http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/recent-reads-a-case-of-h... ( )

Beverley Nichols’ A Case of Human Bondage: The Tragically Twisted Marriage of W. Somerset is a malicious little work, one written in petulant fury against Maugham and his long- term companion Gerald Haxton. The work goes beyond gossip and innuendo – it is an attack on the deceased Mr. Maugham, full of insult and accusation. Indeed, by page two of the first chapter Mr. Nichols has already outed Maugham as homosexual and characterized Haxton as an undesirable reprobate. The catty vituperation that suffuses this work leads the reader to disbelieve its contents and distrust its author’s motives. However, notwithstanding its unreliability and other flaws, this work has become a significant footnote to the Somerset Maugham story. It is worth recalling as one associate’s view (however biased) of Maugham’s marriage, and as a manifestation of the negative response elicited by his 1962 memoir Looking Back.

Beverley Nichols had known Somerset Maugham for decades. Maugham had helped launch Mr. Nichols’ career as a writer, and evidence exists that they once had a physical relationship. If Nichols was a jilted lover, that might explain the petulance with which he attacked his former mentor and his mentor’s male companion. However, Nichols offered a purer motive -- that of defending Maugham’s deceased wife Syrie from allegations in Maugham's memoir Looking Back. The latter work was a controversial one, in which Maugham presented a highly uncomplimentary view of Syrie and their former marriage, with personal details that his friends and colleagues thought should never have put into print. In Nichols’ view, Looking Back was “squalid”.. “smeared with a patina of insanity”; “full of tricks… employed with diabolical ingenuity… a portrait of total odiousness… more repellent than any in his [Maugham’s] long gallery of creations….” Nichols presented A Case of Human Bondage as a response to this work: “the main purpose of this essay… is quite simply to refute a libel on a beloved friend.”

The most effective way to try to refute Maugham’s account would have been to show what an admirable person Syrie was – to praise her character, her talents, and her accomplishments. But in A Case of Human Bondage, Nichols clearly had a different goal – to launch a personal attack on Somerset Maugham, and to blame him for the demise of his marriage. Nichols recounts at great length a handful of interactions he has had with Maugham at house parties over the decades. The stories are petty and most of Nichols’ complaints seem catty and trivial. They largely seem designed to show that Maugham was homosexual, impatient and impolite to Syrie, and being controlled by his lover, Gerald Haxton. Syrie is mentioned but little, except for one interesting solioquy in which she acknowledges having long known (and accepted) Maugham's sexual leanings. Nichols’ most vituperative attacks are leveled against Haxton, who is presented as a master manipulator: “there was something akin to black magic in Gerald’s domination, something uncanny in the way he caused the Master [Maugham] to dance to his tune.” Haxton (Nichols asserts without a shred of evidence) “worked on the Master night and day, elaborating [the] foulest of fictions” to get Maugham to believe that Liza was not really his daughter. And so evil was Haxton that ”Looking Back was dictated by Gerald, speaking from beyond the grave.” With this assertion, the author entirely leaves the bounds of rationality.

The timing of this book's publication is significant. Nichols lacked the courage to publish it while Somerset Maugham was still alive, and freely acknowledges that he waited until Maugham's death out of fear of a lawsuit. His desire to defend Syrie was not so strong as to lead Nichols to put himself at risk. Nor in 'outing' Maugham as homosexual does he mention to the reader that his own sexuality was of similar persuasion. Some readers may conclude that this book's author was cowardly and hypocritical.

A Case of Human Bondage offers little to the general reader, who is likely to read it either with mystification or mild disgust. However, it lives on in the Maugham biographies, and while less than reliable, it offers a perspective on Maugham's personal life written by one of his strongest detractors. This small book may be of interest to readers who want to read everything they can about the famous author and the times in which he lived.
________
A concluding note: One episode related in A Case of Human Bondage apparently has been misrepresented in Selina Hastings' recent biography of Somerset Maugham. Beverley Nichols tells of a night he spent at Maugham’s villa. Hearing noises from Gerald Haxton's bedroom, Nichols entered to find Haxton drunk after a night at the casinos, lying naked, on the floor, covered in banknotes. Maugham then entered, and ordered Nichols to "Get out!" – castigating him for being in the room. In a 1976 letter, Nichols told of another incident that occurred later than same night, in which Noel Coward was outraged to find his lover (Jackie Wilson) in bed with Nichols. (This episode is detailed in Bryan Connon's Somerset Maugham and the Maugham Dynasty, as well as in Philip Hoare's biography of Noel Coward.) In her biography of Maugham, Hastings (p. 311) calls Nichols' book "warped by deliberate distortion": "for instance, Nichols in his book asserts it was Haxton, not Wilson, who came into his room, and Maugham, not Coward, who caught them at it". Given external evidence of the Noel Coward episode (cited above), I believe that Hastings has confused two separate episodes involving different people. If that is the case, she has unfairly charged Nichols with a falsification. ( )