Tuesday, August 30, 2022

The beautiful ending of W. Somerset Maugham's "Of Human Bondage"

In James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain" (1953), John Grimes spends his birthday money and goes to a movie, "Of Human Bondage" (1934), with Bette Davis and Leslie Howard, based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel. Inspired by Baldwin's love for the film, I finished the novel last night. It ends quite beautifully at the National Gallery in London: “He smiled and took her hand and pressed it. They got up and walked out of the gallery. They stood for a moment at the balustrade and looked at Trafalgar Square. Cabs and omnibuses hurried to and fro, and crowds passed, hastening in every direction, and the sun was shining.” (Andrew Shields, #111words, 30 August 2022)

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