Author: Maugham W. Somerset
Brand: Bantam Classics
Color: Multicolor
Edition: Reprint
Features:
Number Of Pages: 736
Details: Product Description
A masterpiece of modern literature that mirrors Maugham’s own career.
Of Human Bondage is the first and most autobiographical of Maugham’s novels. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, Philip settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a formative, tortured and masochistic affair which very nearly ruins him.
Review
A superb storyteller – one of the very best in our language—Daily Mail
The modern writer who has influenced me most—George Orwell
Maugham has given infinite pleasure and left us a splendour of writing which will remain for as long as the written English word is permitted to exist—Daily Telegraph
This semi-autobiographical novel, set at the end of the 19th century, gripped me from the start with its tale of the life of Philip Carey. Its depiction of how a man can become enslaved by an unsuitable love is unsparing—Christopher Simon Sykes, The Week
From the Inside Flap
The first and most autobiographical of Maugham’s masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a tortured and masochistic affair.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Back Cover
The first and most autobiographical of Maugham’s masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a tortured and masochistic affair.
“From the Trade Paperback edition.
About the Author
William Somerset Maugham, famous as novelist, playwright and short-story writer, was born in 1874, and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King’s School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas’ Hospital with a view to practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. His position as a successful playwright was being consolidated at the same time. His first play, A Man of Honour, was followed by a series of successes just before and after World War I, and his career in the theatre did not end until 1933 with Sheppey.
His fame as a short story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. His other works include travel books such as On a Chinese Screen, and Don Fernando, essays, criticism, and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer’s Notebook.
In 1927, he settled in the south of France, and lived there until his death in 1965.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
I
THE DAY broke grey and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child’s bed.
‘Wake up, Philip,’ she said.
She pulled down the bed-clothes, took him in her arms, and carried him downstairs. He was only half awake.
‘Your mother wants you,’ she said.
She opened the door of a room on the floor below and took the child over to a bed in which a woman was lying. It was his mother. She stretched out her arms, and t
Release Date: 01-06-1991
Package Dimensions: 36x173x295