A long, semi-autobiographical novel following Philip Carey, an orphan with a clubfoot, from a lonely childhood with a clergyman uncle to young manhood in Germany, Paris and London. He searches for a purpose, trying art, accountancy and medicine, while struggling with religious doubt and an painful, obsessive attachment to a woman who treats him badly. The book is a study of freedom, habit and the search for meaning in life, and it is often regarded as Maugham's finest novel.
Quotes
People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.
Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.
You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
hand, “is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.”