Books

London: William Heinemann, 1915. First edition, first printing which includes list of other “Works” by Maugham facing half-title, plus publisher’s ad page for works by other authors on half-title verso, with the misprint on page 257, line 4 ("help") of Maugham’s masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth. In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco chemise and clamshell box. A sharp example. “Maugham’s longest and most ambitious novel, in which ‘fact and fiction are inextricably mixed,’ draws heavily upon the author’s own youth, with circumstances and names scarcely altered” (Parker, 63). “As early as 1911 [Maugham] had retired temporarily from the theatre to work on his long novel, Of Human Bondage. He was to correct the proofs under the admiring eyes of Desmond MacCarthy in a small hotel at Malo, near Dunkirk; the two men were drivers in an ambulance unit for which they had volunteered at the outbreak of war in 1914… Of Human Bondage was published in…

Of Human Bondage is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is a semi-autobiographical story about the life of a young man, Philip Carey, who struggles to find his identity and place in the world.