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The Moon and Sixpence (The Classic Collection)

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It has been noted many times that artists are usually not the most pleasant human beings to be around; Maugham's novel is, among other things, a compelling examination of why this is so. The obsessed artist who dominates this book, Charles Strickland (based on the notorious Paul Gauguin), walks away from his cushy middle-class existence in England to pursue his dream to paint, amid frightful poverty, in France. Strickland is an unforgettable character, an inarticulate, brutishly sensual creature, callously indifferent to his fellow man and even his own health, who lives only to record his private visions on canvas.

It would be a mistake to read this novel as an inspiring tale of the triumph of the spirit. Strickland is an appalling human being--but the world itself, Maugham seems to say, is a cruel, forbidding place. The author toys with the (strongly Nietzschean) idea that men like Charles Strickland may somehow be closer to the mad pulse of life, and cannot therefore be dismissed as mere egotists. The moralists among us, the book suggests, are simply shrinking violets if not outright hypocrites. It is not a very cheery conception of humanity (and arguably not an accurate one), but the questions Maugham raises are fascinating. Aside from that, he's a wonderful storyteller. This book is a real page turner.

When he first meets Charles Strickland, a London stockbroker, the young narrator of this novel thinks of him as "good, honest, dull, and plain." When Strickland suddenly abandons his wife and children and takes off for Paris, however, the narrator decides he is a cad. Though he has had no training, Strickland has decided to become an artist, a drive so strong that he is willing to sacrifice everything toward that end. Anti-social, and feeling no obligation to observe even the smallest social decencies, Strickland becomes increasingly boorish as he practices his art. Eventually, he makes his way to Tahiti, where he "marries," moves to a remote cottage, and spends the rest of his life devoted to his painting.

Basing the novel loosely on the life of Paul Gauguin, Maugham creates an involving and often exciting story. His narrator is a writer who feels impelled, after Strickland's death and posthumous success, to set down his memories of his early interactions with Strickland in London and Paris. Because the narrator never saw Strickland after he left Paris, he depends on his meetings with a ship captain and a woman in Papeete for information about Strickland after Strickland's arrival in Tahiti. The ship captain is described as a story-teller who may be spinning tall tales, a constant reminder to the reader that this is fiction, and not a biography of Gauguin.

By depicting Strickland as a "dull, plain" man suddenly gripped by an obsession so overwhelming that nothing else matters to him, Maugham involves the reader in his actions, which even the narrator claims not to understand. The least convincing aspect of Strickland's characterization is the narrator's observation that Strickland is completely indifferent to his wife of seventeen years and his children. No confrontation between Strickland and his wife appears, and one wonders if perhaps Maugham found himself unable to depict such an abandonment realistically. The story moves quickly, however, and whatever is sacrificed in the characterization is more than recouped in the plot and its development.

Straightforward in its story line, the novel is romantic in its depiction of the artist in the grip of an obsession, his subsequent abandonment of civilization and return to nature, his suffering of a long and terminal illness (during which he paints his masterpiece), and the fate of this creation. Good, old-fashioned story-telling at its best, this uncomplicated story, written in 1919, still has broad appeal. Mary Whipple

This story is set at some time around the turn of the twentieth century, before World War 1. The story opens in London, England. The unnamed narrator is a young man who has just written his first successful novel. Gingerly negotiating his way around the `literati' of England he attends a party at which he meets Mrs. Strickland. She is not herself an author but has a deep interest in meeting talented people. She gives parties at her house where food and drink is laid on, and where various members of the world of the arts and literature are invited. Eventually the narrator is invited to dinner at Mrs. Strickland's, though on arriving he finds that it is not a literary function, but a small private affair. It is here that the narrator meets for the first time Mr. Charles Strickland, who's life-story this book follows. Charles Strickland strikes the narrator as "... just a good, dull, honest, plain man." It is therefore with some surprise that the narrators later hears that Mr. Strickland has suddenly abandoned his wife and gone to Paris, apparently in the company of a young woman who worked at a tea-shop in the city. The narrator feels with some excitement that he has just entered the exciting, unseemly world of his own novel. The narrator's life-path crosses several time with that of Charles Strickland. Gradually as the story progresses we come to see Strickland as a markedly talented, yet severely flawed man.

