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The Moon and Sixpence

W. Somerset Maugham

4.12 · Rating details · 14,532 Ratings · 919 Reviews

Based on the life of Paul Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpence is W. Somerset Maugham's ode to the powerful forces behind creative genius.
Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man of wealth and privilege. He is also a man possessed of an unquenchable desire to create art. As Strickland pursues his artistic vision, he leaves London for Paris and Tahiti, and in his quest makes s ...more

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Paperback, 192 pages

Published August 1st 2005 by Aegypan (first published 1919)

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Mar 21, 2012 Rajat Ubhaykar rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, british, splendid-prose

Fair warning, this is going to be a long review for this is a book that is close to my heart written by an author whom I deeply admire.

The Right Time

There are some books that walk into your life at an opportune time. I'm talking about the books that send a pleasant shiver down your spine laden with “Man, this is meant to be!” as you flip through its pages cursorily. Or those that upon completion, demand an exclamation from every book-reading fibre of your body to the effect of “There couldn't ha ...more

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Apr 18, 2016 Jeff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: buddy-reads, cuz-mah-fah-says-so

“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

In addition to plenty of witty bon mots, Maugham dropped several lengthy quotes on t “Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

In addition to plenty of witty bon mots, Maugham dropped several lengthy quotes on the nature of beauty and how relative it is, especially through the eyes of the artist. Maugham’s protagonist, Charles Strickland grows indifferent to pretty much everything in his life: wife, children, luxury, polite society and focuses his passions like a laser on the creation of a vision that’s perceptible to pretty much only him. Few others see it, but Strickland doesn’t care; he’s too focused on the creative process to pay anyone any mind. He’s kind of a brute, who can only articulate his inner perception on the canvas.

Strickland’s a complete ass, losing pretty much all sense of propriety, not caring whether he’s mortally offended anyone who’s willing to lend him a hand, biting that hand with a furious chomp – leaving broken lives in his wake. The further he runs from society (to Tahiti – “a magical place”) and it’s distractions, the closer he comes to being able to extract his conception of “pure” beauty from the dark recesses of his mind.

I’ve known people like Strickland – talented, brilliant, corrosive – people who have that weird light surrounding themselves. Friends and family that have been taken advantage of, cheated, hurt, yet still can’t shake being in the presence of this person; it’s like having one foot in a tornado. The narrator, a writer, who’s been offended by Strickland on numerous occasions still comes around for the proverbial bitch slap. Strickland doesn’t achieve success and recognition until after he’s dead, his family willing to whitewash his transgressions, something that probably wouldn’t surprise or bother him.

The only other Maugham I’ve ever read is The Razor's Edge, that one was a passable read with the same format (first person narrative observer, main character in search of some sort of truth), but this book has a kinetic energy and spirit. You might loathe Strickland and want to throat punch him, but you still have a deep unspoken understanding of his motivations, that although you don’t fully condone, you still respect his vision.

Buddy Read with the artsy, occult branch of the Pantsless Legion of Indecency: Ginger, Kristin, and Stepheny.
...more

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Oct 03, 2016 Rowena rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, own

"Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand."- W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

I'd only ever read one Maugham before this ("Of Human Bondage") but even with just that one read I could tell Maugham was a very special writer and destined to be one of my favourites. I picked up this thin book thinking it would be a quick, simple read, but I wasn't prepared for the depth and profundity in it. There is a lot going on in this little book, lots to "Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand."- W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

I'd only ever read one Maugham before this ("Of Human Bondage") but even with just that one read I could tell Maugham was a very special writer and destined to be one of my favourites. I picked up this thin book thinking it would be a quick, simple read, but I wasn't prepared for the depth and profundity in it. There is a lot going on in this little book, lots to think about.

Reading the back of the book you'll know that the main character in this book, Charles Strickland, was modelled after Paul Gauguin. There's no way I would have guessed that for most of the book, until Strickland/Gauguin moved to Tahiti.Even without knowing much about Gauguin's life, this book was interesting as it took us on a tour of his life, done by a narrator who operates as an unofficial biographer, taking us through Strickland/Gauguin's life from England to Paris, and finally Tahiti.

