Of Human Bondage [antikvár]

Introduction William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874, in Paris. His parents had both died before he was ten years of age, and he was then brought up by an uncle who was a clergyman. Of Human Bondage, first published in 1915, is perhaps Maugham's most enthralling novel; and because, as he admitted, it is partly autobiographical it abounds in genuine feeling and intensity. Maugham suffered much through his stammer, which to him caused almost as much anguish as a real deformity. The anxious search for truth and religious certainty by Philip in the story is based on Maugham's own experience, as is the unhappy love for Mildred, which causes him so much pain. The original story is very long, but I have tried to maintain its interest and enthralling development in this shorter version. W. Somerset Maugham died in 1965 at the age of ninety-one, leaving for us many novels and plays which have never lost their interest and fascination. Of Human Bondage was first entitled Beauty from Ashes. Later Maugham came across a passage written by Spinoza, in his Ethics, which appealed to him and caused him to change the title: 4 the submission to passion is human bondage, but the exercise of reason is human liberty '. Acknowledgement This abridgement has been made by kind permission of the Executors of the late W. Somerset Maugham from the edition published by William Heinemann Ltd.