured artist's shudder. One can tell (and he states as much in his preface to my edition) that this book is heavily autobiographical for Maugham. One can tell because of how true it is. Maugham was a homosexual (in the days of Oscar Wilde's misfortunes) who spoke with a stutter and suffered from debilitating depression. I think "Bondage" is so cathartic for young folks because we so commonly have these feelings of isolation, lack of efficacy and disgust of self. But catharsis is only the lure; the brilliance of Maugham (and the feature that so defines his writing) is his detachment from the pain of the character. His prose is not weepy or petty, even when the character is, but sways in a balance of objectivity and empathy, and always with a sense of wry humor. It's Maugham's voice that lends the final ingredient to this masterful story. One feels as if the agony of youth is worth discussion, and even momentary suffering, but it must give way to maturity. Like other great coming of age stories (cough Harry Potter cough) "Of Human Bondage" does not leave the reader bound, but with an understanding of his bindings. Without the arrival of growth and understanding, it could not be a true Bildungsroman. I suspect this book will only be a profound experience for people in their early to mid twenties who are preoccupied with trying to understand the incomprehensibility of their lives (or older folks who remember that sensation). Thus, as a book for all walks of life I cannot recommend it. But if you're in a similar walk as I, it will surely captivate you.