Strickland is an awful person and extremely misogynistic. It's been a while since I've read such an odious character in literature. I despised him:

"He was a man without any conception of gratitude. He had no compassion. The emotions common to most of us simply did not exist in him, and it was as absurd to blame him for not feeling them as for blaming the tiger because he is fierce and cruel."

It was surprising to witness how the passion in Strickland seemed to remain dormant for years but eventually caused him to act like a man possessed and completely re-evaluate his life as that passion needed an outlet:

"That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the pattern of life it offers has a homely grace. It reminds you of a placid rivulet, meandering smoothly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees, till at last it falls into the vasty sea; but the sea is so calm, so silent, so indifferent, that you are troubled suddenly by a vague uneasiness. Perhaps it is only by a kink in my nature, strong in me even in those days, that I felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss. I recognised its social values, I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course. There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights. In my heart was a desire to live more dangerously. I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous shoals if I could only have change -- change and the excitement of the unforeseen."

Gauguin comes up a lot in discussions on primitivism and orientalism, and reading up on his time in Tahiti really leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The discussion on place and how we might be searching for a place where we are free to be really spoke to me, but Gauguin being himself meant taking child brides in the tropics, and that reminded me of the fact that Europeans had/have free reign in some parts of the world all due to their perceived power. But still, the idea that we can be perceived differently in different areas, and therefore be more suited to one area than another, is interesting:

"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest."

It's hard to summarize this book without bringing up the racist language. There were quite a few racial epithets which, I'm not sure spoke of Maugham's insensitivity to different races, or just that he was reflecting the language and sentiments of the time. Either way, they were shocking, and I could have done without them. ...more

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Dec 24, 2015 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pdf, 20th-century, novel

The Moon and Sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و چهارم دسامبر سال 1970 میلادی؛ خوانش عنوا: قلب زن؛ ماه فوریه سال 1991 میلادی
عنوان: قلب زن؛ نویسنده: ویلیام سامرست موآم؛ مترجم: حسین بدلزاده؛ رشت، انتشارات روزنامه سایبان، 1336، در 220 ص؛
ماه و شش پشیز (پنی) را سامرست موام براساس زندگی پل گوگن نقاش نگاشته و با ترجمه زنده یاد پرویز داریوش به زیور نشر آراسته شده
در کتاب قلب زن؛ پس از مقدمه ها از مترجم و نویسنده؛ فصل نخست کتاب با عنوان: «در محفل ادبی» چنین آغاز میشود: هنگامی که اولین ...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Mary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2012

We want the world. We want it all. We want the moon. And still it's not enough.

It's my long term goal to read everything Maguham wrote, a goal that I doubt will be very difficult to reach. He writes with such poignant observation and wit and in The Moon and Sixpence he captures the all encompassing, obsessive and brutal nature that perhaps it takes to be an artist.

Told by an unnamed narrator, we are introduced to Charles Strickland, a beastly yet seemingly ordinary man who one day leaves his wif ...more

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Apr 11, 2010 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, classic, fiction, literature, historical

The Moon and Sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham
The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham first published in 1919. It is told in episodic form by a first-person narrator, in a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker, who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist. The story is in part based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.
عنوانها: ماه و شش پشیز (پنی)؛ ماه و شش پ ...more

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Jun 19, 2017 Mohammed rated it really liked it

تصور أنك استيقظت اليوم ورأسك تعتريه هذه الأفكار: أنا لا أريد هذه الحياة، لم أعد أطيق هذه الوظيفة، ولا هؤلاء البشر...إنني أكره هذه البلد.... تتقلب ذات اليمين وذات الشمال وهناك هاجس واحد يمسك بتﻻبيب همّتك: أن تستقيل من وظيفتك، تهجر عائلتك، وتبدأ حياة جديدة، في بلد غريبة مهما انتحب من يحبونك، ومهما كان الثمن الذي ستدفعه من فقر وجوع وتشرد.

