Of Human Bondage

Rating:
Summary: Maugham's masterpiece stands the best of time
Review: I discovered Maugham almost ten years ago after buying a few of his novels at a second-hand bookstore. I knew the name, of course, but I had never read any of his novels or short stories since the French editions had been out of print for at least twenty years. It didn't take him long to seduce me, about the first three pages of The Razor's Edge (in French) did it. I was taken in by his precise writing, wihout ever a superfluous word, and his clinical, yet warm and sympathetic, understanding of his characters. They made that novel timeless like the best fiction by Balzac and Zola.

Immediately after finishing The Razor's Edge, I opened Of Human Bondage. I discovered that I enjoyed Maugham's prose even more in the original English (that man really had an original voice of his own) despite or because its simplicity and clarity. It's never florid but always luminous. There's subtle poetry in some of his descriptions and many of the events and characters are unforgettable (for example, I was deeply moved by Philip's meek little aunt's devotion to her selfish, unloving husband). I actually weeped (not a frequent event for me, at least due to fiction) when Philip, as an intern, meets the cheerful young boy who doesn't take himself or his clubfoot seriously. The tragedy in Philip's early life was that he had the opposite attitude, and I could only think: "If only..."

The first time I read the novel, I didn't feel a lot of sympathy for Philip's obsession with Mildred (I thought she was entitled to more pity than he was, the poor thing it wasn't her fault if she felt nothing more than gratitude for him and her destiny is simply horrible) since Maugham's makes it obvious that wounded pride, rather than actual love, is what attracts him to her like a magnet. I didn't think a passion like Philip's for Mildred, a girl he despises and finds unattractive, could be possible. Until I met "my Mildred" last year. I went through the same emotional rollecoaster that Philip did, my highs were so high and my lows so low, it was almost, at the worst of times, as if I were addicted to a crack-like substance. The first time I met that man, I found him unattractive and stupid, and my low opinion of him always remained unchanged. Yet, I needed him, was addicted to him, worshipped him. My passion remained unrequited because I wasn't his kind of woman, even though he liked me well enough as a friend. Like Philip, the wounds to my ego were like oil on my passion's fire.

I found very little sympathy for my suffering among my friends and co-workers. I became the butt of jokes because no one could understand my obsession with such a man. Of Human Bondage was a great help to me during that awful time, and thanks to Maugham, I felt less alone and ridiculous. OHB is the most realistic, harrowing, horrible depiction of unrequited love I ever came across in my 30 years as an avid fiction reader, save perhaps for Hulot's obsession with the avaricious, deceiving courtesan in Balzac's Cousin Bette.

Finally, I want to point out that there are so many fascinating events in this book, besides Philip's sick infatuation with Mildred. And it's that rare piece of modern fiction that concerns itself with a promising young man who learns from his mistakes and misfortunes and slowly grows into a self-sufficient, generally happy human being.

Rating:
Summary: Not an S/M book
Review: Mildred is the real main character of the novel. She is a woman who cannot stand any weakness in a man. To her weakness is repulsive. Mildred's is a way of female feeling that is very real and can be very dangerous for the woman herself and those who care about her. Mildred is unable to appreciate the fact that not really caring is the single quality of mind that most makes a person, male or female, appear strong. Mildred runs to men who do not care about her. And it destroys her life. Mildred is an expression of a very real kind of woman: a hatred for weakness, a love of excitement and fun, needing to float above meaning in words she utters or hears, repulsed by meaning, able to endure only words which are hollow. It is said that a sense of purpose is for most people a great need. Mildred wants with all her longing never to need a reason for being. (This is perhaps the most intoxicating of all human longings.) Mildred wants to keep it that way: not needing any purpose. She wants talk to be bar talk-- words which are spoken but are not reflected upon, which hide her from the real and permit her to float above deep emotions as above everyday mundane issues. Such a woman can be very exciting to a man, but exceedingly dangerous to love. The Mildreds of the world long to be dominated, but to fight the domination. To deeply love such a woman is very possible; to dominate her is very possible, but both to love and dominate her is exceedingly difficult. This is a Human Bondage.

I have read several reviews of this novel. I am surprised that no-one mentioned money. Money and the need to get it are constant notions in W.S.M's novels; as he says in this novel, "Money is like a sixth sense, and you cannot use the other five without it." This is one aspect, the most general and important, of human bondage; W.S.M has a constant obsession with this as being the barrier which separates the physical, locked-in world from the spiritual (meaning relationships among people and to beauty and emotions, not the relationship to God) life of unfettered action and motions. "Enough money to be generous with my friends".