Of Human Bondage

Of Human Bondage, semiautobiographical novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1915 and considered his masterwork. It is a perceptive depiction of the emotional isolation of a young man and his eventual insight into life.

Born with a club foot, Philip Carey is acutely sensitive about his handicap. As a medical student in London, he meets a selfish and unfaithful waitress for whom he develops an all-consuming passion and whom he cannot leave. When Philip finishes medical school, he enters a loving relationship with another woman, whose possible pregnancy forces him to examine his life.