Maugham the burden of human passions summary. Reviews of the book The Burden of Human Passions

Somerset Maugham's book “The Burden of Human Passions” is one of best works what I read recently. Somerset describes our passions so beautifully and poetically that it even makes us feel uneasy. For the lazy, a video with my review of the book “Burden of Passions”:

I read in in electronic format. It was given to me on the Litres website. I don't think it will be difficult for you to find where you can download it.

Maugham himself believed that the novel was overloaded with excessive details, that many scenes were added to the novel simply to increase volume or due to fashion - the novel was published in 1915 - ideas about novels at that time differed from modern ones. Therefore, in the 60s, Maugham significantly shortened the novel “... it took a long time before writers realized that a description of one line often gives more than a full page.” In the Russian translation, this version of the novel was called “Burden of Passions” - so that it would be possible to distinguish it from the original version.

Summary of the novel (don't read it if you're planning on picking up the book!)

The first chapters are devoted to Philip's life in Blackstable with his uncle and aunt and his studies at the royal school in Terkenbury, where Philip endures a lot of bullying because of his lame leg. Relatives expect that after graduating from school, Philip will go to Oxford and accept ordination, however, the young man feels that he has no real calling for this. Instead, he goes to Heidelberg (Germany), where he studies Latin, German and French.

During his stay in Germany, Philip meets the Englishman Hayward. Philip immediately takes a liking to his new acquaintance; he cannot help but be admired by Hayward's extensive knowledge of literature and art. However, Hayward's ardent idealism does not suit Philip: “He always passionately loved life and experience told him that idealism is most often a cowardly flight from life. The idealist withdraws into himself because he is afraid of the pressure of the human crowd; he does not have enough strength to fight, and therefore he considers it an activity for the mob; he is vain, and since his neighbors do not agree with his assessment of himself, he consoles himself with the fact that he pays them contempt.” Another of Philip’s friends, Weeks, characterizes people like Hayward this way: “They always admire what is usually admired - whatever it is - and one of these days they are going to write a great work. Just think - one hundred and forty-seven great works rest in the soul of one hundred and forty-seven great men, but the tragedy is that not one of these one hundred and forty-seven great works will ever be written. And nothing in the world changes because of this.”

In Heidelberg, Philip stops believing in God and experiences an extraordinary elation and realizes that he has thereby thrown off the heavy burden of responsibility that gave significance to his every action. Philip feels mature, fearless, free and decides to start a new life.

After this, Philip makes an attempt to become a chartered accountant in London, but it turns out that this profession is not for him. Then the young man decides to go to Paris and take up painting. New acquaintances studying with him in art studio“Amitrino” introduces him to the poet Cronshaw, who leads a bohemian lifestyle. Cronshaw is the opposite of Hayward, a cynic and a materialist. He ridicules Philip for abandoning the Christian faith without abandoning Christian morality along with it. “People strive for only one thing in life - pleasure,” he says. - A person performs this or that act because it makes him feel good, and if it makes other people feel good, the person is considered virtuous; if he is pleased to give alms, he is considered merciful; if he enjoys helping others, he is a philanthropist; if he enjoys giving his strength to society, he is a useful member of it; but you give twopence to a beggar for your own personal satisfaction, just as I drink whiskey and soda for my personal satisfaction.” Desperate Philip asks what, then, according to Cronshaw, is the meaning of life, and the poet advises him to look at Persian carpets and refuses further explanation.

Philip is not ready to accept Cronshaw’s philosophy, but he agrees with the poet that abstract morality does not exist, and refuses it: “Down with legalized ideas about virtue and vice, about good and evil - he will set the rules of life for himself.” Philip gives himself advice: “Follow your natural inclinations, but with due regard for the policeman around the corner.” (To those who have not read the book, this may seem wild, but it should be borne in mind that Philip’s natural inclinations are quite consistent with generally accepted norms).

Philip soon realizes that he will not make a great artist, and enters the medical school at St. Luke's Hospital in London. He meets the waitress Mildred and falls in love with her, despite the fact that he sees all her shortcomings: she is ugly, vulgar and stupid. Passion forces Philip to undergo incredible humiliations, waste money and become delighted with the slightest sign of attention from Mildred. Soon, as one would expect, she leaves for another person, but after a while she returns to Philip: it turns out that her husband is married. Philip immediately breaks off contact with the kind, noble and resilient girl Nora Nesbitt, whom he met shortly after breaking up with Mildred, and repeats all his mistakes a second time. In the end, Mildred unexpectedly falls in love with his college friend Griffiths and leaves the unfortunate Philip.