هذه الرواية مستوحاة من حياة الفنان بول جوجن -وإن كان باسم مختلف ومع الكثير من التصرف- الذي عاش حياة مثيرة للجدل، ولم يعرف العالم أعماله بشكل جيد إلا بعد أن قضى نحب تصور أنك استيقظت اليوم ورأسك تعتريه هذه الأفكار: أنا لا أريد هذه الحياة، لم أعد أطيق هذه الوظيفة، ولا هؤلاء البشر...إنني أكره هذه البلد.... تتقلب ذات اليمين وذات الشمال وهناك هاجس واحد يمسك بتﻻبيب همّتك: أن تستقيل من وظيفتك، تهجر عائلتك، وتبدأ حياة جديدة، في بلد غريبة مهما انتحب من يحبونك، ومهما كان الثمن الذي ستدفعه من فقر وجوع وتشرد.

هذه الرواية مستوحاة من حياة الفنان بول جوجن -وإن كان باسم مختلف ومع الكثير من التصرف- الذي عاش حياة مثيرة للجدل، ولم يعرف العالم أعماله بشكل جيد إلا بعد أن قضى نحبه.

هذا هو لقائي الثاني مع سومرست موم، والإنطباع هو ذاته. موم كاتب كﻻسيكي ممتع، يقدم شخصيات فريدة على فترة زمنية ممتدة، دون الإسراف في المساحة الورقية. مثل روايته الشهيرة: "عن عبودية الإنسان"، وجدت موم مولعاً بالتوغل في النفس البشرية بمبضع دوستويفكسي، لا يتوانى عن كشف ضعفها، وسوادها وكل ما يربض هناك في الجانب المظلم من القمر. ستلتقي بعينات نادرة- ولكنها واقعية- من البشر. فهناك من يهجر أولاده ليمارس هوايته الفنية في أقاصي الارض، هناك من يترك منصباً حكومياً عالياً ليعيش على هامش الحياة في أحد الموانئ الغريبة. هناك من يحب رغم الخيانة، هناك من يحقد على من مد له يد العون...الخ. أي ستجد من تراهم حولك كل يوم إذا تجردوا من قيود المبادئ والمجتمع وأصبح اللعب "على المكشوف".

بالرغم من أن النص يروي جانباً من سيرة فنان ينتمي إلى مدرسة مابعد الإنطباعية -اتحداك إن كنت تعرف ماهية هذه المدرسة- إلا أن النص بعيد كل البعد عن الوصف الفني والغوص في فنيات وتقنيات الرسم. بل إن الرواي قد صرح بأنه لا يتمتع بخلفية كبيرة عن الفنون وكأنه يطمئن القارئ بأنه لن يصدّع رأسه بكل تلك التفاصيل المرهقة. يطيب لي أن أشيد بأسلوب الحكي الوراد على لسان رواة عدّة، ممن التقوا أو عايشوا الفنان بطل الرواية. كما وجدت الانتقال في الأماكن، من لندن إلى باريس ثم هاييتي، سلساً وممتعاً ويضيف إلى عنصر التشويق في الرواية.

تستحق القراءة بواقع ثلاثة نجوم ونصف ...more

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Nenia ✨ Queen of Literary Trash, Protector of Out-of-Print Gems, Khaleesi of Bodice Rippers, Mother of Smut, the Unrepentant, Breaker of Convention ✨ Campbell

Oct 17, 2017 Nenia ✨ Queen of Literary Trash, Protector of Out-of-Print Gems, Khaleesi of Bodice Rippers, Mother of Smut, the Unrepentant, Breaker of Convention ✨ Campbell rated it really liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction

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I'm working my way through an omnibus edition of Maugham's work, and man, he can write. I'm torn between the impulse to swim leisurely through his prose or just gleefully cannonball into it. Unlike some writers of this time, Maugham is not particularly flowery, but he has an interesting way of presenting ideas and constructing sentences that makes you want to read over them several times, just to appreciate their ideas and form.

