《人生的枷锁》是一部半自传体作品，书中主人公菲利普童年和青年时期的辛酸遭遇，大多取材于作家本人早年的生活经历，但作家打破了事实的拘束，虚构了某些重大情节，塑造了菲利普这一人物形象。小说通过叙述主人公菲利普从童年时代起30年的生活经历，反映了一个青年的痛苦、迷惘、失望、挫折和探索，以及逐步摆脱种种枷锁，寻找生命意义，走向成熟，获得精神解放的历程。本书为英文全本，领略小说魅力的同时提升英语阅读水平。

作者简介

威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆，英国小说家、戏剧家。他原本学医，后弃医专事文学创作。毛姆小说的标志就是冷静、客观、深刻地剖析与解读人性的弱点，以及人世间的人情冷暖、苦与恶、尔自我诈、道貌岸然。毛姆被公认为20世纪在全世界范围内流行广且受欢迎的英国作家之一，被誉为“会讲故事的作家”。

精彩书摘

CHAPTER 1
THE day broke grey and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into a room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains. She glanced mechanically at the house opposite, a stucco house with a portico, and went to the child's bed.
'Wake up, Philip,' she said.
She pulled down the bed-clothes, took him in her arms, and carried him downstairs. He was only half awake.
'Your mother wants you,' she said.
She opened the door of a room on the floor below and took the child over to a bed in which a woman was lying. It was his mother. She stretched out her arms, and the child nestled by her side. He did not ask why he had been awakened. The woman kissed his eyes, and with thin, small hands felt the warm body through his white flannel nightgown. She pressed him closer to herself.
'Are you sleepy, darling?' she said.
Her voice was so weak that it seemed to come already from a great distance. The child did not answer, but smiled comfortably. He was very happy in the large, warm bed, with those soft arms about him. He tried to make himself smaller still as he cuddled up against his mother, and he kissed her sleepily. In a moment he closed his eyes and was fast asleep. The doctor came forward and stood by the bedside.
'Oh, don't take him away yet,' she moaned.
The doctor, without answering, looked at her gravely. Knowing she would not be allowed to keep the child much longer, the woman kissed him again; and she passed her hand down his body till she came to his feet; she held the right foot in her hand and felt the five small toes; and then slowly passed her hand over the left one. She gave a sob.
'What's the matter?' said the doctor. 'You're tired.'
She shook her head, unable to speak, and the tears rolled down her cheeks. The doctor bent down.
'Let me take him.'
She was too weak to resist his wish, and she gave the child up. The doctor handed him back to his nurse.
'You'd better put him back in his own bed.'
'Very well, sir.'
The little boy, still sleeping, was taken away. His mother sobbed now broken-heartedly.
'What will happen to him, poor child?'
The monthly nurse tried to quiet her, and presently, from exhaustion, the crying ceased. The doctor walked to a table on the other side of the room, upon which, under a towel, lay the body of a still-born child. He lifted the towel and looked. He was hidden from the bed by a screen, but the woman guessed what he was doing.
'Was it a girl or a boy?' she whispered to the nurse.
'Another boy.'
The woman did not answer. In a moment the child's nurse came back. She approached the bed.
'Master Philip never woke up,' she said.
There was a pause. Then the doctor felt his patient's pulse once more.
'I don't think there's anything I can do just now,' he said. 'I'll call again after breakfast.'
'I'll show you out, sir,' said the child's nurse.
They walked downstairs in silence. In the hall the doctor stopped.
'You've sent for Mrs Carey's brother-in-law, haven't you?'
'Yes, sir.'
'D'you know at what time he'll be here?'
'No, sir, I'm expecting a telegram.'
'What about the little boy? I should think he'd be better out of the way.'
'Miss Watkin said she'd take him, sir.'
'Who's she?'
'She's his godmother, sir. D'you think Mrs Carey will get over it, sir?'
The doctor shook his head.
……