# Miss Price — Of Human Bondage character guide

> Miss Price in Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Fanny Price, Fanny, Price

**First appearance:** 0027-xxviii

## Snapshot

A proud, unlovely art student in Paris who clings to Philip as her one pupil, her fierce devotion curdling into something he cannot bear to see.

## Who they are

Fanny Price haunts Amitrano's studio in a stained brown dress, hard up, unkempt, and savagely possessive of the criticism she gives Philip—refusing to help him if anyone else has spoken first. The other students tease him that she is in love with him, a thought he finds preposterous and physically repellent, and his obliviousness hardens into avoidance. She is the novel's earliest and cruelest lesson in what loneliness and thwarted ambition can do to a person, and in how casually the comfortable wound the desperate.

## Relationships

### [Philip Carey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/characters/philip_carey)

_social_

A struggling, bitter art student in Paris who commits suicide, shocking Philip and his circle.

### [Philip Carey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/characters/philip_carey)

_social_

A struggling, bitter art student in Paris who commits suicide, shocking Philip and his circle.

### [Philip Carey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/characters/philip_carey)

_social_

A struggling, bitter art student in Paris who commits suicide, shocking Philip and his circle.

## In the story

### [XL](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xl)

A serious, hardworking student who helps Philip with his drawing despite her own struggles and lack of charm.

### [XLI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xli)

Miss Price offers Philip help with drawing and shares her views on art and the studio.

### [XLIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xliii)

Fanny Price is a bitter, conceited student who defends her artistic ambitions, maligns others, and guides Philip through the Luxembourg gallery.

### [XLIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xliv)

Acts as a strict guide at the Louvre, shows emotional vulnerability during lunch, and resents Philip's acceptance of others' advice.

### [XLVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xlvi)

Fanny Price, jealous and bitter, accuses Philip of using her and later shows him her poor-quality paintings.

### [XLVIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xlviii)

Fanny Price sends Philip a desperate letter, confessing she has not eaten for three days and asking him to come; Philip finds her room locked.

### [XLIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/xlix)

Fanny Price's suicide from starvation is discovered; Philip learns of her extreme poverty and unrequited love for him.

### [The Doubt of a Painter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/l)

Fanny's suicide haunts Philip, highlighting the futility of her effort and the harsh realities of artistic failure.

### [LI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/li)

Philip still haunted by her suicide and recalls Foinet's brutal advice to her.

### [LIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/chapters/liv)

Recalled by Philip as the first dead person he ever saw, reflecting on the distance between the quick and the dead.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/characters/miss_price
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/of_human_bondage_se/characters