Of Human Bondage (Summarized Edition)
Enriched edition. An Edwardian coming-of-age through Paris studios, London wards, and ruinous desire in a hard-won search for vocation, freedom, and coherence.By William Somerset Maugham
Length6h 32m
About this audiobook
Of Human Bondage follows Philip Carey, an orphan with a clubfoot, through Paris studios, London hospital wards, and ruinous infatuations as he searches for vocation and meaning. Maugham's lucid, ironic prose refashions the Victorian Bildungsroman with candid psychological realism at the Edwardian cusp of modernism. Titled from Spinoza's Ethics, the novel investigates how passion, habit, money, and class bind the will, and how judgment is painfully educated. Drawn from Maugham's formation - early orphanhood, a stammer, and medical training at St Thomas's - this semi-autobiographical narrative turns clinical observation into method. Encounters with London poverty and precarious patients supply granular social texture, while wide reading in philosophy and aesthetics grounds Philip's debates about freedom and vocation. The late image of life as a woven pattern distills Maugham's secular ethic: coherence, not transcendence. For readers of Joyce's Portrait, Hardy, and early Lawrence, this novel offers a rigorous, unsentimental education of the will. Students of realism and early modernism will find a pivotal bridge text; general readers will encounter a wise companion through obsession, failure, and the fragile recovery of freedom.
Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
Audiobook details
GenreGeneral Fiction, Literary Classics
Length6 hrs 32 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJan 10, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
6Of Human Bondage (Autobiographical Novel) (pt. 1)
2Introduction
7Of Human Bondage (Autobiographical Novel) (pt. 2)
3Synopsis
8Of Human Bondage (Autobiographical Novel) (pt. 3)
4Historical Context
9Analysis
5Author Biography
10Reflection
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