Of Human Bondage

W. Somerset Maugham, 1915 Date Read: 4/27/22

This is the second of the books on the List that I've been virtually unable to put down. (I say "virtually" because I've also been playing Rune Factory V, which I also put down with difficulty). (The first was Watership Down).

I related to a lot of Phillip's (really, the author's, as this was semi-autobiographical) experiences, particularly in childhood. Of course, I don't have a clubfoot (or like Maugham himself, a stutter). I am dyslexic and have a variety of mental illnesses and neuroses. I, thankfully, wasn't brutalized like Phillip but I certainly felt very alone while growing up. At times I had a friend or an acquaintance, but like him again, it never lasted.

Even now as an adult, I married my best (and only) friend. I prefer to read.

I also relate to Phillip's struggles "finding himself", as they'd say two generations later than Maugham.

Furthermore, although it isn't directly mentioned in the novel, Maugham was "one-quarter normal and three-quarters queer", as he put it. He had a very long-term relationship with a man. I'm not bi or gay, but I am asexual, which I'd argue is more difficult than the other sexual orientations to explain. I spent the first 40 years of my life being told I was wrong or a prude or a cold fish; my ex-husband regularly (at some points in our travesty of a marriage, daily) insult me for not living up to his fantasy of female sexuality. Buggery between consenting adults was illegal in the UK until after Maugham's death. Being asexual isn't illegal, thankfully (this isn't The Handmaid's Tale) but sometimes people act like they think it should be.

Tangent: I will never understand the nonsense people give asexuals. We just don't like a thing. I don't like chickpeas and nobody gets confrontational about it. But sex? You're an abomination! I truly do not understand.

I don't fully understand the title of the novel, nor do I understand how it was described (on the back of the Everyman's Library hardback) as Phillip discovering his enjoyment of masochism - that literally does not happen. At all. He hated it. He hated the way he was treated by Mildred and how she made him feel, and in the end he walked away and rebuilt his life.

This is one of the best-written novels I've read. My single suggestion would be to offer the translation of all the foreign language bits. Google got me through but it does take away from your enjoyment to have to keep looking stuff up.

Length: 664 pages

Rereadability: I will most likely reread this, and I do plan to read the author's other works

Classic: One of the most classic-y classics I've encountered!