A club-footed orphan seeks meaning through art and medicine while enslaved by his obsession with a callous waitress.
Books mentioned in Of Human Bondage (24)
The Lancashire Witches by William Harrison Ainsworth: “He chose them by their titles, and the first he read was The Lancashire Witches, and then he read The Admirable Crichton, and then many more.”
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “He made out a list of books which Philip was to read till he was ready for the final achievement of Faust, and meanwhile, ingeniously enough, started him on a German translation of one of the plays by Shakespeare which Philip had studied at school.”
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen: “The play was The Doll's House and the author was Henrik Ibsen.”
Marius the Epicurean by Walter Pater: “Don't you remember the chapter in Marius where Pater talks of the gentle exercise of walking as the best incentive to conversation?”
The Ordeal of Richard Feverel by George Meredith: “Hayward talked of Richard Feverel and Madame Bovary, of Verlaine, Dante, and Matthew Arnold.”
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: “Hayward talked of Richard Feverel and Madame Bovary, of Verlaine, Dante, and Matthew Arnold.”
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Omar Khayyám: “In those days Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam was known only to the elect, and Hayward repeated it to Philip.”
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman: “He gave Philip Newman's Apologia to read, and Philip, finding it very dull, nevertheless read it to the end.”
Vie de Jesus by Ernest Renan: “Philip thanked him and, taking the book, looked at the title. It was Renan's Vie de Jesus.”
Die Ehre by Hermann Sudermann: “Several of Ibsen's plays were on the repertory for the winter; Sudermann's Die Ehre was then a new play, and on its production in the quiet university town caused the greatest excitement;”
Der Trompeter von Säkkingen by Joseph Victor von Scheffel: “Fraulein Anna gave him a copy of Der Trompeter von Sackingen and in return he presented her with a volume of William Morris. Very wisely neither of them ever read the other's present.”
Sappho by Alphonse Daudet: “Alphonse Daudet had come also, and he had given her a copy of Sappho: he had promised to write her name in it, but she had forgotten to remind him.”
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: “Miss Wilkinson oddly enough had suggested that they should read Romeo and Juliet together; but Philip had firmly declined.”
Poems and Ballads by Algernon Charles Swinburne: “What a genius we should think Swinburne if he had perished on the day the first series of Poems and Ballads was published!"”
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: “He read The Origin of Species. It seemed to offer an explanation of much that troubled him.”
Don Juan by George Gordon Byron: “Lord Byron in a stanza of Don Juan, aiming at the impossible, might have achieved the sublime;”
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes: “Athelny, with picturesque expressions and the fire of a real enthusiasm, described to him the rich delight of reading Don Quixote in the original”
The Principles and Practice of Medicine by William Osler: “He was reading Osler's Medicine, which had recently taken the place in the students' favour of Taylor's work, for many years the text-book most in use.”
New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: “He went to the free library, and looked at the papers till they wearied him, then he took out Stevenson's New Arabian Nights;”
Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett: “I happen to know that Smollett wrote Peregrine Pickle.”
Books that mention Of Human Bondage (2)
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: “You take that book Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham, though. I read it last summer.”
Just Kids by Patti Smith: “They both had aspects of Mildred Rogers, the coarse illiterate waitress in Of Human Bondage.”