Philip is at a loss: the philosophy that he invented for himself has shown its complete failure. Philip becomes convinced that the intellect cannot seriously help people at a critical moment in life; his mind is only a contemplator, recording facts, but powerless to intervene. When the time comes to act, a person bows helplessly under the burden of his instincts and passions. This gradually leads Philip to fatalism: “When you take off your head, you don’t cry over your hair, because all your strength was aimed at removing this head.”

Some time later, Philip meets Mildred for the third time. He no longer feels the same passion for her, but still experiences some kind of harmful attraction to this woman and spends a lot of money on her. To top it all off, he goes broke on the stock exchange, loses all his savings, quits medical school and gets a job in a dry goods store. But it was then that Philip solves Cronshaw’s riddle and finds the strength to abandon the last illusion, throw off the last burden. He admits that “life has no meaning and human existence is purposeless. […] Knowing that nothing makes sense and nothing matters, a person can still find satisfaction in choosing the various threads that he weaves into the endless fabric of life: after all, it is a river that has no source and flows endlessly without falling into any to which seas? There is one pattern - the simplest and most beautiful: a person is born, matures, gets married, gives birth to children, works for a piece of bread and dies; but there are other, more intricate and amazing patterns, where there is no place for happiness or the desire for success - perhaps some kind of alarming beauty is hidden in them.”

The awareness of the purposelessness of life does not lead Philip to despair, as one might think, but on the contrary makes him happy: “Failure does not change anything, and success is zero. Man is only the smallest grain of sand in a huge human whirlpool that has swept over the earth’s surface for a short moment; but he becomes omnipotent as soon as he unravels the secret that chaos is nothing.”

Philip's uncle dies and leaves his nephew an inheritance. This money allows Philip to return to medical school. While studying, he cherishes the dream of going on a trip, visiting Spain (at one time he was greatly impressed by the paintings of El Greco) and the countries of the East. However new girlfriend Philippa, nineteen-year-old Sally, the daughter of his former patient Thorpe Athelney, announces that she is expecting a child. Philip, as a noble man, decides to marry her, despite the fact that this will not allow his dreams of travel to come true. It soon turns out that Sally was mistaken, but Philip does not feel relieved - on the contrary, he is disappointed. Philip understands that you need to live for today, not tomorrow; the simplest pattern of human life is the most perfect. That's why he proposes to Sally after all. He doesn’t love this girl, but he feels great sympathy for her, he feels good with her, and besides, no matter how funny it sounds, he has respect for her, and passionate love, as the story with Mildred showed, often brings nothing but grief.

In the end, Philip even comes to terms with his lame leg, because “without it he could not have felt beauty so keenly, passionately loved art and literature, excitedly followed the complex drama of life. The mockery and contempt to which he was subjected forced him to go deeper into himself and grew flowers - now they will never lose their aroma.” Eternal dissatisfaction is replaced by peace of mind.

Review with quotes about the novel “The Burden of Human Passions” from the site irecommend.ru

Thanks to good reviews book “The Burden of Human Passions”, written by a British novelist Somerset Maugham, at one time it ended up in my reader and was there unclaimed for a long time.

When you start looking for something to read, you look through titles and authors. And every time I came across the title of this book, it seemed terribly outdated to me, and, frankly, I imagined a certain boredom inside. That's why for a long time I avoided the book. But it stubbornly caught my eye, because the title starts with the letter “b”, that is, the book is always practically at the beginning of the list.

And finally I decided to read it. Now I understand that the book was simply waiting in the wings, waiting for my mood to match.

The novel “The Burden of Human Passions” was by no means archaic. In my opinion, it is very modern, although the author wrote it in 1915, and the action in it takes place starting in 1885.

The main character of the novel is Philip Carey. We get to know him from the time he is 9 years old, when his mother dies and he is left an orphan, and we track him life path, his becoming a man.

