Of Human Bondage (Maugham)

Book Reviews
A gorgeous read, as interesting and valuable at the beginning as at the end. Compact of the experiences, the dreams, the hopes, the fears, the disillusionments, the ruptures, and the philosophizing of a strangely starved soul, it is a beacon light by which the wanderer may be guided.
Theodore Dreiser - New Republic


The modern writer who has influenced me the most.
George Orwell


It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. He was always so entirely there.
Gore Vidal


One of my favorite writers.
Gabriel García Marquez


[A]n entirely new departure. Maugham, who usually cultivates a fastidious detachment, shows in this work a personal commitment that was unusual, sweeping the reader up in his own passionate intensity. Compelling and uncompromising, written with an unflagging energy and drive, the work could hardly be more different from any he had previously published.... The story closely follow[s] the events of Maugham’s early life, with at its centre the terrifying experience of a masochistic sexual obsession.
Selina Hastings - author, Maugham biographer