MOON AND SIX ...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Tatiana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2010, nostalgia

This novel is by far my favorite account of an artist's life in fiction.

The story of Charles Strickland is based on Paul Gauguin's life. To what extent, I don't know. What I do know is that there is something infinitely irresistible about how artistry is portrayed in this novel. I love the idea that a real artist creates art because he cannot not to. That all other aspects of his life - family, money, acclaim, food even - are secondary to his desire to create. Strickland is remarkable in his dri This novel is by far my favorite account of an artist's life in fiction.

The story of Charles Strickland is based on Paul Gauguin's life. To what extent, I don't know. What I do know is that there is something infinitely irresistible about how artistry is portrayed in this novel. I love the idea that a real artist creates art because he cannot not to. That all other aspects of his life - family, money, acclaim, food even - are secondary to his desire to create. Strickland is remarkable in his drive to paint - he abandons his comfortable life, wife and children, career as a stockbroker - to do something that he feels he can't live without.

What I also love about Moon And Sixpence is how Maugham portrays relationships between men and women. He really makes a case that women are very much into men who treat them badly. He does so with humor, even though a bitter and puzzled humor. This is one of my favorite bits of the novel, where Strickland "proposes" to his Tahitian wife and an observer chimes in afterward:

"Well, Ata, he said, "do you fancy me for a husband."
She did not say anything, but just giggled.
"I shall beat you," he said, looking at her.
"How else should I know you loved me," she answered.

Tiare broke off her narrative and addressed herself to me reflectively.

"My first husband, Captain Johnson, used to thrash me regularly. He was a man. He was handsome, six foot three, and when he was drunk there was no holding him. I would be black and blue all over for days at a time. Oh, I cried when he died. I thought I should never get over it. But it wasn't till I married George Rainey that I knew what I'd lost. You can never tell what a man is like till you live with him. I've never been so deceived in a man as I was in George Rainey. He was a fine, upstanding fellow too. He was nearly as tall as Captain Johnson, and he looked strong enough. But it was all on the surface. He never drank. He never raised his hand to me. He might have been a missionary. I made love with the officers of every ship that touched the island, and George Rainey never saw anything. At last I was disgusted with him, and I got a divorce. What was the good of a husband like that? It's a terrible thing the way some men treat women."

I want to laugh at this quote and say that Maugham's views are outdated and plain wrong, but then I read another 5-star review of Hush, Hush, and think - Nah, things, unfortunately, have not changed that much.

On a bright note, I do very much want to visit Strickland's Tahiti.

...more

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Sep 12, 2007 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

my affection for this book may, in part, stem from the fact that it was one of those novels that i read at a period in my life when my tastes in both literature and life outlook were taking shape (that is, while playing hooky from high school) but its appeal has endured far more than the other usual suspects in that category (kerouac's meanderings, pirsig's pretentions, etc.)

apart from its romantic appeal to the Quiet and Solitary Youth demographic (of which i was a card-carrying member) i thin ...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Sarah Booth rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Anyone who likes classic Dramas

I read this right after I read the Painted Veil. I guess I am on a Somerset Maugham kick. His characters are richly developed and yet hard to know. I imagine that he may find them and humanity that way, though he does his best in bringing you along on his journey of discovery. I am never quite sure what he thinks about women. Sometimes, such as in the Painted Veil, he finds them redeemable and then in other instances trifling and slow-witted.
The Moon and Sixpence was the story based upon the pa ...more

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May 14, 2017 Rebecca Foster rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biographical, obscure-classics, reviewed-for-blog

This was a perfect follow-up to Fabrizio Dori’s Gauguin, a graphic novel I reviewed earlier in the month. Maugham’s short novel functioned like a prequel for me because, whereas Dori focuses on the artist Paul Gauguin’s later life in the South Pacific, Maugham concentrates on his similar character Charles Strickland’s attempt to make a living as a painter in Paris.

