Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, the Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms. Believed to be W. Somerset Maugham’s crowning masterpiece, this coming of age story follows the life of Philip Carey, an orphan born with a clubfoot who aches to experience the life and love so carefully starved out of him by his cold, uncompromising uncle, a man whose disdain for Philip is matched by his religious fervor. Spending much of his young life moving from boarding school to boarding school, Philip is an academic success, but his every attempt at lasting friendship ends in painful solitude. As his loneliness ferments into bitterness, Philip boldly casts aside his uncle’s plans for him to become a doctor like the many men in his family. He cannot stand a moment more in a boarding school, and leaves to become an artist. Free for the first time, Philip discovers more about himself than he ever has before. He grapples with his own identity, God, his talent as an artist, and the loneliness that does not leave him even when finally surrounded by people. When he returns to London to finally study medicine, he encounters a brash and bold waitress named Mildred and falls hopelessly in love for the first time. Starved of affection for so long, Mildred is a force that threatens to consume Philip’s entire life. For more classic titles like this, visit www.diversionbooks.com/ebooks/diversion-classics

In Aspects of the Novel, EM Forster wrote: "The final test of a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, of anything else that we cannot define." He might have been writing about W Somerset Maugham's masterpiece, Of Human Bondage. For English readers, this is a Bildungsroman we mostly first encounter as adolescents. For the edgy economy of its dark, often cruel narrative more than its style (prosaic) or its humanity (tormented). Maugham's unforgettable portrait of Philip Carey is one that teenagers, typically, will ingest like junkies, not least because Maugham poured so much of himself into the plot of the novel and its strangely sympathetic protagonist, had an English writer mined his own life so explicitly or so ruthlessly.

HE SAW her then every day. He began going to lunch at the shop, but Mildred stopped him: she said it made the girls talk; so he had to content himself with tea; but he always waited about to walk with her to the station; and once or twice a week they dined together. He gave her little presents, a gold bangle, gloves, handkerchiefs, and the like. He was spending more than he could afford, but he could not help it.

'It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham,' wrote Gore Vidal. 'He was always so entirely there.' Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. Philip yearns for adventure, and at eighteen leaves home, eventually pursuing a career as an artist in Paris. When he returns to London to study medicine, he meets the androgynous but alluring Mildred and begins a doomed love affair that will change the course of his life. There is no more powerful story of sexual infatuation, of human longing for connection and freedom. 'Here is a novel of the utmost importance,' wrote Theodore Dreiser on publication. 'It is a beacon of light by which the wanderer may be guided. . . . One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid Shiraz of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, responding sensually to its colours and tones.'

Excerpt from Of Human Bondage a Novel She was too weak to resist his wish, and she gave the child up. The doctor handed him back to his nurse. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Bette Davis rose from the ranks of Warner Bros. contract players to become a screen superstar when she was loaned out to RKO to appear in John Cromwell's adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Leslie Howard (Gone with the wind) stars as Philip, a British medical student who becomes infatuated with a most unlikely woman: a vulgar waitress named Mildred (Davis). Undeterred by Mildred's obvious contempt of him (and her disgust for his disabled foot), Philip lavishes his affection upon the tawdry woman, and allows his personal and professional life to disintegrate as a consequence of her sadistic whims. Though considered an unlikely choice to play a cockney working girl, Davis fearlessly embraced Mildred's dark side, and delivered an erotic yet malevolent performance that launched her to the forefront of Hollywood's leading ladies.