人性的枷锁--读书报告

读书报告

题目：Seeking the Truth of Life

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书名：Of Human Bondage

作者：William Somerset Maugham 总页码：648

出版社：上海译文出版社出版、发行版次：1997年12月第1版

Why did I choose this particular book?

It takes me quite a lot of time to make the discussion that I should choose which book for reading, because there are so many great works of the English literature. However, when I first read the brief introduction of the Of Human Bondage, I think this is the book I have looked for. Here are some reasons for I take it.

Of Human Bondage was a novel written by William Somerset Maugham, and it was generally agreed to be his masterpiece and strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham himself did not quite subscribe to this. He said that this was a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it was autobiographical, more was pure invention. Waugham wrote the book with the third person, but I can deeply touched by its plots. I just have one thought that he was telling his own whole life seriously. And I even can feel its authenticity, just like I was personally on the scene.

The book is the story of Philip Carey’s whole life, it was about an orphan’s eager for life, love and adventure. The main character has quite a few aspects like Maugham. They were both orphaned, and brought up by his pious uncle. They were both mentally disabled. What was more, they had the same experience of going abroad.

The most important point is that I have learnt a lot from this book, just like that the attitude of facing troubles, how to overcome them,

and the necessary of experience accumulation.

Seeking the Truth of Life

Abstract

Of Human Bondage was Maugham’s masterpiece, and it was strongly autobiographical in nature. In the book, the main character, Philip Carey’s bitterness of childhood and youth experience were mostly based on Maugham’s early experience. Maugham had put lots of thoughts and personal feelings on this important character, but he said that this was a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it was autobiographical, more was pure invention. In other word, Maugham broke up the restraint of the fact in this novel, and he fabricated some big plots to make up the character of Philip Carey. The author exposed the society’s torment and bondage to human beings by describing the main character’s difficult experience. Although we can easily see Maugham of early time from Philip Carey, Philip was more like Dicken’s David Cooperfield, Samuel Butler’s Emest, and Compton Mackenzie’s Michael Caine. As a result, Of

Human Bondage became the second realistic work which drew materials from the author’s personal experience and exposed the British capitalist society of the late Victorian times, and this work was totally established Maugham’s status in English literature.

Key words

Philip Carey; world fickleness;

Get rid of human bondage; seek the true meaning of life.

Seeking the Truth of Life

1. Brief Introduction of the author and the novel William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) is a British novelist, a playwright, and also a short-story writer. His work is characterized by a clear unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature. He was born in Paris as the sixth and youngest son of a solicitor to the British embassy. He learned French as his native language. At the age of 10, Maugham was orphaned and sent to England to live with his uncle, the vicar of Blackstable. Educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Heidelberg University, Maugham then studied medicine in London for six years. He qualified in 1897 as doctor from St. Thomas' medical school but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays.

Maugham lived in Paris for ten years as a struggling young author. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth appeared in 1897, and drew on his experiences of attending women in childbirth. His first play, A Man of Honor, was produced in 1903. Four of his plays were written simultaneously in London in 1904. Maugham's breakthrough novel was the semi-autobiographical Of Human Bondage(1915), which is usually considered as his outstanding achievement. The story followed the childhood, youth, and early manhood of Philip Carey, who was born with a clubfoot. He was raised by his religious aunt and uncle, but the real

process of his education, after the end of an unsatisfactory social life, began in Heidelberg. Philip went to Paris to study art, and at the age of thirty he qualified as a doctor. Finally he marries Sally, a normal, healthy, happy girl.

Disguised as a reporter, Maugham worked for the British Intelligence in Russia during the Russian Revolution in 1917, but his stuttering and poor health hindered his career in this field. Then he set off with a friend on a series of travels to eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Mexico. His most famous story, which became the play Rain and was made into several movies, was inspired by a missionary and prostitute among his fellow passengers on a trip to Pago Pago. In the 1928, he settled in France. His plays, among them The Circle(1921), a satire of social life, Our Betters (1923), about Americans in Europe, and The Constant Wife (1927), about a wife who takes revenge on her unfaithful husband, were performed in Europe and in the United States. Maugham's famous novel The Moon and the Sixpence(1919) was the story of Charles Strickland (or actually Paul Gauguin), an artist, whose rejection of Western civilization led to his departure for Tahiti. Trembling of a Leaf (1921) included the story "Rain," made into a play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph in 1922. Razor’s Edge(1944), about a spiritual quest, was made into film two times.

