Warning! This is a long review as we all had a lot to say about the book!
Much to all our surprise, this book met with almost universal
acclaim, even love, despite its length and age. Those who missed the discussion
or who had not finished the book are even suggesting a further conversation on
it at a future meeting. Unheard of in the Club! Mark T: “It was one of the best
books I have read for a long time and I was picking it up to snatch a page or
two every spare moment.” Chris W: “I really enjoyed reading this book which is
one of the best I feel that the club has read in the last few years”. Richard:
“unlike the last perfectly nice, very readable, book we read, this WAS a book
which addressed (very strongly) matters which are central to the human
condition; and which had a number of well-drawn characters, with many of them
drawn in some depth. I enjoyed the book a lot. Very occasionally, some passages
did not hold my attention, but overall, the book held my full attention
throughout – it was strong on both plot and character, and of course huge
amount of historical detail; plus major discussions about philosophy, art, and
‘the human condition’.” Rob, however “found the book profoundly irritating in
many ways and it was vastly too long a book for any substantive content that it
did possess.”
This is a largely autobiographical book that finishes when
Philip, the main character in the book reaches the same age (about 30) as the
writer was (thanks, Mark W for this and many other biographical nuggets).
We get to know Philip as a character, warts and all. He is
very ready to be open about his weaknesses and prejudices whilst avoiding any
tendency to make us feel sorry for him facing really difficult experiences in
his life, as an orphan, a disabled schoolchild, an anxious adolescent and a not
very good artist and scholar. We all felt engaged and interested in his life
journey even if we did not necessarily “like” the character.
The book takes us from the death of his mother, though
living with his childless uncle and aunt, school, including the thinly
disguised Kings School Canterbury, through various career moves as a clerk, an
artist in Paris, a medical student and a down and out. At Kings, Somerset
Maugham is celebrated as a famous old boy, even though he hated his time there
(as implied in the novel). Mark W and Steve loved the ending [spoiler alert]:
he lowers his ambitions for a spell in Spain when he decides it is time to
marry his friends and settle down, despite not being in love.
And the bondage? A lot of the book describes his close
relationships with women, the older woman, the “unsuitable” but captivating (to
Philip at least) waitress, the stalwart friend and the sensible young daughter
of his friend. He is for much of the novel, enslaved to his desire and obsession
with Mildred, the waitress. But the bondage is also reflected in his frequent
musings on life’s purpose and meaning (or lack of it). We all live our lives
with energy and emotion, fully bound to the business of living: to what end?
Another take on this from Chris W: the recurrent theme
throughout the whole book and presumably the principal "bondage" that
Maugham was talking about is wealth or lack of it. What are the different
"bondages" that Maugham was referring to at the beginning of the
book? I thought he was referring simply to his physical disability but it was
clear by the end that the whole social system at the time in Britain was
intended. Philip and his friends are constantly considering how they can
survive for the next few years, months, days and there are numerous references
in the book demonstrating how difficult it was in those times to change career
or to finds new employment at all and how there was a hierarchy for everything.
Predicting the longevity of one's parents and any possible inheritance seemed
to be a frequent consideration. The most terrible example of this is depicted
in the downfall of Mildred who ultimately ends up in prostitution.
The mixture of the development of a life and lives of an individual,
personal relationships, character development, story telling, creation of place
and time with the many musings on life and morals is what makes this book so
engaging. As Richard says, “I do not think I have bookmarked or highlighted so
many quotes in any other book”.
Chris W: I understand that this was partially an
autobiography so it was very evident how Maugham's early childhood being
brought up by his uncle and aunt in a very austere and unloving relationship
had affected him (and Philip) severely throughout the story and it was this
lack of love Philip explains that gives him the ability to see things in a
different way. His experiences of being sent away to a boarding school and then
bullied because of his leg are very sad. (I have to say that my experience of
being sent away to a prep school at age 8 I had several similar experiences as
the new boy had to be bullied as of norm and it was the right of the older boys
to do so).
Richard: in so many ways, Maugham nailed this character so
well – how as a naïve youth he gets taken in:
“"Of course the man's a pedant. He has no real feeling
for beauty. Accuracy is the virtue of clerks. It's the spirit of the Greeks
that we aim at. Weeks is like that fellow who went to hear Rubenstein and
complained that he played false notes. False notes! What did they matter when
he played divinely?" Philip, not knowing how many incompetent people have
found solace in these false notes, was much impressed.”
