Man's bondage

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Of Human Bondage ( English Of Human Bondage ) is a coming of age novel by W. Somerset Maugham , who in 1915 was published by Heinemann in London and in the same year at George H. Doran in New York City. The translation into German came out in 1939. The story of the English physician Philip Carey, born in 1876, is told from the age of nine to thirtieth. Philip prevails despite his congenital disability, a clubfoot . The text has autobiographical traits.

The title of the novel takes up Spinoza's postulate of human bondage (De servitute humana), as it is written in the fourth book of his Ethics : Philip is a slave to Mildred's beloved against his better judgment.

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When his mother, Helen Carey, died in 1885, Philip was taken in by Uncle William and Aunt Louisa in Blackstable , a fishing village in eastern Kent . The childless couple enables the now 13-year-old boy to attend school at King's School in nearby Tercanbury. Vicar William Carey is the brother of Philips' father, surgeon Stephen Carey, who previously died of blood poisoning.

As an 18-year-old Philip is supposed to go to Oxford. He should become a clergyman. Nothing will come of it. The young man doubts his faith and goes to Heidelberg . There in Germany he befriends the 26-year-old G. Etheridge Hayward, a budding lawyer. After the death of his father, a district judge, the half-educated writer Hayward inherited a carefree life on the continent. As a 19-year-old Philip heard lectures on Schopenhauer from Kuno Fischer .

Back at Blackstable, Philip begins an affair with Miss Emily Wilkinson, even though he is not in love with her. The well over 30-year-old is visiting the pastor's house. The young man sleeps with the young lady. This is a mistake. Miss Wilkinson proves to be devoted. But in the end she has to leave. Philip answers the flood of letters carelessly and slowly. He doesn't get through the apprenticeship with the London auditor Herbert Carter. As an office worker completely out of place, Philip prefers to visit the National Gallery . Mr. Carter is on business in Paris and takes the apprentice with him. Philip feels called to be a painter. It has to be Paris. Against his uncle's wishes, he stays in a shabby hotel in the Latin Quarter near the Armitrano painting school. The 26-year-old Fanny Price gave up her job as an educator in England and also wants to become a painter in Paris. The young lady takes the newcomer under her wing. The old painting professor Foinet certifies that Fanny has no talent. Fanny starves and hangs herself in her room. Together with the young aspiring painter Frederik Lawson, Philip rents a cheap studio on Boulevard Raspail. In the evenings in the Freundeskreis one listens to the philosophies of the alcoholic Cronshaw, a seedy poet who struggles to stay afloat with translations and so on. After a few months, Philip realizes his mediocrity as a painter. After a year and a half stay in Paris, he gives up the sails. In addition, when asked, Prof. Foinet advised him not to work as a painter. Aunt Louisa's death is an external reason for the repentant return of Philips to Blackstable. He now agrees to study medicine. Uncle William, aged noticeably, approves of this decision.

The student follows in the father's footsteps; goes to London's St. Luke Hospital like this one once. The patients there come "from the working class : dock workers , truck drivers , factory workers, waiters ...". Philip lives in a tiny room. Above him lives Harry Griffith, a fifth year medical student whose father is a doctor in Leeds . The two students become friends. It is not just studied. Griffith sometimes has several girlfriends at the same time. Philip hopes that his acquaintance with the grandiose stockbroker Macalister will turn his inherited fortune into a profitable investment. In a tea room on Parliament Street , Philip falls in love with the young waitress Mildred Rogers. The deep affection - described most vividly throughout the rest of the novel - is not returned. Philip realizes that Mildred is not particularly bright, illiterate, and quite vulgar. Her flat-chested figure, the unhealthy complexion and her artificial appearance also displease him. Nevertheless, he cannot defend himself against his passion, he loves and hates Mildred and at the same time detests himself for it. Now he suspects the agony Emily Wilkinson and Fanny Price must have endured when he left them both behind one another. Philip shamelessly exploits Mildred, who never learns to save. Reluctantly and coldly, she gets involved with the stubborn lover and then surprises him with the bad news that she is expecting a child from the married Emil. While that father of three abandons Mildred, Philip stands by the mother-to-be; pays the maintenance as well as the common apartment on Vauxhall Bridge Road and later on Kennington Road.

