Of Human Bondage
Written by W. Somerset Maugham
Narrated by Geoffrey Giuliano and The Ark
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
A quote from Meditations, iii 10, by Marcus Aurelius,[2] introduces the work: "Short therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells." In the story, set "a good many years ago" in what is now Indonesia, a young Australian, cruising the islands after his involvement in a murder in Sydney, has a passionate affair on an island which causes a further tragedy.
William Somerset Maugham was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.
Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised in Whitstable, Kent by a paternal uncle, who was emotionally cold. He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. His first novel Liza of Lambeth (1897) sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. In 1915 he wrote Of Human Bondage, widely considered his masterpiece.
During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service. He worked for the service in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917 in the Russian Empire. During and after the war, he travelled in India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He drew from those experiences in his later short stories and novels.
W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Born in Paris, he was orphaned as a boy and sent to live with an emotionally distant uncle. He struggled to fit in as a student at The King’s School in Canterbury and demanded his uncle send him to Heidelberg University, where he studied philosophy and literature. In Germany, he had his first affair with an older man and embarked on a career as a professional writer. After completing his degree, Maugham moved to London to begin medical school. There, he published Liza of Lambeth (1897), his debut novel. Emboldened by its popular and critical success, he dropped his pursuit of medicine to devote himself entirely to literature. Over his 65-year career, he experimented in form and genre with such works as Lady Frederick (1907), a play, The Magician (1908), an occult novel, and Of Human Bondage (1915). The latter, an autobiographical novel, earned Maugham a reputation as one of the twentieth century’s leading authors, and continues to be recognized as his masterpiece. Although married to Syrie Wellcome, Maugham considered himself both bisexual and homosexual at different points in his life. During and after the First World War, he worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service as a spy in Switzerland and Russia, writing of his experiences in Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1927), a novel that would inspire Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. At one point the highest-paid author in the world, Maugham led a remarkably eventful life without sacrificing his literary talent.
More audiobooks from W. Somerset Maugham
Of Human Bondage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Razor's Edge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cakes and Ale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Narrow Corner Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Moon and Sixpence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Human Bondage: The Classic Tale Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Of Human Bondage
Related audiobooks
Of Human Bondage: The Classic Tale Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Painted Veil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Liza of Lambeth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Steppenwolf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Magic Mountain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death in Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Buddenbrooks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sons and Lovers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Death of Ivan Ilych: Literary Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTender is the Night (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moon and Sixpence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Passage To India Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanity Fair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age Of Innocence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daisy Miller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Room With A View Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Go-Between Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horse Dealer's Daughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ernest Hemingway: Three Stories and Ten Poems - Unabridged Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNostromo Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Dubliners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resurrection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rocking-Horse Winner Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5War & Peace - Part 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Howards End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Laughs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Side of Paradise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Classics For You
The Perks of Being a Wallflower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Kill a Mockingbird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fountainhead Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Gatsby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Multi-Voice, A: The Bad Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gone With The Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master and Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tale of Two Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prince: Machiavelli Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: A New Translation by Caroline Alexander Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Atlas Shrugged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Rose Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crucible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War & Peace - Volume I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Thousand Ships: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Noise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Around the World in 80 Days: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stone Blind: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Of Human Bondage
7 ratings0 reviews