How embarrassed he is, so easily:
“He pictured himself looking out for Miss Wilkinson, the
embarrassment of going up to her and asking if it were she (and he might so
easily address the wrong person and be snubbed), and then the difficulty of
knowing whether in the train he ought to talk to her or whether he could ignore
her and read his book.”
How difficult it is to go through with potentially
embarrassing things:
“He would willingly have bolted, but he was afraid of the
remorse which he knew would seize him. It was like getting on the highest
diving-board in a swimming-bath; it looked nothing from below, but when you got
up there and stared down at the water your heart sank; and the only thing that
forced you to dive was the shame of coming down meekly by the steps you had
climbed up.”
Rob found the character of Philip irritating: “he needed a
really good slap around the face. He was the most pathetic and insipid
character I can ever recall reading about as the central person in a novel. For
me, no historical 'of its time' explanation can forgive his self indulgent
destruction of his own life - and no, having a club foot or being an orphan
doesn't excuse or explain it either. (Or to put it another way, if those things
were the explanation, then the author should have tried communicating that in a
more than simplistic way).”
Chris W: I enjoyed the contrast of Phillips liberating
experiences in Paris and all the different people he met and the result being
that he no longer believe in Christianity and could look upon life in a
different unprejudiced way. There is a really good bit where Philip comments
that the masses follow the rules and regulations of the state being rewarded
with medals pensions and honours if they comply whilst the individual is able
to travel freely observing things for themselves avoiding already in existence
package holidays arranged by (Thomas) Cooks!
Mark said: I really enjoyed the Paris section and it
reminded me of my younger days in Bath when I used to go to art classes in
Sydney place - it was great with the smell of oils and all these young artists
discussing art. I was rubbish of course but like the book there was a girl like
fanny who took an interest in me and helped me with my strokes. Unlike Fanny
she was very beautiful and was called Becky. I got to know her quite well. Anyway
the interesting bit was that 30 years later I find that she is a near neighbour
of mine living the other side of my road!
The book is easy to read but never loses interest (though sometimes
you could kick Philip for being caught yet again by his attraction to Mildred).
It manages to mix description, reflection and dialogue in a thoroughly enjoyable
mix. Neil felt it slowed down rather when Philip comes back to London from
Paris and some of the expressions Maugham uses now seem curious and stilted.
Some things that happen appear nonsensical. There were extremes of
relationships with some people being walked all over and others not.
Mark T: the poverty bit was very gripping and interesting
and I really felt for him.
Chris W: Philip's coming of age story and his progressive disillusionment,
pain and disappointment in life over the next 10 years show how much has now
changed. It is amazing that in the 100 years since the book was written society
has changed to what it is now with the freedoms and flexibilities and welfare
support that are available to our adults and children. I think therefore this is
an excellent book that should be read by every teenager when considering life's
options (Particularly if considering taking up a career in accountancy).
Some of the themes that resonated with members the club were
the full immersion in religious belief (including the belief that faith can
heal his club foot) and the subsequent rejection of it, class relationships
(for example, when Philip is a gentleman amongst the clerks), how you can fall
in love and then suddenly fall out of it (e.g. when Philip sees how old Mrs
Wilkinson looks), how you can become infatuated and repeat your mistakes. It
certainly showed how the class system increased or decreased your access to
professional roles (doctor, accountant). Is this still the case if to a lesser
degree?
Rob was dissatisfied with the book’s portrayal of society: the
book had the potential to be an important social commentary - but failed to be
that. It dipped its toe into important issues around class division, the place
of work, healthcare and housing - but gave little more in response beyond
platitudes that were driven by the author's own middle class perspectives. It
could have provided interesting debate on any of these topics but instead left
us with little more than homilies about the stoicism of the working class, a
side swipe at the thuggery of early trade unions and an assertion that honest
work solves all problems of poverty (George Osborne rules, OK?).
Chris W: interestingly throughout the book there are many
many instances where individuals do not succeed with their aims for one reason
or another. It seems that the common view was that anyone not achieving their
initially stated career e.g. becoming an artist in Paris, an accountant in
London would likely fall into abject failure, alcoholism and ultimately death.