The Moon and Sixpence – the unusual title comes from the TLS reviewer’s description of the protagonist in Of Human Bondage as so abso This was a perfect follow-up to Fabrizio Dori’s Gauguin, a graphic novel I reviewed earlier in the month. Maugham’s short novel functioned like a prequel for me because, whereas Dori focuses on the artist Paul Gauguin’s later life in the South Pacific, Maugham concentrates on his similar character Charles Strickland’s attempt to make a living as a painter in Paris.

The Moon and Sixpence – the unusual title comes from the TLS reviewer’s description of the protagonist in Of Human Bondage as so absorbed in reaching for the moon that he doesn’t notice the sixpence at his feet – is narrated by an unnamed author drawn into Strickland’s orbit through his wife Amy Strickland’s attendance at London literary soirées. He hasn’t gotten to know the couple very well at all when he hears that Charles, a stockbroker, has abandoned his family and left for Paris to pursue painting – a hobby for which he’s never previously shown any aptitude.

Amy sends the narrator off to Paris to talk sense into her husband, but Charles never shows the least remorse. The narrator marvels at his insouciance and utter conviction that he is meant to be an artist.

He was single-hearted in his aim, and to pursue it he was willing to sacrifice not only himself – many can do that – but others. He had a vision. Strickland was an odious man, but I still think he was a great one.

I noted familiar themes from Of Human Bondage (published in 1915, four years prior to The Moon and Sixpence), especially the artist’s struggle, nomadism and the threat of poverty. Dirk Stroeve, the talentless Dutch painter who becomes friendly with the narrator in Paris and recognizes Strickland’s brilliance even as he lets the man walk all over him, reminded me of the happy-go-lucky Thorpe Athelny in Bondage.

At less than a third of the length of that earlier novel, though, The Moon and Sixpence struck me as a condensed parable about genius and sacrifice.

Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. … It was the work of a man who had delved into the hidden depths of nature and had discovered secrets. … There was something primeval there and terrible. It was not human. It brought to … mind vague recollections of black magic. It was beautiful and obscene.

This is a fascinating character study, whether or not you’re aware of Gauguin’s life as the inspiration, and would be a great introduction to Maugham’s work if you’ve not read him before.

Originally published with images on my blog, Bookish Beck. ...more

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Mar 09, 2015 Sara rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-classics, serious-fiction

It must be said up front that I am a huge fan of Maugham. I like his writing style, which always makes me feel as if I am sitting with a friend and he is telling me about someone he actually knows. With this conversational tone, Maugham leads you into the depths of the human soul and sometimes leaves you to find your own way out.

Based very loosely on the life of Paul Gauguin, this novel is a study in how much a true artist will do for the sake of his art: not only how much he will endure, but h ...more

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Oct 26, 2013 Perry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: stela-eða-láni

Beguiling Roman à clef of French painter Paul Gauguin: An Artist's Obsessive Quest for Beauty

This rather short novel is Maugham's intriguing, thought-provoking study of the life of the painter Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and partly his mockery of society's ready willingness to turn sinners into saints, as well as a sobering look at an artist's lifelong pursuit of beauty, at whatever the cost to himself or to loved ones.

Gaugin was a despicable misogynist and a dreadfully negative person who left h ...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Jamie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Someone would have had to physically pry this book out of my clutches last night to get me to eat dinner. Finished it in five hours flat without intending anything of the sort. I couldn’t put it down. I know I say this a lot but Maugham, goddamn.

“But who can fathom the subtleties of the human heart? Certainly not those who expect from it only decorous sentiments and normal emotions.”

And this:

I remember saying to him: “Look here, if everyone acted like you, the world couldn’t go on.”

“That’s a da

...more

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Aug 23, 2014 Kim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

Maugham's fictional biography of an artist whose life is based on that of Paul Gaughin, explores the nature of obsession and the creative urge. The central character, Charles Strickland, is a thoroughly unlikeable man: selfish, lacking in empathy and able to abandon his wife and children without a second thought. And yet, as unsympathetic as Maugham makes Strickland, his compulsive pursuit of beauty is understandable.

