MAUGHAM, W. Somerset.

£3,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Of Human Bondage. First British edition, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For David G. Tomlinson, thanking him for wishing me to write my name in this book. W. Somerset Maugham. Beverley Hills, March 4, 1936."The work is "a heavily revised and amplified version of an unpublished novel, a fictionalized work of autobiography... In the new version the emphasis was on the shedding of the clutter of a conventional religious upbringing to free the individual's spirit" (ODNB). It became a best-seller after an effusive review by the American novelist Theodore Dreiser. This British edition was printed from the first issue American plates, retaining the misprint reading "help" instead of "helped" on page 257, line 4, amended in later printings.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.