Delightful Valentine's reading: Of Human Bondage

W. Somerset Maugham described his book Of Human Bondage as an autobiographical novel.   I didn’t have any trouble getting through this book (unlike the torture of Lord of the Flies) and as storytelling goes much of the book is interesting, compelling or entertaining.  I found it well written, but at times rather dated.  It is the story of the first 30 or so years in the life of Philip Carey.  Philip spends much of his life dreaming of the things he will never do and trying to figure out what will make him happy, so I’d call it a pretty universal story. 

The first half of the book is his boyhood starting with the death of his mother when he is about five, his move to live with an aunt and uncle, his schooling and attempts at finding a profession to make a living.  A lot of the second half of the book is his “romance” with a waitress named Mildred which is rather apropos for this Valentine’s Day.  I KID!  Mildred is a horrid, shallow, self-centered creature who treats Philip as badly as you can possibly imagine and he in turn treats someone else pretty horribly.  As the J. Geils band put it so eloquently “You love her, but she loves him and he loves somebody else.  You just can’t win.” Love does stink!

I hope to see the real London someday!

The main thing to know about Philip is he is born with a club foot and this causes him much humiliation and shame as a boy, and is the one thing he counts on being thrown at him in any relationship he has.  He is sure that whenever push comes to shove in an argument he will always be taunted with his deformity.   He spends time in Germany and Paris as well as London and finally settles on the profession of doctor, not because he wants to be one but because his father was one and he’s tried several other things that didn’t work out.  It would be nice to tell you that he finds love and happiness by the end of the story and while he does, I’m pretty sure given his nature and past, it will not last.  Like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” happiness was always in his own backyard but for people who don’t accept that and are always looking for that something better or wondering if "this" is all there is, the chances of being happy in life are pretty slim. 

Just a few quotes from the book that kind of show you where Philip is coming from: 

“He asked himself dully whether whenever you got your way you wished afterwards that you hadn’t.”

 “…he felt a queer little pang of bitterness because reality seemed so different from the ideal.”

“I’ve got a rotten nature,” he said to himself.  “I look forward to things awfully, and then when they come I’m always disappointed.”

One of the friends he makes in Paris, Cronshaw, tries to help him in his quest for the meaning of life.  They have many philosophical conversations on religion and the nature of man. He gives Philip this advice: 

You will find as you grow older that the first thing needful to make the world a tolerable place to live in is to recognize the inevitable selfishness of humanity.  You demand unselfishness from others, which is a preposterous claim that they should sacrifice their desires to yours.  Why should they?  When you are reconciled to the fact that each is for himself in the world you will ask less from your fellows.  They will not disappoint you, and you will look upon them more charitably.

As far as this being a “great” book—I’m not sure it would make my top ten but might be worth a read depending on your tastes.  It is set in the late 1800’s and many of the cultural references were lost on me.  Certain names were familiar (Goethe, Wagner, Degas, El Greco) but there were just as many that I had never heard of before (Perugino,  Ruskin, Correggio).  There is some examination of the philosophies coming to the forefront at this time.  I remember spending time in my theater history courses on the German influences on theater during this time period.  If you are interested in human nature and don’t mind that no one gets shot or blown up, then you might give it a try.

Trivia:   Maugham served as an ambulance driver during WWI and also worked with British intelligence. He based his 1928 novel Ashenden on his experiences and that book is considered a forerunner to many later spy novels of the 20th century, including the James Bond stories of Ian Fleming. 

Maugham said Spinoza’s Ethics inspired the name of this novel .

Next week:  We both read The Age of Innocence