[bfisher]

All in all, a very satisfying read. I was much less happy with this when I first read it 50 years ago. My take on the book now:

The modernity of this book is surprising for a 1915 publication date. I doubt that public sensibilities had become much dulled at that point by the slaughter of the Great War, yet the novel is relatively candid in discussing interracial love, sexuality, seduction, prostitution and STDs. At the same time, there is an echo of an earlier tradition here; is not Philip’s story a pilgrim’s progress?

Another interesting aspect of the book for me was the very sympathetic portrayal of women, generally as more sinned against than sinning. Many of the female characters are manipulated by Philip, the ostensible hero of the novel, for the gratification of his desires, and cast aside by him when he gets what he wants: Aunt Louisa, Emily Wilkinson, and Norah Nesbit. Some are strong and supportive like Betty and Sally Athelny, or independent women like Ruth Chalice and Mrs. Otter (and Norah Nesbit), and in her own way Fanny Price. The closest approach to a villainous female character is Mildred Rogers, and she is a mostly a passive sponge, whose downfall is partially due to her own passions for and trust in Emil Miller and Griffiths. Her only active act of malice is the trashing of Philip’s rooms when she leaves; Philip’s financial ruin was due mainly to his attempts to buy her love.

This novel is often described as semi-autobiographical. There are some parallels to Maugham’s life: being orphaned and raised by an emotionally cold uncle, and his medical training. There are variances, like Phillip’s years spent trying to become an artist in Paris, and any significant expression of Maugham’s sexuality, aside from the schoolboy infatuation which was not described in any sexual terms. Given how soon this was published after Oscar Wilde’s fall from grace, it would probably have been commercial suicide to do otherwise. Philip’s obsession with the character of Mildred does not seem to have a parallel in Maugham’s life. One suspects that he used elements of his own life which fit his themes and got the rest wherever he could. For example, much of the depiction of Cronshaw could have been got from Ernest Dowson’s life, and Dowson’s obsession with Adelaide Foltinowicz, the juvenile daughter of a Polish restaurant owner may have suggested Philip’s obsession with Mildred.

Maugham’s title was supposedly drawn from Spinoza’s “Of Human Bondage,Or The Strength Of The Emotions”. The core idea of the book, frequently expressed explicitly in the dialogue, is that humans are often moved by emotion against what reason would dictate. It is noteworthy how often words are used like slave, chain, rope, ties and bound. One sees this especially in Philip’s thoughts at the peak of his passion for Mildred:
"He loved the woman so that he knew he had never loved before. He did not mind her faults of person or of character, he thought he loved them too: at all events they meant nothing to him. It did not seem himself that was concerned; he felt that he had been seized by some strange force that moved him against his will, contrary to his interests; and because he had a passion for freedom he hated the chains which bound him."

It is not only Philip’s reason-less passion for Mildred that illustrates this idea. Fanny Price is so bound by her unreasoning drive for artistic success that she ends in self-destruction. Was the author’s device of Fanny’s hanging by a rope an extension of his bondage theme, or merely the reuse of the suicide by hanging of Ernest Dowson’s mother? There is a horrible foreshadowing when Mrs. Otter says to Philip “Did Fanny Price help you? … I put you there because I know she can do it if she likes.She’s a disagreeable, ill-natured girl, and she can’t draw herself at all, but she knows the ropes.” That is, Fanny knows the bounds. Of course, Fanny's tragedy is that she did not know the bounds at all.

Cronshaw’s alcoholism kills him. He is fully aware of where it will end, but is unable to resist, although in his case the compulsion may be more physical than emotional.

One hears the antithesis of William Blake’s
"In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear"
For Philip, instead of Blake’s cold realism destroying the creative possibilities of emotion, it seems to be unreasoning emotion which leads to destruction.

There is another sense of bondage expressed in this novel. It is the sense of being bound to do what is right, and what is proper behavior. From being self-centered and manipulative at the beginning of the novel, somehow Philip comes to learn the necessity of being honorable, of doing the right thing.

Ultimately, Philip, having come through the fire and the forge, makes his own synthesis. While reason draws him towards following his dream of traveling, his experience as a locum to Dr. South and with the love and happiness of Athelny family teaches him that it is possible to find happiness through both reason and emotion.