This novel, first published in 1919, "... confirmed Maugham's reputation as a novelist and is probably his best-known book." This being said it should be noted that the book has moments of greatness, but is also partly flawed.

The plot is based on the life of the `post-impressionist' painter Paul Gauguin. It is, however, primarily a fiction and varies from that artist's real biography. Gauguin was for example French, not English. The points of similarity include:

An uneventful first half of life, with a career as a stockbroker,
A sudden break with his family,
Lack of recognition from the contemporary critics and general public,
Recognition of talent from some fellow painters,
Living in poverty,
A biting, sardonic personality,
Leaving Europe to live `close to nature' in Tahiti,
A non-representational art style in which, for example, color represented the emotions.

Rather interestingly Strickland physically resembles Vincent van Gogh, with his red hair and beard. Van Gogh was rather a different man to Strickland, though he too painted non-representationally, using color to express emotion. Strickland, like van Gogh spent a short time at an art academy where his efforts were viewed quite askance. Also like van Gogh, Strickland had an unseemly affair that resulted in the painting of a famous reclining nude.

The book is roughly divided into three even sections. The first section covers Strickland's unexpected departure to Paris. Here Maugham quite competently sets the scene, introducing us to Strickland's personality. The second section covers life in Paris, concentrating on the relationship with the Strove family. This part of the story is the most conventional segment and is rather uninteresting, at least plot wise. I was reminded of Emily Bronte's <Wuthering Heights> and her sister Charlotte Bronte's <Jane Eyre>, though those books are much more successful than Maugham's. The third section revolves around the trip to Tahiti and it is here that the book truly shines. There seems to be something about the idea of `getting back to nature' that appeals to the psyche of modern man.

It should be noted that Maugham's narrator freely admits his own lack of knowledge of human nature and the motivations of the people he meets. The all-knowing narrator, so standard in many books, is gone, and instead we have am essentially modern device. The reader himself must decide what he believes about particular people. How much, we ask, can we know anyone other than ourselves?

Of course the novel has the theme of the genius. We are shows how unconscious forces drive such people, and how all else falls to the wayside on the road to the chosen goal. The novel also explores the theme of the artificiality of `civilized' society, and the retreat to a more `real' nature. This idea goes back at least as far as the Eighteenth Century Romantics, though it should be noted that Maugham has his own spin on the topic. Nature, for example, is not always the `pleasant mother' of the Romantics.

Strickland is adequately drawn as a terse, abrasive man with a monomania for his art. His name suggests the `strict land' he has chosen to dwell in, where everything is rejected except his calling. His name also perhaps suggests "strychnine' as he is poison to just about all who he meets. After his initial `conversion' to the path of art Strickland there is at first some humor arising from his candor about his rejection of social norms. Soon, however, a monomaniac becomes predictably dull, and Maugham has achieved the unusual task of writing about a central character by highlighting the people around him. The second section accents the Stroves, particularly Dirk, a good-natured man with perhaps more heart than sense. Interestingly Dirk may be Maugham's comment on the Romantics. The third section reveals to us a whole procession of characters, many of them eccentric, who encountered Strickland in various situations. These portraits greatly enhance the novel.

All in all this is certainly not a bad book, but not a great one either. The second section, as I have noted, mars the book to some degree. Maugham made a fact-finding trip to Tahiti and the details and highlights this journey seems to have given him greatly enriched that part of the book.

