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Somerset Maugham. The book is loosely based on the life of the French painter Paul Gauguin and explores themes of creativity, passion, and the clash between societal expectations and individual desire. The story revolves around Charles Strickland, a middle-aged London stockbroker who abandons his family and career to pursue his passion for painting. Strickland's journey takes him to Paris, where he meets the bohemian art community and eventually settles in Tahiti, where he immerses himself in the local culture and creates some of his most famous works. How will Strickland develop his career? How will his work be known by the audience? The novel also explores the impact of Strickland's selfishness on those around him, including his wife and children. 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Then he falls obsessively in love, embarking on a disastrous relationship that will change his life forever.…\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMarked by countless similarities to Maugham’s own life, his masterpiece is “not an autobiography,” as the author himself once contended, “but an autobiographical novel; fact and fiction are inexorably mingled; the emotions are my own.” And although he based \u003ci\u003eOf Human Bondage\u003c\/i\u003e on what he knew, his is an “excessively rare gift of storytelling...almost the equal of imagination itself.”*\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith an Introduction by Benjamin De Mott and an Afterword by Maeve Binchy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times \u003c\/i\u003e(London)","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56311765991797,"sku":"9780451530172","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780451530172_8d5d4a8d-6305-421e-b0f2-7e768d772edf.jpg?v=1786013735"},{"product_id":"the-constant-wife","title":"The Constant Wife","description":"Maugham's popular comedy of modern manners espouses that so long as a wife is supported by her husband she must remain faithful, but when the tables are turned freedom becomes the currency with which both must pay. 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