The pain of youth

Of Human Bondage is about a boy who discovers that mountains can't be moved. It follows the life of Philip Carey from the age of 9, when he was orphaned, through childhood, adolescence and manhood, up to his early 30s.

There are episodes of Philip's life that I completely connected with; his relationship with his uncle, his experience of religion, his desire to escape small-town life through travel. His adventures in Heidelberg and Paris reminded me of my own youth, trying to discover what to do with the rest of my life.

Philip ends up in London and begins an affair with Mildred, and at this point I became completely frustrated with the character. I wanted to shake him by the shoulders, tell him to pull himself together and sort himself out. Unfortunately Philip believes he deserves the treatment dished out to him, such is his sense self-loathing.

Somerset Maugham wrote Of Human Bondage when he was 23 and he speaks vividly of the confusion and pain of adolescence, but his style is not yet fully developed. I'm glad the first of his novels I read was The Razor's Edge, by which time he'd honed his skills over nearly 40 years.