The little girl is born. Philip loves it like a father, while Mildred pays little heed to it. Mildred meets Harry Griffith, Philip's smart, constantly indebted friend. The two begin an affair behind Philip's back. Philip is deeply hurt, but gives the two of them money from his own savings so that they can "go away" together. With this selfless act he hopes to finally get rid of his obsession with Mildred. A little later he met 25-year-old Norah Nasbit through Lawson. She is divorced and keeps herself and her child afloat by writing penny novels. The clever and optimistic Norah loves Philip and pampers him with tender care. With her help, he eventually passed the medical exam. The apparent luck doesn't last long, however, because by chance he meets Mildred again. Harry Griffith has long since ditched her, she has taken care of her child and is now working as a prostitute. Philip is filled with compassion and concern; he offers Mildred to stay with the child in his apartment if she fulfills the duties of a housekeeper in return. He almost immediately forgot Norah, only later does he show his true colors and part with her. Living together is not very harmonious. Mildred is not a good housekeeper and cannot handle money. She is also offended that Philip takes care of her but no longer physically desires her. After a few weeks the situation escalates, Mildred tries unsuccessfully to seduce Philip, he vigorously rejects her advances. As a result, Mildred demolished the apartment the following day in Philip's absence, smashed the furnishings and destroyed his pictures. When he returns from the clinic, Philips' possessions are destroyed, Mildred has disappeared.

Philip is investing the remaining few hundred pounds in a Rhodesian gold mine. Macalister dupes students who are completely ignorant of stock market issues. Philip speculates miserably and is penniless, has to break off medical studies and give up his inferior abode. He spends the summer starving on the London park bench. He doesn't go to Lawson because he owes him five shillings . Philip finds shelter with the 48-year-old journalist Thorpe Athelny, a former jaundice patient. Athelny, head of a family of eleven, makes ends meet as a press agent at the Lynn & Sedley white goods store. He accommodates the guest there as an overseer.

In the textile industry, Philip recalls his attempts at drawing from Paris times and works as a fashion designer for women's clothing. He meets Mildred again, who is working as a prostitute again. She goes to see him because she has a sore throat and a rash but does not want to see a doctor. Philip examines her in her shabby room and finds out that the little girl has since passed away. Mildred apparently has syphilis , Philip tried to keep her from prostitution . His efforts are in vain, Mildred goes into hiding again in London, this time forever.

When Uncle William dies, Philip immediately takes over his inheritance, quits Lynn & Sedley and finally completes his medical degree. As a newly licensed doctor, he takes on a substitute for the somewhat rough Dr. South in Farnley / Dorsetshire. The old doctor offers the newcomer to his practice partnership.

During the summer holidays, Philip accompanies the Athelny family, who help with the hop harvest in the countryside. On a mild summer night, he and his eldest daughter Sally got into intimacy. Sally later informed him that she might be pregnant. Then Philip decides to call Dr. To accept South's generous offer to marry Sally and go to Farnley with her. Even when it turns out that Sally is not pregnant, he sticks to his decision.

Film adaptations

Editions in German

First edition

  • Man's bondage. Novel. Translated from the English by Renate Seiller. Rascher Verlag, Zurich and Leipzig 1939. 676 pages, hardcover on canvas

Used edition

  • Man's bondage. Novel. Justified translation from English by Mimi Zoff. Bertelsmann Lesering , Gütersloh, Book No. 184 (without ISBN and without year of publication). 702 pages (Licensor: Rascher Verlag, Zurich)

annotation

  1. ↑ Since the novel is not called “Man's bondage”, the inverse is probably also referred to: Unrequited love to the limit of bondage besides Philip is Emily Wilkinson, Fanny Price, Norah Nasbit and initially Sally Athelny (see also article) .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ eng. Heinemann
  2. ↑ eng. George H. Doran
  3. ↑ eng. W. Somerset Maugham bibliography
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 8, 1. Zvo as well as p. 9, 3. Zvo and p. 654, 15. Zvu
  5. ↑ eng. Blackstable
  6. ^ French Boulevard Raspail
  7. ↑ eng. St. Luke Hospital
  8. ↑ Edition used, S, 451, 16. Zvu
  9. ↑ Edition used, pp. 316, 13. Zvo and for example also pp. 335,12. Zvu
  10. ↑ eng. Vauxhall Bridge Road
  11. ↑ eng. Kennington Road
  12. ↑ eng. Of Human Bondage (1946 film)
  13. ↑ eng. Of Human Bondage (1964 film)