Of Human Bondage

Of Human Bondage (1915) by W. Somerset Maugham is a semi-autobiographical novel, a striking psychological masterwork of one young man's life journey, obsession, love, alienation and personal vulnerability. Philip Carey, subtle, intellectual and artistic, is born with a club foot, a condition which causes him lifelong psychological torment. Philip spends his youth as an art student in Paris, then as a medical student in London. He forms friendships, relationships, observes beauty and engages in a variety of social interaction. He experiences a loss of faith, poverty, extravagance, and becomes sensually obsessed with an ultimately vulgar and worthless woman who reappears at different stages of his life and causes him to reassess his own maturity and self-worth. A classic exploration of human bonds, needs, passion, and self-delusion.