Friday 16 March 2012

Read in 2012 - 4: Of Human Bondage

Again, I am amazed at how long it takes me these days to finish a book; there used to be times when I devoured several books in one single weekend (if it was rainy and cold, that is), but now, there always seems to be so much else that I want to do, see, read (in my weekly paper or elsewhere), listen to, and so many places I want to go to and people I want to meet, that it took me more than a month to finish my latest read, kindly lent to me by my sister: "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham.

My reading is not ambitious at all, I have never aimed for the intellectual, and although I was really trained as a Librarian in my long-ago youth and loved working at the library, you'd be surprised at the number of classics that are considered to be "must-reads" in the world of literature that I have NOT read. But every now and then, I come across one, and this can certainly be said about "Of Human Bondage".

It was a book I enjoyed very much and can recommend to anyone. The story is said to be semi-autobiographical, and Mr. Maugham wrote it in two parts; he did a first draft when he was in his early 20s (which was in the late 1800s-early 1900s), but only took the manuscript up again and turned it into the masterpiece we know now 15 years later, with the first edition having been published in 1915.

Philip Carey is the main character, and it is his life we follow from when he is a boy of about 9 years until he is almost 30. There are many tragic events in Philip's life, starting with the early death of both his parents, events he can not control, while at other times, he takes decisions the reader wants to shout at him for, shake him and tell him, 'don't do that!', but such is life, isn't it? People do not always act the way they should, and it is always easier to see it from an outsider's perspective as when you are in the middle of things yourself.

Philip is essentially a very good person with a kind heart, and he does not judge others - he largely accepts them the way they are, and still helps them over and over again, even though they have hurt him greatly and actually do not deserve his friendship and support. He can also be nasty and come across as arrogant if he wants to, and in that, once again, he is very much like a real person. His life does not follow the strict moral codex of his time, and yet he is maybe, in some ways, a better person than those of his contemporaries who think of themselves as good Christians. For that, too, one can't help but like him.

What really makes this book such an excellent read is the language used. Every now and then, I had to look up a word I didn't know, and that does not happen very often, probably because I do not frequently read books written in that era.

Parts of the book reminded me of Emile Zola's "The Ladies' Paradise", which I read a few years ago (in German, I'm afraid; my French would never suffice to read the original "Au Bonheur des Dames".)

There is such a lot in it I would like to share with you, but instead of making this an endless post, let me just quote a few bits that I found particularly impressive, for one reason or other:

In his late teens, Philip spends a year in Germany, studying in Heidelberg. The owner of the boarding house has strong opinions about literature and the theatre:

It was the period in Germany of Goethe's highest fame. ... he had been adopted as the national poet, and seemed since the war of seventy to be one of the most significant glories of national unity. ... Professor Erlin, who hated the Prussians, gave his enthusiastic admiration to Goethe because his works, Olympian and sedate, offered the only refuge for a sane mind against the onslaughts of the present generation.

The Professor calls Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" obscene nonsense and "nothing but filth", and would rather have his daughters lying dead at his feet than see them listening to the garbage of that shameless fellow. Of Richard Wagner, he speaks with good-humoured laughter, calling him a charlatan with something for the comic spirit to recjoice in. He says:

"I tell you young people that before the nineteenth century is out Wagner will be as dead as mutton. Wagner! I would give all his works for one opera by Donizetti."

Well, Wagner remains very popular (and not just in Germany, I believe), although he has never been quite my thing; when it comes to the opera, Verdi is and will always be The Master for me.

Eventually, Philip wants to end his time in Heidelberg:

"You know, I don't think I can stay here much longer. I want to get to London so that I can really begin. I want to have experiences, I'm so tired of preparing for life: I want to live it now."

Just like in the early chapters when Philip is still a child, the way he feels and thinks is shown convincingly real as that of a child or, as in this instant, as a teenager eager to embark on life as an adult. I do remember that, in my teens, I had that feeling of a long wait, too; I didn't really know what I was actually waiting for, but I suppose it was "life".

After a short stint in London, Philip takes up studying art in Paris. He learns a lot there; among other things, he finds out that he will never be a brilliant artist:

He painted with the brain, and he could not help knowing that the only painting worth anything was done with the heart.

Back in London, he meets up with an old friend from his Heidelberg times, and they talk about beauty:

"In themselves there is nothing to choose between the Campanile of Giotto and a factory chimney. And then beautiful things grow rich with the emotion that they have aroused in succeeding generations. That is why old things are more beautiful than modern. The Ode to a Grecian Urn is more lovely now than when it was written, because for a hundred years lovers have read it and the sick at heart have taken comfort in its lines."

Rather late, Philip finally makes true friends; there is a family with nine children, and there, for the first time, he encounters a real family life, something he has - more or less unconsciously - been longing for ever since his boyhood. The head of the family is very much into anything Spanish, and tells him:

"You should read Spanish, it is a noble tongue. It has not the mellifluousness of Italian, but it has grandeur: it does not ripple like a brook in a garden, but it surges tumultuous like a mighty river in flood."

The friendly family provide an anchor of stability when Philip's life gets, once again, completely upset (by his own unfortunate decisions, I must say), and in the end it is that family who make it possible for him to change his life around once more, and the book ends with an optimistic outlook for him.

