Who wrote "Of Human Bondage"?

"Of Human Bondage" is a semiautobiographical novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1915 and considered his masterwork. It is a perceptive depiction of the emotional isolation of a young man and his eventual insight into life.

Maugham, who had originally planned to call his novel "Beauty from Ashes", finally settled on a title taken from a section of Spinoza's Ethics. The Modern Library ranked "Of Human Bondage" No. 66 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

W. Somerset Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.

After both his parents died before he was 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a physician. The initial run of his first novel, "Liza of Lambeth" (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time.