After the 1930s, Maugham's reputation abroad was greater than in

England. Interest in him revived again in his 80th birthday, which he celebrated by the special republication of Cakes and Ale (1930), a novel satirizing London literary circles and Grand Old Men. Maugham collected his literary experiences in The Summing Up, which has been used as a guidebook for creative writing.

2. Plot summary

Of Human Bondage is a book about a boy’s whole life growing up. The book begins with the death of the main character Philip Carey’s mother, and at that time he was only nine years old. Philip's father had already died a few months before, and the orphan Philip was sent to live with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is a vicar of Blackstable, a small village in Kent. Philip got a small fortune but the money was held in custody by his uncle until he is twenty-one, giving his uncle a great deal of power over him until he reached his maturity.

The early chapters were about Philip's experience at the vicarage. His aunt tried to be a mother to Philip, and she was very kind to Philip, whereas his uncle took a cold disposition towards him. Thanks to an eclectic collection of books belonged to his uncle, and in reading Philip found a way to escape his mundane existence and experience fascinating worlds of fiction. This was quiet a good and important period time to him.

Less than a year later, Philip was sent to a boarding school. His uncle and aunt wished him to eventually go to Oxford to study to become a clergyman. At the school, Philip's shyness and his club foot made it so difficult for him to fit in with other boys that he did not make any friends. Philip went through an episode of deep religious belief, and believed that through true faith he could beg God to heal his club foot; but it could n’t help at all. He became a close friend to one boy; but the friendship broke up unfortunately, and he got alone again. Luckily, Philip showed a considerable academic talent and was informed by the school's headmaster that he could have earned a scholarship for Oxford, but instead he was determined to leave the school and go to Germany. Philip's uncle and the headmaster opposed Philip's desire to go to Germany, but eventually they gave in and allowed him to go to Heidelberg for a year.

In Heidelberg, Philip lived at a boarding house with other foreigners and studied German and some other subjects. Philip was quiet like his life in Germany. At the boarding house he met an Englishman, Hayward, who had an interest in literature and who considered himself a poet. Philip also met an unorthodox American named Weeks, who disliked Hayward. Philip thought he was superficial. Philip was intrigued by his long discourses with Hayward and Weeks. And eventually he decided not to believe in the Church of England which came from a radical idea of staunch Christian values.

Back from Germany Philip returned to his uncle's house and met a middle-aged family friend of his aunt and uncle named Miss Wilkinson, who was not friendly toward Philip. He was not particularly interested in her and was uncomfortable about her age. However he pursed her finally because he liked the idea of having an affair with someone. Strangely she became attached to Philip and declared her love for him, so he pretended to be passionate about her. He was really relieved when she needed to return to Berlin.

When Philip's uncle and aunt decided to take matters into their own hands, they convinced him to move to London to learn something useful to become a chartered accountant. He did not fare well there as his co-workers resent him because they believed he was above them and was a "gentleman". Because Philip felt desperately lonely in London, and he was humiliated by his lack of aptitude for the work, he began thinking about studying art in Paris. What’s more, Miss Wilkinson convinced Philip that he drew well enough to become a professional artist. Then he moved to Paris to study art.

When Philip back to Paris, he attended art classes, made a few friends among fellow art students, and met Miss Price, who was talentless in art and did not get along well with others. Miss Price became fell in love with Philip, but he was unaware and did not return her feelings. After her funds ran out, she suicided, leaving Philip to tend for her affairs.

After a long time, Philip realized that he would never be more than a common artist; at the same time, he heard that his aunt had died. Then he returned to his uncle's house, and eventually decided to go to London to pursue medicine, which was his father's late field. While he was struggling at medical school he came across Mildred, a tawdry waitress at a local café. He fell desperately in love with her, although she did not show any emotion for him. When Mildred told Philip she was getting married, his heart broke. He subsequently entered into an affair with Norah, a kind and sensitive author of penny romance novels. Later, Mildred returned, pregnant, and told him that she didn’t marry to the man. Then Philip broke off his relationship with Norah and supported Mildred financially though he just had low income, but later she fell in love with a friend of Philip's and disappeared. The story began on when Philip ran into Mildred again. At this time she was so poor that she had resorted to prostitution. He thought that all the things happened were his fault, and he was feeling sympathy for her. Then he took her into his house, though he no longer loved her. When Philip rejected her advances, she became angry at him. So she left, and destroyed his possessions, causing Philip to abandon that residence and move into a cheaper housing. When Philip met Mildred the next time, she was ill and prostituting again, and the baby had already died.