Maugham takes a fascinating look into the life of Charles Strickland, a man who gives up his comfortable life as a stock broker, breaks the social contract, abandons his family, and takes up painting. These changes condemn him to a life of poverty and disdain by most who know him. The story is related by an aspiring writer who never seems to be able to quite get the painter to admit he is either remorseful of all the human wreckage he's left in his wake, or so uncomfortable in this new life that he's sorry for having made such a hash of his it. Despite his lack of satisfactory answers, the writer continues to be fascinated by Strickland, who has found a means of expression that transcends language. Strickland understands the writer well enough, having lived in his culture. The writer, on the other hand, cannot possibly understand Strickland, having never been so passionate about anything in his short life. It is this passion that both draws others to Strickland, and causes him to reject outright everything they hold dear. The book raises several intersting questions: Who makes the social contract anyway, and did Strickland knowingly sign on, or was he simply incorporated into it by society? Would it have been acceptable for Strickland to abandon his family to become a priest, missionary, or some other more acceptable form of aesthete? While the book is loosely based on the life of Paul Gaugin, it is really more about W. Somerset Maugham and his search for beauty and truth. In his fictionalized account of that search, Maugham shows us that while the search may be noble, the journey is not necessarily beautiful to everyone, especially those not involved. Strickland's single-minded search is especially ugly to those who at one time meant something to him, as they are informed dispassionately and without malice they mean nothing to the painter except a meal or a small loan. As he draws ever nearer his language of painting, Strickland gradually sheds even these occasional interactions, to a point where even his very life has no meaning except in the context of his art. This book is a must-read for anyone contemplating a life in the arts. While Strickland is a thoroughly dislikable character, he is one without artifice, totally lacking the ability to say anything other than what is true to him. He is a man consumed by his passion, completely lacking the need for approval. Maugham as usual creates a work that is both powerful and thought-provoking. "Moon and Sixpence" satisfys on at least two levels; as a cracking good story, and as a philosophical treatise on art, beauty and passion.

Based in outline on the life of post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpence makes for an at times dark, at times lighthearted tale with a predictable ending. The fun is in the getting there and the brilliant characters and anecdotes that we find along the way.

In a disarming style successfully conveying that neither the narrator nor the author takes himself terribly seriously, W. Somerset Maugham opens The Moon and Sixpence in an academic tone, with the narrator disparaging the novel as a literary form, and using frequent footnotes to convey that academic sense of non-fiction that is ostensibly so much more respectable. With characteristic phrases like "blackheart", "dash it all", and Robert Strickland's favorite, "go to hell", we are guided from Strickland's family life in England to his impoverished Paris years and finally on his trail to Tahiti where he spends his final days toiling away at his magnum opus in an idyllic but ultimately tragic setting.

My favorite character was Dirk Stroeve, a Dutch painter living in Paris, with very little talent of his own but with the ability to recognize its expression--notably in the genius of Strickland's painting. Stroeve's kindness and generosity, both of which he lavishes on others to a ludicrous degree, act as an almost perfect foil for contrasting with Strickland's boorish contempt, even for those who help nurse him through a life-threatening illness. The stark disparity with Stroeve humanizes and better defines Strickland.

In the course of relating Strickland's story, Maugham reveals a keen sense of observation and ponders some of the fundamental questions of what it means to be human. Strickland's character encompasses both the contradiction between and the synthesis of opposing ideas--of how, for example, pursuit of the creative impulse can be destructive, and destruction of social bonds can lead to creativity. In the way he writes of Strickland's genius, some of Maugham's own is revealed.

so goes the personality of charles strickland, the hero of "moon and sixpence".

based loosely on the life of the great french painter paul gaguin, the story is of an english banker who suddenly abandons his middle class existence in england and moves to paris to paint. fired by his passion for his art, he's so absorbed in it at the cost of being indifferent (often misinterpreted as ruthless) to everything else - even his own well being.

such is the personality of creativity (often at odds with normal perceptions of morality, ethics etc) and maugham in his own classic way (loaded with keen psychological insights) brings out the complexities of such a character and the effect it has on those who come into contact with him.

it is a one-of-a-kind book. get it!

a more mellow though adorable telling of a similar tale can be found in a.j.cronin's 'a thing of beauty' aka 'crusader's tomb'. that's a fantastic read too.

