Of Human Bondage

· Vani Prakashan
Ebook
714
Pages
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

Of Human Bondage is a semi-autobiographical novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1915 and considered his masterwork. It is a perceptive depiction of the emotional isolation of a young man and his eventual insight into life.


Born with a clubfoot, Philip Carey is acutely sensitive about his handicap. As a medical student in London, he meets a selfish and unfaithful waitress for whom he develops an all-consuming passion and whom he cannot leave. When Philip finishes medical school, he enters a loving relationship with another woman, whose possible pregnancy forces him to examine his life



About the author

William Somerset Maugham (125 January 1874-16 December 1965) was an English writer known for his plays, novels, and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and attended a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897. He never practiced medicine, becoming a full-time writer instead. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. By 1908, he had four plays running simultaneously in the West End of London. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories.


Maugham's novels after Liza of Lambeth include Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor's Edge (1944). His short stories were published in collections such as The Casuarina Tree (1926) and The Mixture as Before (1940); many of them have been adapted for radio, cinema, and television. His great popularity and prodigious sales provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, many of whom sought to belittle him as merely competent. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage—a book with a large autobiographical element—as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard.



Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.