A boy with a crippled fate and a wounded soul. In addition to the deepest childhood trauma, the death of his parents, he had to carry his otherness throughout his life, because he was born with a serious physical illness - a mutilated leg. He had a limp since childhood, and this lameness constantly became the subject of ridicule from his peers, and in adulthood, an unpleasant object of excessive attention from others.

This developed in him a huge complex with which he had to somehow live, study, work, love.

The work “The Burden of Human Passions” is very atmospheric. We are immersed in the life of Europe at that time. The openness of the borders is surprising. For us, today's Russians, the borders became open only recently, and for the most part we cross them as tourists. And here the opportunity to live, study, and work in any country is amazing. In general, the mobility of people of that time is amazing. Yes and main character: born in England, studied in closed school, then I decided to study in Berlin, then work in London, then study again in Paris, return to my homeland to start studying in London again. But this is so, notes in the margins. This is not the main thing in the book “The Burden of Human Passions”.

The main thing is the passions themselves that consume a person. And it doesn’t matter whether this person lived in the 19th century or lives in the 21st. Nothing in this world changes.

Belief in God or disbelief.

Finding your place in life.

Human relationships. Loneliness.

The eternal struggle of the heart with the mind, and very often the heart turns out to be stronger. Pride, common sense, position in society, and one’s own well-being go into the shadows when Her Majesty Passion appears on the stage.

The emotional experiences of the main character of the book “The Burden of Human Passions” are written very powerfully. Sometimes an association involuntarily arises with the torment of Rodion Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. The same power of suffering.

And all these passions are timeless. Their depth, of course, depends on the sensitivity of nature. But at all times, people have done stupid things under the influence of their passions, stepped on a rake, ruined their lives. And it will always be like this.

I want to warn you that the book “The Burden of Human Passions” by Somerset Maugham. long. But don’t let this scare you: it’s easy to read. I just lived for several days in some kind of parallel life - the life of this boy, young man, man, and empathized with him.

Another review from the website bookmix.ru. And yes, I wanted to go to London again :)

I fundamentally decided to assimilate this weighty brick into electronic version if only because the phone always weighs the same, and you can’t really carry a heavy book with you on the subway.

But still, it is precisely these kinds of novels that are best read in paper form, turning the pages, looking, well, how far there is to the end, stroking the binding, choosing a bookmark from whatever comes to hand, and inhaling the smell book pages. Especially when it comes to books.

This is that old (well, still not quite old, but pretty close) good England, about which the definition “ English literature" sounds like a sign of quality.

This is a novel whose plot should not be retold. A man was born, studied, married and died. And I solved the riddle of the Persian carpet somewhere in between stages.

More precisely not so. We do not catch the birth of the main character, and we will leave him at the age of thirty, when he is still far from “died”. But let's go through all the stages of growing up, self-realization and indulgence own passions.

When Philip understood with his mind that he needed to do one thing, but his heart practically forced him to do something else, I wanted to throw “The Burden” far, far away. “Rag!” I got angry, stopped reading the book, but still came back. This is a romance, it can end well. Maybe, but not required. And why I love similar works- in them you can’t guess how everything will end, because it lasts endlessly and one thing smoothly flows into another.

The main character is not particularly likable. He a common person. Spontaneous, frivolous, addicted. He didn't like sitting and sorting through columns of accounting numbers - and who would like that? He wanted a beautiful bohemian life in Paris. Montmartre, artists, inspiration, muses, recognition.

And he can be understood. Such desires are not uncommon. It’s just that not everyone decides to implement them.

And wanting your uncle to die in the name of inheritance is cruel, but also completely understandable.

I repeat, the main character of the work is an ordinary person. I mean, not a superhero. And nothing human is alien to him. And the main thing here is to understand where it is, your happiness, far or close.

Maugham is wonderful. His works are lightweight, but at the same time beautiful and elegant. Pleasant pastime: living the life of one day by day fictional character, the prototype of which could be any lame person. And not lame either.

Although I deceived you. Philip is not so simple. He has enough brains. The only thing missing was character. From time to time.

And Maugham, in turn, lost his parents early, was raised by his priest uncle, studied literature and philosophy in Heidelberg and medicine in London. In the novel, all reality is probably pre-embellished - that’s why it’s a novel. But it is also true that if you want to know a little about the author himself, look for him in Philip.