There is, as I said, a great deal more in this book than what I was able to convey here. It has been adapted into a film three times, but I have seen none of them and wonder if any of you have both read the book and seen one of the films, and how well adapted they are; please let me know if you can.

My next read will be non-fiction again.

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for this review. It makes me want to re-read this book, which I read about 10 years ago. I had forgotten lots of it but it is such a masterpiece and your post reminds me that is is worth re-reading. I wonder why it was said to be semi autobiographical - Maugham was a homosexual, wasn't he@ I think I'll find out a bit more about him before re-reading the book, also. An interesting reading project for me.

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    1. Jenny, I didn't know a thing about Maugham until I did a bit of research before writing my review. Apparently, he was bisexual, and someone suggested he saw attractive women as competition for the attention of men he was interested in, too, and therefore he gave - unusual for authors of his time, they say - the female characters in his books sexual appetites similar to those of the men, making them somehow more realistic and "modern", compared to how women were often portrayed in other literary works of those days. I don't really know, and actually, I don't care whether he was hetero-, bi- or homosexual; it does not alter anything about the story for me, and a strong story it is!

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  2. "Of Human Bondage" is one of my favourite books and I could find myself in many of the emotional situations Philip had to go through.
    I also enjoyed reading his other books like "The Painted Veil" or "The Moon and Sixpence".
    There is a very good biography about Maugham by Ted Morgan. Maybe a bit too detailed, but if one really wants to find out more about him...
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    1. Yes, a lot of what Philip goes through seems to be rather universal, doesn't it, independently of time and place. Thank you for pointing the biography out to me!
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  3. A great review of a great book. Actually, the second review I've read on a blog site in the last few days -- Steerforth on the blog, "Age of Uncertainty" wrote about reading this book last week, while recovering from pneumonia.

    I read this books years ago, when I was a student. I read it on the bus every day, dragging the seven kilo book around, in addition to all my other papers and books. But definitely worth the bother.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Like Jenny Woolf, I may have to reread it one of these days. Have a great weekend, Carol

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    1. Carol, the edition I read was paperback and did, thankfully, not weigh seven kilo :-)
      Funny how everyone who commented (so far) has read the book, too, but nobody seems to have seen any of the three films.
      You too have a great weekend!

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  4. Hello Meike:
    Many years ago, Somerset Maugham was a favourite read but we seem in recent years to have lost touch with him. Perhaps it is time for a revisit? We would certainly agree that 'Of Human Bondage' is an excellent novel and can be enjoyed on many levels.

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,
      for me, it was the first time ever I read anything by Mr. Maugham. Much as I enjoyed the book, it is now not as if I feel I absolutely HAVE to read all of his works... I may be not quite sophisticated enough in my reading behaviour for him.

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  5. I have read Mugham's Short Stories but have never wanted to read his novels. He is a little old-fashioned now, isn't he?

    I just read your last post about the ball and learning to dance. In my day, the whole class went to the Tanzschule at 16 or 17 and the boys from the boy's Gymnasium (we were single sex schools then) were a year older, and we all learned to dance together. We had a Zwischenball and an Abschlussball. Doesn't that exist any more? I went to a dance at the Jazzkeller or a Sunday afternoon dance nearly every week.

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    1. Friko, maybe it is precisely for its old-fashioned-ness (in language) that I so enjoyed the book; Philip's development is anything but.

      Yes, the Tanzschulen-thing is still very much done in Germany. But when it was my class' turn to do that, I just found the whole idea so utterly silly that I never joined them, and therefore I only began learning to dance now, which makes it of course a bit harder, since I am not such a fast learner anymore as I was when I was younger.

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  6. Nice blog. As a librarian you might be interested in the word play involved in cryptic crosswords. I am doing a series of posts on solving cryptic clues. This was the first one I did. http://caroleschatter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/cryptic-crosswords-solving-hints-1.html Hope you enjoy.

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    1. Thank you, Carole, I am going to check it out.

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  7. This is one of my favorites too. Did you know that Maugham had a terrible stutter, and that is why Philip has a lame leg in the novel, as M. felt the stutter crippled him.
    His obsession with Mildred is so mesmerizing as we see what a vile person she is.
    At least thats the way I remember her! Maybe I should read it again and my opinion of her will be a bit kinder.

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    1. Yes, Julie, the foreword mentions that about Maugham's stutter being translated into Philip's clubfoot. And Mildred is indeed a person difficult to like, and Philip himself is constantly torn between hate and physical revulsion of her and his obsessive love for her.

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  8. My Maugham phase came some time in my late 20s after my Russian phase and I read most of his books (and I have kept them unlike the Russian novels most of which I gave to my niece Helen for her Russian phase). I have a feeling that I will go back to Maugham and you may well have brought that day a bit nearer.

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    1. My phases were much shorter, but there used to be a Fantasy phase when I was in my early teens; it has never come back. I never had a Russian or a Maugham phase, but there were times I went for historical novels; other than that, I have, most of the time, always read pretty much anything that crossed my path and sounded even remotely interesting.

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    2. Just rememeberd this old post of mine about reading:
      http://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.de/2009/09/about-reading.html

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  9. I LOVE this book. And I love the Bette Davis film version, too!

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    1. Oh! Finally someone who can say something about one of the movies! Do you think the chacters in the version with Bette Davis were portrayed like Maugham meant them to be?

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