I always chafe when I hear people downplay the talent and importance of Somerset Maugham. He happens to be one of my favorite writers and The Moon and Sixpence is by far--in my opinion--his best book. I reread it yesterday and continue to be moved by its emotion. No other novel describes the passion which motivates the artist in such intricate detail. With Strickland, our neo-Gauguin, we see that the force that drives is absolute even though it may not be noble or life-affirming. As a man, Strickland treats people the way most of us treat parking places--we enter them, leave them and then never give their existence a second thought; yet, the one thing he undoubtedly has is artistic integrity. The middle third of the book is the strongest and here, as elsewhere, Mr. Maugham tells an amazing story. Also of note, are his impressions of women which may be as sound as those of anybody else I have ever encountered. Overall, this is a vastly underrated novelist and a vastly underrated book.

There are many good books out there and none of us have time to read them all. Here is one that you should make the time to read. For much labor, thought, and (dare I say it) love went into the writing of this classic biography of the artistic genius, stockbroker turned painter, Paul Gauguin. Much love, and some imagination, and a ton of research including visits to the haunts of the man himself -- Paris and Tahiti and Taravao, the home of Ata, Paul's woman in the islands. Add to this the sympathetic outlook of a humanist and the craftsmanship of a great novelist and you get one of the great books of our time and probably of all time. This is a book written by a genius about a genius who made pictures that were and are still stupendous and overwhelming. Charles Strickland's (Gauguin's alter ego and the protagonist of this story) last picture, the Polynesian garden of the Hesperides, with its quivering purple and red lusters that suggested the palpitation of something mysterious and terrible with the possibilities of the Unknown, possessed a somber passion previously unknown in the history of art. It was his best and most complete work, done a year after the artist had gone blind from leprosy. By his command it was burned soon after his death. When you visit Taravao, you will see a replica which still has tremendous power. After you read this book, you will understand that power and you will have an appreciation for Gauguin's art that you never had before. You will have an appreciation for beauty and truth that succinctly demonstrates the redemptive quality of great art.

W. Somerset Maugham's _The Moon and Sixpence_ (1919) poses two principal questions. First, what responsibility does the individual have to the rules of the society in which he or she lives? And more specifically, what responsibility does the person of genuis--whether it be in the arts, science, or spirituality, etc.--have to society? While the artist and anithero Charles Strickland is not in the strictest sense a law breaker--although he does have, at least, technically a bigamous relationship--he breaks social conventions relentlessly.

The narrator of the novel, a writer and artist himself who attempts to write Strickland's biography, cannot resolve these questions. A search for answers impels him to write the biography. The narrator suspects throughout his writing that his underlying disapproval of Strickland's life is based on sentimentality rather than pure morality, yet he can neither adopt nor accept Strickland's way of life.

Early in the book, the narrator asks Strickland about his views on German philosopher Emmanuel Kant's categorical imperative: "Act so that every one of your actions is capable of being made into a universal rule." Kant's statement, a classic dictum in Western ethical philosophy, does not register with Strickland. He replies, "I never heard it before, but it's rotten nonsense." Adopting the inverse of this in which the individual is the measure of what is right and his self-expression preeminent, Strickland follows his own impulses in pursuit of perfection in art without concern for others' feelings or well-being.

Arguably, the results are mixed. Strickland creates brilliant, original art, authentic to his primal existence, yet the cost is profound suffering for himself and those close to him.

All of the secondary characters, whether the artisit Dirk Stroeve and his wife, Blanche, the enterprising Captain Brunot, or the scientific Dr. Coutras, shed light on Strickland's personality. We see Strickland through these characters. As a result, Strickland is as many identities as there are people to comprehend his life and his art. For example, Strickland's estranged son Robert, a minister, has even written his biography arguing for the deep morality of his father. While the facts utterly contradict this, on a deeper level, the novel even holds this out as a possibility. Faced with the challenge to understand, the narrator admits that if this were a novel he could impute a range of motives to explain logically Strickland's behavior. The man, however, defies such characterizations.