"The Burden of Human Passions" - in many ways autobiographical novel Somerset Maugham. It was translated into almost all languages of the world and filmed three times, and was also included in the list of the 100 best English-language works of the 20th century. After reading this novel, Theodore Dreiser called Maugham a “great artist” and his book “a work of genius.” "The Burden of Human Passions" can be called a "novel of education", where the author traces the life of the main character Philip Carey from childhood to adolescence, from youth to maturity. He faces many challenges: early death parents, desperate search his calling in the world, a doomed relationship with a frivolous woman. Having endured many disappointments, changing his views, from submission to his own passions to self-denial, Philip tries to weave the pattern of his own life thread by thread...

Description added by user:

“The Burden of Human Passions” - plot

The first chapters are devoted to Philip's life in Blackstable with his uncle and aunt and his studies at the royal school in Terkenbury, where Philip endures a lot of bullying because of his lame leg. Relatives expect that after graduating from school, Philip will enter Oxford and take holy orders, but the young man feels that he has no real calling for this. Instead, he goes to Heidelberg (Germany), where he studies Latin, German and French.

In Heidelberg, Philip ceases to believe in God, experiences an extraordinary elation and realizes that he has thereby thrown off the heavy burden of responsibility that gave significance to his every action. Philip feels mature, fearless, free and decides to start a new life.

Philip is at a loss: the philosophy that he invented for himself has shown its complete failure. Philip becomes convinced that the intellect cannot seriously help people at a critical moment in life; his mind is only a contemplator, recording facts, but powerless to intervene. When the time comes to act, a person bows helplessly under the burden of his instincts, passions and God knows what else. This gradually leads Philip to fatalism: “When you take off your head, you don’t cry over your hair, because all your strength was aimed at removing this head.”

He admits that “life has no meaning and human existence is purposeless. […] Knowing that nothing makes sense and nothing matters, a person can still find satisfaction in choosing the various threads that he weaves into the endless fabric of life: after all, it is a river that has no source and flows endlessly without flowing into no seas. There is one pattern - the simplest and most beautiful: a person is born, matures, gets married, gives birth to children, works for a piece of bread and dies; but there are other, more intricate and amazing patterns, where there is no place for happiness or the desire for success - perhaps some kind of alarming beauty is hidden in them.”

Story

According to Maugham, The Burden of Men is "a novel, not an autobiography: although there are many autobiographical details in it, much more is fictional." And yet it should be noted that, like his hero, Maugham lost his parents at an early age, was raised by a priest uncle, grew up in the town of Whitstable (in the novel Blackstable), studied at the royal school in Canterbury (in the novel Turkenbury), studied literature and philosophy in Heidelberg and medicine in London. Unlike Philip, Maugham was not lame, but he did stutter.

Reviews

Reviews of the book “The Burden of Human Passions”

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Christina Reading

Maugham Somerset

About his novel "The Burden of Human Passions"

William Somerset Maugham

ABOUT HIS NOVEL "THE BURDEN OF HUMAN PASSIONS"

N. Vasilyeva, translation

This novel is so long that adding a preface to it makes me feel awkward. The author is not allowed to dispassionately judge his creation. The famous French novelist Roger Martin du Gard told an instructive story that happened to Marcel Proust. Proust wanted a magazine to publish a serious article about his outstanding novel, and he wrote it himself, believing that no one better than the author will not appreciate his work. Then I asked a friend young writer, sign the article and take it to the editor, which he did. A few days later the editor invited young man to himself and said: “I cannot publish your article. Marcel Proust will never forgive me if I publish such a superficial and unkind judgment about his novel.” Although authors are jealous of their works and do not tolerate criticism, deep down they are rarely satisfied with themselves. They are tormented by the realization of how great the discrepancy is between the idea and its embodiment in the work to which so much time and effort was devoted. The author is much more annoyed with himself for not being able to express his plans in its entirety than he rejoices at individual happy discoveries that flatter his pride. Perfection is the artist’s cherished goal, and he laments that he has not achieved it.

