Of Human Bondage （Unabridged and Illustrated）

📚 Why We Recommend It​

Of Human Bondage isn’t just a classic coming-of-age tale—it’s a fearless, unvarnished exploration of the chains that bind every human soul: insecurity, unrequited passion, the weight of expectations, and the quiet agony of figuring out who we’re meant to be. W. Somerset Maugham’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece follows Philip Carey, a young man born with a limp, as he stumbles through life’s chaos: a lonely childhood spent craving love, a disastrous obsession with a cruel waitress named Mildred (a love that tears him apart yet teaches him resilience), a failed attempt to become an artist, and a meandering path toward finding purpose beyond societal norms.​
What makes this book timeless is Maugham’s refusal to sugarcoat humanity. He writes Philip not as a hero, but as a flawed, messy human—prone to self-pity, poor choices, and moments of profound naivety. Yet in that imperfection, we see ourselves: the times we’ve clung to people who don’t deserve us, the dreams we’ve abandoned out of fear, the way we’ve let our insecurities define us. The unabridged, illustrated edition elevates this experience further: vivid artwork brings 19th-century London’s foggy streets, Paris’s bohemian art studios, and the quiet despair of Philip’s darkest days to life, making his journey feel tangible, almost intimate.