Keeping one's life on a career path was therefore much more precarious and
alcoholism was always just round the corner if one failed.
Richard: so many observations are so acute:
“She looked at him quickly and flushed. When she reddened
her pasty skin acquired a curiously mottled look, like strawberries and cream
that had gone bad.”
“It was very curious. Away from her he thought her
beautiful, remembering only her magnificent eyes and the creamy pallor of her
face; but when he was with her he saw only that she was flat-chested and that
her teeth were slightly decayed; he could not forget the corns on her toes. He
could not understand himself. Would he always love only in absence and be
prevented from enjoying anything when he had the chance by that deformity of
vision which seemed to exaggerate the revolting?”
“Sometimes great philosophers seemed to have nothing to say
to him, but at others he recognised a mind with which he felt himself at home.
He was like the explorer in Central Africa who comes suddenly upon wide
uplands, with great trees in them and stretches of meadow, so that he might
fancy himself in an English park. He delighted in the robust common sense of
Thomas Hobbes; Spinoza filled him with awe, he had never before come in contact
with a mind so noble, so unapproachable and austere; it reminded him of that
statue by Rodin, L'Age d'Airain, which he passionately admired; and then there
was Hume: the scepticism of that charming … the thought of each philosopher was
inseparably connected with the man he was. When you knew that you could guess
to a great extent the philosophy he wrote. It looked as though you did not act
in a certain way because you thought in a certain way, but rather that you
thought in a certain way because you were made in a certain way. Truth had
nothing to do with it. There was no such thing as truth.”
“The thing then was to discover what one was and one's
system of philosophy would devise itself. It seemed to Philip that there were
three things to find out: man's relation to the world he lives in, man's
relation with the men among whom he lives, and finally man's relation to
himself. He made an elaborate plan of study.”
“The advantage of living abroad is that, coming in contact
with the manners and customs of the people among whom you live, you observe
them from the outside and see that they have not the necessity which those who
practise them believe. You cannot fail to discover that the beliefs which to
you are self-evident to the foreigner are absurd.”
The health service in those days was really interesting:
“"If you can afford to wear jewellery you can afford a doctor. A hospital
is a charitable institution," said Dr Tyrell. …. "I don't care a hang
about your letter; you get out. You've got no business to come and steal the
time which is wanted by the really poor."
His account of addiction: “Why don't you give up
drinking?" "Because I don't choose. It doesn't matter what a man does
if he's ready to take the consequences. Well, I'm ready to take the
consequences. You talk glibly of giving up drinking, but it's the only thing
I've got left now. What do you think life would be to me without it? Can you
understand the happiness I get out of my absinthe? I yearn for it; and when I
drink it I savour every drop, and afterwards I feel my soul swimming in
ineffable happiness.”
“Philip thought of the countless millions to whom life is no
more than unending labour, neither beautiful nor ugly, but just to be accepted
in the same spirit as one accepts the changes of the seasons. Fury seized him
because it all seemed useless. He could not reconcile himself to the belief
that life had no meaning and yet everything he saw, all his thoughts, added to
the force of his conviction.”
There were some poignant moments too e.g. being alone on
Christmas day
We discussed Maugham’s attitude and description of women. Mark
W pointed out his physical and psychological portraits of even the women he is smitten
by is not at all flattering, quite the reverse. They are not rounded characters
(Neil). Whereas he describes many of the male characters much more positively.
Does this reflect the challenge he faced in being homosexual (who was married
for 12 years)? Is this misogyny a reflection of the times Maugham lived in?
Rob felt all the main characters were lacking: I felt every
substantive (certainly male) character was highly self-centred. Their
definition of the meaning of life and fulfilment was all about themselves. Whether
that is about blatant self-interest or slightly more subtle narcissistic
behaviour, the men in this book were only interested in themselves and their
own self-gratification. If this book was trying to explore what drives human
behaviour, then looking buying self-interest might have been a factor to
consider. The concept of deriving meaning in life through contributing to the
wellbeing of others rarely got a glimpse in any character development. There
were one or two (female) exceptions to this such as Norah and Sally, but the
female characterisation was so (of its time?) simpering - other than the
somewhat psychopathological (is there such a word?) Mildred - that this
compounded the sin of not making people more rounded characters.