Therefore, I will not indulge in discussions about the book itself, but will simply tell you how this novel, which has already lived for quite some time, came into being. long life in literature. Let the reader not judge me harshly if my story does not seem worthy of attention. I wrote the first version of this novel when I was twenty-three years old. Having received a medical degree after five years of study at the medical institute at St. Thomas, I went to Seville, determined literary work earn your daily bread. I still have the old manuscript, but I have not touched it since I read it from the typist, and I have no doubt that it was a very weak work. I sent the manuscript to Fisher Enwin, the publisher of my first book (while still a student I had published Lisa of Lambeth and it was a success), but Enwin refused to pay me the hundred pounds I asked for. new novel, and all the other publishers didn’t want to deal with me at all. I remember that I was completely discouraged then, but now I understand that it was fate itself. After all, if any of them had undertaken to publish my book, I would have ruined a topic that I was simply not mature enough to understand due to my youth. I was not yet able to look at events from the necessary distance of time, and I lacked life experience; it came over the years and truly enriched the novel I eventually wrote. I had no idea then that it would be easier to write about famous things than about unknowns. So, I sent my hero to study French to Rouen (which he himself was only passing through), instead of sending him to improve himself in German to Heidelberg (where I happened to live myself).

So, having been rejected everywhere, I hid the manuscript out of sight. I wrote other novels, they were published, and tried my hand at drama. The plays brought me fame, and the decision naturally came to devote myself to the theater for the rest of my life. But I made such a choice without deep inner conviction and, probably, that’s why I subsequently cheated on him. I was happy, quite successful, and worked hard. Ideas for new plays were crowding in my head and begging to be written down. I don’t know how to explain this - either success did not bring me the expected satisfaction, or it was some kind of defensive reaction at him, but at the very zenith of my dramatic fame, memories of the past again began to overcome me. They haunted me in my dreams, on walks, at rehearsals, at parties, becoming such a heavy burden that there was no other way to get rid of them than to write a book. Working for the theater, I was tied strict laws dramaturgical genre and now looked forward to the unlimited freedom that a novel opens up for a writer. I knew that the planned book would require a lot of work, and although the producers vied with each other to offer new contracts, I refused all offers and left the theater for a while. At that time I was thirty-seven years old.

Having chosen the profession of a writer, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to master the secrets of the craft, and tormented myself with constant polishing of my style. But as soon as my plays were performed in theaters, I abandoned this activity, and when I returned to prose again, I already set completely different goals for myself. I lost interest in the flowery style and metaphorical prose, although earlier in the pursuit of them he had wasted so much effort in vain. Now I was attracted to simplicity and artlessness. I had so much to say in one novel without turning it into an unwieldy monster that I did not have the luxury of wasting words; and to this day I adhere to the rule of using only as many words as are necessary to express a thought clearly. There was no room left for ornate decorations. The theater taught me to value brevity and beware of idle talk. I worked non-stop on the novel for two years. And I still couldn’t come up with a name for it, I tried a lot different options, until I came across a quote from the prophet Isaiah, “Beauty instead of ashes.” But I had to give it up too, because I found out that they had recently beaten me to it. In the end, I borrowed the title of one of the books in Spinoza's Ethics - The Burden of Human Passions. And it turned out only for the best that I could not use the first version of the name.

"The Burden of Human Passions" - autobiographical novel, but not an autobiography. Facts are inseparable from fiction in it. I talked about what I experienced myself, but changed the sequence of some events, and took some episodes from the lives of my good friends. The book did not disappoint my expectations. As soon as it came out into the world (at that time it was raging brutal war and there was so much suffering and grief all around that it seemed that fate could not excite anyone literary hero), how I forever got rid of the painful and sorrowful memories that tormented me. The novel received favorable reviews in the press. Theodore Dreiser gave a thoroughly written review to the New Republic, displaying his usual subtlety of observation and goodwill. Nevertheless, the novel would share the fate of most of its brothers and later a short time after birth would have been forgotten. But several years passed, and by a lucky chance some famous people drew attention to him. American writers. They referred to him every now and then, and this increasingly attracted the attention of readers to him. So my brainchild owes its second birth to these writers; I have to thank them for the fact that the success of my novel grew year after year.

The action takes place at the beginning of the 20th century.

Nine-year-old Philip Carey is left an orphan and sent to be raised by his priest uncle in Blackstable. The priest does not have tender feelings for his nephew, but in his house Philip finds many books that help him forget about loneliness.

