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And thinking over the long pilgrimage of his past he accepted it joyfully. He accepted the deformity which had made life so hard for him; he knew that it had warped his character, but now he saw also that by reason of it he had acquired that power of introspection which had given him so much delight. Without it he would never have had his keen appreciation of beauty, his passion for art and literature, and his interest in the varied spectacle of life. The ridicule and the contempt which had so often been heaped upon him had turned his mind inward and called forth those flowers which he felt would never lose their fragrance.
-- Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Ah, the consolations of the inner sanctum! Monk perhaps knows about this a little too well. In any case, Mr. Maugham enriched that sanctuary with this book.
Since this is the story of a young man on a quest for the meaning of life, I was wondering if it would have been better to read it when one was young. Yet, the middle-aged reader may find more poignancy in it.
One recalls what a critic said about Don Quixote, that it is a book that one should read when one is young, and then read again when one is in the middle of life, and yet again when one is old, so that you can discover a new wealth of experiences and feelings upon each subsequent rereading. That is perhaps true for all great pieces of literature. And I suppose it is so for this novel.
xXx
And thinking over the long pilgrimage of his past he accepted it joyfully. He accepted the deformity which had made life so hard for him; he knew that it had warped his character, but now he saw also that by reason of it he had acquired that power of introspection which had given him so much delight. Without it he would never have had his keen appreciation of beauty, his passion for art and literature, and his interest in the varied spectacle of life. The ridicule and the contempt which had so often been heaped upon him had turned his mind inward and called forth those flowers which he felt would never lose their fragrance.
-- Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
Ah, the consolations of the inner sanctum! Monk perhaps knows about this a little too well. In any case, Mr. Maugham enriched that sanctuary with this book.
Since this is the story of a young man on a quest for the meaning of life, I was wondering if it would have been better to read it when one was young. Yet, the middle-aged reader may find more poignancy in it.
One recalls what a critic said about Don Quixote, that it is a book that one should read when one is young, and then read again when one is in the middle of life, and yet again when one is old, so that you can discover a new wealth of experiences and feelings upon each subsequent rereading. That is perhaps true for all great pieces of literature. And I suppose it is so for this novel.