While working at the hospital, Philip helped a family man named

Athelny, and was invited to his house every Sunday. Meanwhile, a stockbroker acquaintance of Philip advised him to invest in South African mines. Unluckily, Philip was just left with no money because the stock market crashed due to the Boer War. After this big strike, Philip wandered on the street aimlessly for a few days. As a friend of his, Athelny took him in and found him a job at a retail store, but he hated that job. Eventually, his uncle's death left him enough money to go back to medical school, and he finished his studies and became qualified. Then he took on a temporary placement at a fishing village of Dorsetshire , with Dr South, who was an old and rancorous physician, and his wife had dead and whose daughter had broken off contact with him. However, he was quiet like Philip's humor and good manners, eventually making him an outstanding offer of a stake in his medical practice. Although flattered, Philip still refused as he never gave up his thoughts of traveling and returning to London.

Not long after his idea, he soon went on a small summer vacation with the Athelnys at a village in the Kent countryside. There he found that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, liked him. Then they had an affair, and when she knew she was pregnant, Philip decided to give up his great plans of traveling abroad, to accept Dr South's offer, and to propose to Sally instead. On learning that it was a false alarm, Philip was a little disappointed but proposed to her anyway; she accepted. Philip put aside

his lofty, complex artistic and philosophical ideals, coming to the conclusion that "the simplest pattern, that in which a man was born, worked, married, had children, and died, was likewise the most perfect".

3. Comment on the main character

After I have read this novel for twice times, I could not say that I have known the quiet well, I just want to say something that I learn from it. Maybe some of my thoughts are not correct, but as a famous saying goes, there are one thousand readers, there are one thousand Hamlet. So I am just willing to share my own views about this novel.

The novel Of Human Bondage is a story of the main character Philip Carey’s whole life, and all kind of tribulations he meets though his whole life. Philip was a thoughtful and personnalit youth, and he was born with a clubfoot. He became a sensitive and stubborn person, and he was also a person who had withdrawn character because of his special family background. As his parents had already died since he was very little, he spent his childhood in indifferent and unfamiliar surroundings. When he came into boarding school, he suffered a lot from the unreasonable education regulations and unfriendly classmates. What was more, when he graduated from school and entered on the society, he also met with quiet a lot of cruel trips from his love experience. On his bumpy load of life, troubles were every where. Every time when he took

a step, he must experience a series of anguished torment, and would also left wound in mental, which could not be healed.

The novel emphasizes on describing the main character’s getting rid of the two bondages, which represent to religion and the custom of urban petty bourgeois. He spent his whole life on struggling in the disordered and complicated daily life. After Philip had experienced all the sadness and hardships, and after he had gone though all the fickleness of the world, Philip drew the conclusion at last. Life was just like a Persia carpet, which was so colourful and attractive. Although it made people dazzled, actually it made no meaning. Even though under the author’s hand, the main character had gotten rid of the tangle of sexual passion, and had put down the heavy burden of the life responsibility. Moreover, he came into a very special state of peaceful and freedom. And at last he even thought that nothing could disturb him any more. However, from all the things that Philip had experienced, we can clearly see that youths dreams were totally broken up by the capitalism society, from what we can feel the lamentable of the fate as well.

All in all, there is no doubt that Philip’s personal unfortunately experience has quiet great relevance to the society he lives. In other word, that era leads to his tragic destiny. We can easily see that Philip’s unfortunate experience is just a small interlude in the big tragedy of the whole society.

As a social observer with sharp eyes, Maugham couldn’t don’t see the society he lived had been in a very bad situation. What was more, this all kinds of miseries in the world were actually made by the breaking society. However, to be a bourgeoisie writer who had gotten away from human beings, he surely could n’t see the root of the sadness of the western society was just depending on the capitalism regulations themselves. And he was also not willing to confess that only by transforming the social regulations can clear away this kind of social tragedy on basically. The main character of the novel Philip realized the “truth” of the life at last, and this was also the author’s conclusion after he had aeen his own life and the society clearly. Life makes no meaning, and it also can’t change into another thing. Only the man who gives up the illusion of life and gets rid of the mental bondage could become a free man who has no pursue and infatuation. Obviously, this was the meaning that why Maugham chose Of Human Bondage be the title.

4. Conclusion

After reading this book, I may not say how many useful things I have gotten from it. I just want to say that I didn’t read it deeply, but I really het something from it. Maybe after some years later, I will read it again.

5. Bibliography

The book Of Human Bondage (Chinese, English) https://www.360docs.net/doc/b6135016.html,/wiki/Of_Human_Bondage