At the school where the boy was sent, his classmates mock him (Philip is lame from birth), causing him to become painfully timid and shy - it seems to him that suffering is the lot of his whole life. Philip prays to God to make him healthy, and for the fact that a miracle does not happen, he blames only himself - he thinks that he lacks faith.

He hates school and doesn't want to go to Oxford. Contrary to his uncle's wishes, he strives to study in Germany, and he manages to insist on his own.

In Berlin, Philip falls under the influence of one of his fellow students, the Englishman Hayward, who seems extraordinary and talented to him, not noticing that his deliberate unusualness is just a pose, behind which there is nothing. But the debates between Hayward and his interlocutors about literature and religion leave a huge mark on Philip’s soul: he suddenly realizes that he no longer believes in God, is not afraid of hell, and that a person is responsible for his actions only to himself.

After completing a course in Berlin, Philip returns to Blackstable and meets Miss Wilkinson, the daughter of Mr. Carey's former assistant. She is about thirty, she is cutesy and flirtatious, at first Philip does not like her, but nevertheless soon becomes his mistress. Philip is very proud; in his letter to Hayward he writes a beautiful romantic story. But when the real Miss Wilkinson leaves, she feels great relief and sadness that reality is so different from her dreams.

His uncle, having come to terms with Philip's reluctance to enter Oxford, sends him to London to study as a chartered accountant. Philip feels bad in London: he has no friends, and his work brings unbearable melancholy. And when a letter arrives from Hayward with an offer to go to Paris and take up painting, it seems to Philip that this desire has long been brewing in his soul. After studying for only a year, he, despite his uncle’s objections, left for Paris.

In Paris, Philip entered the Amitrino art studio; Fanny Price helps him get used to the new place - she is very ugly and unkempt, they can’t stand her for her rudeness and huge conceit when complete absence ability to draw, but Philip is still grateful to her.

The life of a Parisian bohemian changes Philip's worldview: he no longer considers ethical tasks to be fundamental to art, although he still sees the meaning of life in Christian virtue. The poet Cronshaw, who does not agree with this position, offers Philip to understand the true goal human existence look at the pattern of the Persian carpet.

When Fanny, having learned that Philip and his friends were leaving Paris in the summer, made an ugly scene, Philip realized that she was in love with him. And upon his return, he did not see Fanny in the studio and, absorbed in his studies, forgot about her. A few months later, a letter arrives from Fanny asking him to come see her: she has not eaten anything for three days. When Philip arrives, he discovers that Fanny has committed suicide. This shocked Philip. He is tormented by a feeling of guilt, but most of all by the meaninglessness of Fanny’s asceticism. He begins to doubt his painting abilities and turns to one of his teachers with these doubts. And indeed, he advises him to start life again, because he can only become a mediocre artist.

The news of his aunt's death forces Philip to go to Blackstable, and he will never return to Paris. Having parted with painting, he wants to study medicine and enters the institute at St. Luke in London. In his philosophical reflections, Philip comes to the conclusion that conscience is main enemy personality in the struggle for freedom, and creates a new life rule: You need to follow your natural inclinations, but with due regard for the policeman around the corner.

One day in a cafe he started talking to a waitress named Mildred; she refused to continue the conversation, hurting his pride. Soon Philip realizes that he is in love, although he perfectly sees all her shortcomings: she is ugly, vulgar, her manners are full of disgusting affectation, her rude speech speaks of poverty of thought. Nevertheless, Philip wants to get her at any cost, including marriage, although he realizes that this will be his death. But Mildred declares that she is marrying someone else, and Philip, realizing that main reason His torment is wounded vanity, despising himself no less than Mildred. But we need to move on with our lives: pass exams, meet friends...

Meeting a young, pretty woman named Nora Nesbit - she is very sweet, witty, and knows how to take life's troubles lightly - restores his faith in himself and heals his emotional wounds. Philip finds another friend after falling ill with the flu: his neighbor, doctor Griffiths, carefully looks after him.

But Mildred returns - having learned that she is pregnant, her betrothed confessed that he was married. Philip leaves Nora and begins to help Mildred - his love is so strong. Mildred gives up the newborn girl to be raised, not having any feelings for her daughter, but she falls in love with Griffiths and enters into a relationship with him. The offended Philip nevertheless secretly hopes that Mildred will return to him again. Now he often remembers Hope: she loved him, and he acted vilely to her. He wants to return to her, but finds out that she is engaged. Soon word reaches him that Griffiths has broken up with Mildred: he quickly grew tired of her.

