"Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham is a novel published in 1915. This autobiographical masterpiece follows Philip Carey, an orphaned boy with a club foot, through his journey from childhood to adulthood. Philip searches for meaning and happiness as he navigates boarding school, travels abroad, pursues art in Paris, and studies medicine in London. His obsessive infatuation with Mildred, a callous waitress, becomes a destructive force that threatens to derail his future, testing his resilience and forcing him to confront what truly matters in life.