Of Human Bondage (1915) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention."Maugham, who had originally planned to call his novel Beauty from Ashes, finally settled on a title taken from Spinozas Ethics.