Philip continues to study and work as an assistant in an outpatient clinic. Communicating with many of the most different people, seeing their laughter and tears, grief and joy, happiness and despair, he understands that life is more complex than abstract concepts of good and evil. Cronshaw arrives in London, finally getting ready to publish his poems. He is very sick: he suffered from pneumonia, but, not wanting to listen to the doctors, he continues to drink, because only after drinking does he become himself. Seeing the plight of his old friend, Philip takes him to his place; he soon dies. And again Philip is depressed by the thought of the meaninglessness of his life, and the life rule invented under similar circumstances now seems stupid to him.

Philip becomes close to one of his patients, Thorpe Athelney, and becomes very attached to him and his family: his hospitable wife, healthy, cheerful children. Philip likes to visit their house, warm himself by their cozy hearth. Athelny introduces him to the paintings of El Greco. Philip is shocked: it was revealed to him that self-denial is no less passionate and decisive than submission to passions.

Having met Mildred again, who now makes a living as a prostitute, Philip, out of pity, no longer having the same feelings for her, invites her to live with him as a servant. But she doesn’t know how to run a house and doesn’t want to look for work. In search of money, Philip begins to play on the stock exchange, and his first experience is so successful that he can afford to operate on his sore leg and go with Mildred to the sea.

In Brighton they live in separate rooms. Mildred is angry about this: she wants to convince everyone that Philip is her husband, and upon returning to London she tries to seduce him. But she does not succeed - now Philip feels physical disgust for her, and she leaves in a rage, causing a pogrom in his house and taking away the child, to whom Philip had become attached.

All of Philip's savings were spent on moving out of an apartment that brings back painful memories for him and is also too big for him alone. In order to somehow improve the situation, he again tries to play on the stock exchange and goes bankrupt. His uncle refuses to help him, and Philip is forced to leave his studies, move out of his apartment, spend the night on the street and starve. Upon learning of Philip's plight, Athelney gets him a job in the store.

The news of Hayward's death makes Philip think again about the meaning of human life. He recalls the words of the now deceased Cronshaw about the Persian carpet. Now he interprets them as follows: although a person weaves the pattern of his life aimlessly, but, weaving various threads and creating a pattern at his own discretion, he must be satisfied with this. The uniqueness of the drawing is its meaning. Then it happens last meeting with Mildred. She writes that she is sick, that her child has died; In addition, when Philip comes to her, he finds out that she has returned to her previous activities. After a painful scene, he leaves forever - this darkness of his life finally dissipates.

Having received an inheritance after the death of his uncle, Philip returns to college and, after graduating, works as an assistant for Dr. South, so successfully that he invites Philip to become his partner. But Philip wants to go traveling “to find the promised land and to know himself.”

Meanwhile eldest daughter Philip really likes Athelney, Sally, and one day while picking hops, he gives in to his feelings... Sally reveals that she is pregnant, and Philip decides to sacrifice himself and marry her. Then it turns out that Sally was mistaken, but for some reason Philip does not feel relieved. Suddenly he realizes that marriage is not self-sacrifice, that giving up fictitious ideals for the sake of family happiness, even if it is a defeat, is better than all victories... Philip asks Sally to become his wife. She agrees, and Philip Carey finally finds the promised land to which his soul has longed for so long.

Philip Carey, a young man gradually growing up and learning about life
Mildred, waitress, friend of Philip
Philip's uncle, priest

Other heroes

Hayward, Philip's classmate
Fanny, art student
Griffiths, doctor, friend of Philip
Atelny, Philip's patient
Sally, daughter of Athelny

Summary of the novel “The Burden of Human Passions”

Part one

At the very beginning of the 20th century, a boy named Philip Carey, who was barely nine years old, loses his parents and finds himself under the tutelage of his priest uncle. The vicar behaves sternly and distantly with his nephew, but he has many books in his house that brighten up the loneliness and melancholy of the orphaned child.

At school, his friends make fun of Philip, who has been early years limping quite noticeably, the boy begs the Lord to restore his health, but this does not happen. However, the boy blames only himself for his injury, believing that he simply lacks faith in God to heal.

