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The Moon and Sixpence

Author W. Somerset Maugham
Category Fiction
Language English
Published 1919
Notes

Loosely based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, the story is told as a series of glimpses into the life of Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stock broker who abandons his wife and children in order to pursue painting in Tahiti.

Approx. 74,778 words.

Excerpt

thing outrageous, and in his fate not a little that was pathetic. In due course a legend arose of such circumstantiality that the wise historian would hesitate to attack it.

But a wise historian is precisely what the Rev. Robert Strickland is not. He wrote his biography[3] avowedly to "remove certain misconceptions which had gained currency" in regard to the later part of his father's life, and which had "caused considerable pain to persons still living." It is obvious that there was much in the commonly received account of Strickland's life to embarrass a respectable family. I have read this work with a good deal of amusement, and upon this I congratulate myself, since it is colourless and dull. Mr. Strickland has drawn the portrait of an excellent husband and father, a man of kindly temper, industrious habits, and moral disposition. The modern clergyman has acquired in his study of the science which I believe is called exegesis an astonishing facility for explaining things away, but the subtlety with

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2008.07.28
Chip

As the notes above mention, Maugham derived much of "The Moon and Sixpence" from the life of Paul Gauguin. And although Charles Strickland (Gauguin's proxy in the novel) is at the center, he is in fact not the main character. Let me explain.

First, Maugham formed his novel around several different characters. None of these are Strickland himself.

First is Strickland's wife -- and indeed when the narrator first meets her, Strickland himself is a non-entity. And when he throws it all away to become a painter, it is a total surprise (or would be, if one didn't know what was coming from elsewhere). Later the novel shifts to follow Dirk Stroeve, friend of the narrator and acquaintance of Strickland. Finally Maugham turns to the narrator's discussions with people who knew Strickland after he had gone to the South Seas.

So Strickland's presence is actually quite minimal. But in the end I think that is not surprising. Because he is not the real main character.

The real main character is art. That is where the action is, and that is -- I think -- why Maugham wrote "about" Strickland/Gauguin, made the painter a thoroughly unpleasant character, and then made him a creator of wonderful beauty.

The point is, in the end, how art and beauty supersede the individual, and come to mean something completely beyond him or her. This may sound like wannabe nonsense. But Maugham develops and explores the theme without a hint of pretense or condescension.

Since this is Maugham, it goes almost without saying that the writing is excellent, and the characters themselves memorable and well-drawn.

Totally recommended. Even -- maybe especially -- for people skeptical about modern art.

2006.03.10
buddhalover

This is an excellent book on genius.