The narrator's ultimate view, and I would argue the philosophical perspective of the novel, is stated early in the book: "The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic." In other words, the narrator feels that Charles, whatever his faults, has lived life on his terms, not subect to hollow social conventions, and in this he has attained greatness.

Connected with this, Maugham explores the idea that the artist can achieve liberation in art if the artist "seeks his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thoughts" without concern for public acceptance. Paradoxically, Strickland does achieve fame, and it is primarily because of his celebrity that he is remembered and is a curiosity to the narrator. His greatness is very much tied to his fame.

One weakness of the work, I feel, is the unproblematic depiction of Tahiti as the mythic hesperides--that is, a fecund garden at the end of the world where golden apples bloom. The notion that Charles Strickland was one those men who are "born out of their place" and that his raw attitude toward life is in some way fundamentally Tahitian seems very shaky. It is too naive an answer to the questions the novel raises, simplifying Tahitian society and Strickland.

In my opinion, the novel's main strength is that it demands that readers come to terms with their own views about Strickland and his life. Maugham also deals very frankly with what would be controversial life choices today in 2005, much less in 1919 when the book was published.

There is a common stereotype in the arts of the artist as somehow divorced from the realities of life. Such an artist is misogynistic, hermetic, dispassionate, and generally unable to relate to his fellow man even as he creates monuments of art that suggest otherwise. In THE MOON AND SIXPENCE, Somerset Maugham tells the tale of Charles Strickland, an Englishman, who at age forty seems thoroughly conventional and unremarkable. He is a stockbroker, married, with two children, and reasonably affluent. Then one day, out of the blue, he tells his wife that he is leaving her. He gives no reason and off he goes. His wife is sure there is another woman who has twisted his reason, so she asks the narrator to hunt her husband down and demand the truth. This the narrator does. Strickland tells him that there is no woman. Instead, he left his wife to be free to paint. The narrator is astounded and he cannot believe that any rational man would use painting as a pretext for the end of a marriage. Most readers comment on the surface callousness of Strickland, a man who shows no concern for the fate of his family. Indeed, Strickland goes to great lengths to articulate this lack of concern, the result of which is to convince both narrator and reader that Strickland is worse than a cad and a bounder. The reality is less prosaic. Strickland is neither. Maugham has created a two dimensional portrait of a walking cliche. If such a person like Strickland has ever trod the earth and left his family in dire straits for the reason given, then he is surely the only one to have done so. Maugham was careful to portray a man who was clearly callous, insensitive, and totally self-centered, but evil? Certainly not. Strickland is a man consumed with a Vision. Everything else in life, including his own, is subservient to his goal of creating beauty from the sordidness of the world. It does not even matter to him if no one else sees his paintings. He sees them, and that is all that matters. Other readers view the book in the context of sociology. Does Strickland violate the implied social contract that mature men establish between themselves and family and friends? If any contract exists, it is of the internal sort, between one who works to live and one who lives to work. In the former case, Strickland often cares not a fig about keeping his body together. In the latter, his life has no meaning except to sanctify his work. There is at least one other character in the novel who can see this even if the narrator cannot. Dirk Stroeve, an expatriat Englishman, is a total fool and incompetent in life. He dabbles in painting all the while realizing that he has no talent with brush or easel. He opens his door to welcome a homeless Strickland, who promptly repays him by carrying on an affair with Dirk's wife. But even after this, Dirk cannot hold a grudge for he recognizes that Strickland's genius transcends such mere mortal foilbles as jealousy. If Strickland is willing to lay his life on the line for his art, then clods like Dirk must be willing to do no less. Later in the novel, a world full of art lovers slowly realize that genius is a gift from the gods that demands that the artist-genius must pay a high price for a fame that is as often rejected as sought. In THE MOON AND SIXPENCE, Maugham allows his readers to glimpse that behind the mask of genius lies a soul in torment that does not even recognize that it is in torment. This, then, is the paradox of the book.