Philip does not want to continue his education at Oxford, which his guardian insists on, and as a result, his uncle nevertheless agrees to the young man’s education in Germany. In Berlin, a young man listens carefully to the conversations of his classmate named Hayward with his friends and draws extremely important conclusions for himself. Philip feels that he no longer believes in the Almighty, in hell and heaven, that the fate of a person depends only on himself, and it is he who must bear responsibility for each of his actions.

Part two

His uncle, realizing that Philip will always refuse to study at Oxford, sends the guy to London to master the profession of an accountant. However, the young man does not like this profession at all, and besides, he does not have a single friend in the English capital. An old acquaintance, Hayward, sends him an invitation to come to Paris to study painting, and young Carey willingly agrees to try his hand at art.

Despite his uncle's objections, Philip actually goes to one of the most brilliant and unusual cities in Europe, where he begins to study in an art studio. A certain Fanny, an unattractive and sloppy girl who is clearly disliked by his comrades for her inhospitability and lack of any talent, helps him get used to the new environment, but Philip still feels some gratitude towards her.

Fanny shows Cary annoying attentions, but the guy does not realize until a certain moment that this undoubted loser is not indifferent to him. Upon returning to Paris after summer holiday Philip does not remember this girl at all for several months, but then a note comes from her, begging him to visit her, as Fanny claims, she has not had a crumb of food in her mouth for three days.

Philip actually looks in on her and learns about her suicide, and what upsets the young man most of all is the meaninglessness and futility of all her sacrifices “in the name of art.” After consulting with one of experienced teachers, Carey understands that it is better for him to take a different path in life, since he can only become an extremely mediocre painter and will never achieve success in this field.

Part three

Philip decides to devote himself noble cause healing, and begins intensive study of medicine in London. One day in a cafe, a young man pays attention to the waitress Mildred, although this girl is unattractive in appearance, rude, vulgar and definitely not particularly intelligent. Nevertheless, Cary is ready to achieve her favor by any means; he is even thinking about marrying this person, although he understands that she is by no means a suitable match for him.

However, Mildred tells him that she is already engaged to another man, and her wedding will take place very soon. Philip, although her words deeply hurt him, continues to live on, communicating with friends and passing the necessary exams.

But soon Mildred returns to him, it turns out that her fiancé admitted to her that he was already married, having learned about the waitress’s pregnancy. The young woman immediately gives the girl up to be raised by strangers, immediately entering into a relationship with Philip’s acquaintance, Dr. Griffiths.

After some time, Mildred again appears on Carey's path, now forced to earn a living by selling own body. Philip, feeling sorry for the unfortunate woman, invites her to work as a servant for him, but she is not satisfied with this option. Having started playing on the stock exchange, the man quickly achieves success and goes to the sea with his former waitress.

Mildred tries to assure others that Philip is her legal husband. She tries in every possible way to get close to him again, but Cary now feels obvious disgust for her. Having failed, the enraged woman leaves Philip’s house, taking with her the baby, whom he has already truly fallen in love with.

Part four

Carey again takes up the game on the stock exchange, but this time he is completely ruined. He has to sleep under open air and often go hungry, but Mr. Athelney, one of his former patients, comes to the rescue and helps Philip get a job in a store.

At the same time, Carey learns about the death of his longtime friend Hayward, and he again indulges in painful thoughts about whether human life at least some sense. He receives a letter from Mildred, the woman writes that she is seriously ill and her child has died. Having visited her, Philip is convinced that she has again taken up her former shameful occupation. After a very unpleasant scene, the man breaks up with her completely and feels a clear liberation, deliverance from a certain nightmare of his existence.

After Uncle Philip passes away, he receives a certain inheritance, graduates from college and begins working as an assistant to a famous doctor who is ready to accept him as a partner. But Carey himself strives to first spend some time traveling in order to better know the world and, first of all, himself.

The man is very attracted to young Sally, the daughter of his former patient, who helped him in the most Hard time. One day intimacy happens between these two, soon the girl reports her “ interesting position" Philip is ready to marry her without hesitation; his decision does not change at all even after Sally announces that her assumption about pregnancy turned out to be wrong.

But now Carey is confident that marriage is exactly the happiness that he has been looking for throughout his life, that he has finally found the real “promised land” and true meaning of its existence.