Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset Maugham

"Compact of the experiences, the dreams, the hopes, the fears, the disillusionments, the ruptures, and the philosophisings of a strangely starved soul, it is a beacon light by which the wanderer may be guided."

--Theodore Dreiser, "The New Republic"

An orphan brought up by a pious uncle and an ineffectual aunt, Philip Carey eagerly launches himself into adventure at age eighteen. After some months spent wandering Europe in an attempt to find himself, he returns to London to train as a doctor. It is here that he encounters Mildred, the doomed but formidable object of an obsessive love affair that provides the pivot of this marvelous novel.

Maugham has no rival in the portrayal of human emotion, and he creates an almost unbearable tension for his readers as Philip suffers, despairs, and pays the price for passion--a price that is almost too high.