W Somerset Maugham. That is a great name. I would like to be named Somerset. It instantly recalls summer afternoons lazing on the lawns of some great old mansion, drinking Gin with ice cubes clinking against glasses, and a lazy game of badminton or lawn tennis happening vaguely over there (dimissive languid wave of my hand in a far off direction). Of Human Bondage has none of that scene in it. It's a classic so I'm sure most people have read it or at least heard of it. I read it when I was quite young - the title was enticing. But I didn't remember any of it, really. It came on my Kobo as a free download so I read it again. It took me months to finish it - not because it isn't great - it is - but because other 'things' kept popping up like university classes, work, and other books. Finally, it is done. And now I miss it.
Of Human Bondage has been discussed enough times that I don't need to critique it in any way. It is the story of Philip Carey - a man with a whopper of a tale of woe. As he limps his way through life he paints in Paris, he attends medical school in London, he falls obsessively in love with Mildred (a thoroughly despicable character) and also falls in and out of all kinds of fortune. It is a completely readable novel written in 1915 and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading classics. Maugham's language is impeccable and his descriptions of landscape and personality is divine.
This novel took me quite a while to read (and I want to make this clear again - it was great and would be easy to read in a couple of sittings if life hadn't made me get up so often) and also, as I said, it is on my e-book reader which I tend to take with me when I am off on an adventure instead of carrying a big book, (long sentence - take a breath now) I read it in several places. I read it in bed, in my garden on the porch swing which isn't on the porch, at the kitchen table and in the living room. I read it at the bus stop, in coffee shops, in the movie theatre lounge, in the library and a little bit at work (only in my breaks, ahem!). I read it in Hyde Park in Sydney, at the Circular Quay, in the Botanical Gardens and at the NSW Art Gallery. I read it at the YWCA and at a posh hotel in the Southern Highlands.
There wasn't one place where this novel wasn't suitable for a little read. I think because the novel itself is set in so many interesting places it lends itself to be read in so many interesting places. And, yes, even I can make romance out of sitting on a wooden bus stop bench.
I love all kinds of books but classics make me feel connected. I love the fact that thousands of people, in many countries, in almost a hundred years have read this books. I love that we are all connected by a common experience and that I would have something to talk about with every one of them. I could go back to 1920 and have a lively discussion with someone about Maugham's style. And I hope that in 50 years I could sit down in my old porch swing and have that same lively debate.
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