Rob, in trying to find positives, quite liked a couple of
characters (Cronshaw and Athelney), the descriptions of the early health
system were interesting and every now and then a social vignette (e.g. the hop
picking) worked well. Beyond that, whilst I started out thinking that there
were some perceptive commentaries on the human condition, I ended up feeling
they were so driven by the authors own need to self-justify a belief that the
only satisfactory outcome in life is to reject creative passion, as it leads to
squalor and degradation, and instead accept that the only true course in life
is mediocrity and 2.2 kids (or 7.2 in late Victorian times) that I found myself
increasingly rejecting those potential pearls of wisdom.
Mark T again: The Mildred section was very sad and gripping
in that someone who does not want you seems very desirable. But when she
finally almost wanted him he does not want her. Nearly caused the ruin of him. Of
course the other woman who wanted him - Nora, he did not want. Very
interesting. The friendship with Sally was interesting and the way it slowly
matured. A woman whom he likes but not passionately might be more secure for
him which might be true. I did not notice that he had [had sex with] Sally -
must have been in the hop fields. I thought the bit at he end where he thinks
she is pregnant and therefore has to give up his travels and then when she is
not, he is sad he does not have an excuse - classic I thought. A lovely ending.
Chris W: I'm afraid I didn't quite understand the
relationship with Mildred. As the story progresses I was irritated when she
keeps reappearing and Philip is unable to avoid getting involved with her
again. I didn't quite understand this "love" that brought him to
continually seek to remain in a masochistic relationship with her. I didn't
also understand Philip's lack of sexual interest in anyone he ever met even
though they might be unattainable. One would've thought that with his time in
Paris he would've become more liberated sexually but instead he continues in
London to have a most complicated and repressed relationship with a woman who
he admits later no longer attracts him. Clearly he is very sensitive about his
leg however as the book goes on he seems to be freed from concern about this
and yet even when working in the department store he seems completely
disinterested in anyone he works with. I was beginning to assume that the book
was leading towards Phillip's discovery of homosexuality but it is only at the
very end that he finds love with Sally which is then not described but left for
one's imagination. (Did anyone else think of Darling buds of May and Catherine
Zeta Jones)?
Rob had a similar issue with the romance: I know interaction
between the sexes was different 70 years before we were starting to do it, but
this concept that people fell hopelessly in love with someone within two hours
of meeting them, to the extent that they then compromise their entire future
life by behaving in unhinged ways, just isn't real. Speaking personally, when
I've fallen in love it's because a woman has given a good and positive reason
for me to react that way - even if in hindsight I exaggerated or misunderstood
it. No plausible reason was ever given for Mildred causing Philip's reaction -
to say nothing of other occasions when one person declared profound love of
another at the drop of a hat. If that's how the Victorians behaved then they
deserved every negative thing that ever happened to them in their personal
lives.
Intriguing questions include whether Philip consummated his
love with Mrs W (making love did not necessarily mean what it does today). We
had a interesting discussion on this: everyone apart from Mark T thought that
Philip had had sex with her when he locked the door - Mark thought they only
kissed and caressed each other. Mark came across a section later on in the
Paris section when he was drawing a naked women - he was embarrassed as this
was the first time he had seen a naked women. Maybe Mark was right or maybe you
do not need to be naked to consummate a relationship?
Richard: I could go on, but I won’t!! A really good, interesting, valuable and
generally gripping book. I can’t say that I liked, Philip, but somehow that
didn’t matter here – I certainly felt sorry for him, and I’d have been happy if
the book had been twice as long, as I’d like to follow his life on for the next
30 years.
Chris W: in conclusion this was an amazingly clear
representation of English life at the turn of the 19th century and the complex
customs, class, morals and prejudices that prevailed in an environment where
without social support of any sort everybody was so much more aware of their
financial position and the inevitable "drunkenness” or "prostitution”
that would result if their money dried up. A very interesting book well worth finishing
as it was so abnormally thought provoking.
Scores
Mark T 8.6
Richard 8.5
Mark W 8
Neil 8.3
Steve 8.5
Chris B 8.5
Chris W 9
Rob 5.8