This is short, powerful and accessible, written in Maugham's beautifully clear ...more

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Apr 05, 2016 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

How much do we forgive a great, talented, artist, who is also a despicable human being? Will his admirers look the other way, thinking since he is no longer around and no more harm can be done by him, it is all right now to forgive, and forget, besides, he didn't do anything to their family, but to other people...Shakespeare said, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones"... Englishman Charles Strickland, a thinly disguised Paul Gauguin, is one of those m How much do we forgive a great, talented, artist, who is also a despicable human being? Will his admirers look the other way, thinking since he is no longer around and no more harm can be done by him, it is all right now to forgive, and forget, besides, he didn't do anything to their family, but to other people...Shakespeare said, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones"... Englishman Charles Strickland, a thinly disguised Paul Gauguin, is one of those men, selfish, cruel, disloyal, an unfeeling cad, you would loathe if you had ever met, nothing matters but his art, everyone else he can and does step on to reach his higher calling, being a superb painter, but nobody believes in his abilities, they see only a primitive man with the same tendencies on canvas, besides there are hundreds of better painters in Paris. Strickland had abandoned his wife and two children in London, leaving his family without any means of support, if they starved he wouldn't care, nothing is really important but his destiny, set at the turn of the 20th century, Somerset Maugham, does not try to hide the fact that he is the person narrating this novel. Having briefly met Strickland in London when the future legend , was just another boring, ordinary, nonentity, a monosyllabic stockbroker, who could guess of his later fame, Maugham is more impressed by the charming Mrs.Strickland, though not pretty, she does radiate what the perfect Englishwoman should be in that era. Later the shocked lady embraces the rumors that her husband had fled with a young shopgirl to France , she could not face the truth which would be humiliating....Mr. Strickland had secretly gone because he needed to paint. In Paris living in squalor, in an one room, filthy, pungent, airless apartment, he ekes out a living by guiding curious Englishmen, to the sordid sections of the city, that no respectable person would go, the kind of areas, policemen hate foreigners to see. This or any other jobs that puts money in his hands, more so for buying things to continue painting, than to eat or pay the rent, he has lost much weight, to rather an unhealthy level . None buys his paintings but he doesn't care. Finally meeting a bad Dutch painter, the humane Dirt Stroeve, who actually sells his mediocre paintings, short, plumb, gregarious, he never takes it personally when fellow artists disparage his product, but his English wife Blanche, does, she has a checkered past and this type of woman can't forgive the man who saved her, Dirt. An ailing Strickland becomes dangerously ill, he is nursed by the generous Dutchman, the only person who perceives his genius, in is own home, the reluctant wife helps, the life of this scoundrel will not end, here, he pays back his huge debt by taking away his Blanche . Maugham, who is now living in Paris, and becomes friends with the always kindly Dirt, writing a play, there, is more upset than her husband, he will forgive, if she returns... but tragedy ensues. Strickland somehow, gets on a ship and after much travels, arrives in the beautiful , tropical, south seas island of Tahiti...Years pass, nothing is heard about this fugitive from civilization, until during WWI, Somerset Maugham, at his government's request, goes to the same island that Strickland was on, there the paintings he had been indifferent to, shocks his senses, the sparkling, plethora of colors, the blues, greens, yellows, reds, violets, and whites, bright, brilliant, a glorious stream of unending shades, it teases the mind, and makes him dizzy, this, never captured before, so well on canvas...now he has seen the real Strickland. ...more

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Jul 28, 2015 Bruce rated it it was amazing

I thought this 1919 novel was amazing. W. Somerset Maugham’s use of language and his psychological insights fascinated me. Told by an anonymous narrator, a writer, it is the story of the life and personality of one Charles Strickland, a bland, steady, unremarkable London stockbroker who left his career and family, moved to Paris, and became a painter whose paintings were viewed by few people, most of whom thought they were awful. Eventually he moved to and died in Tahiti, achieving great posthum I thought this 1919 novel was amazing. W. Somerset Maugham’s use of language and his psychological insights fascinated me. Told by an anonymous narrator, a writer, it is the story of the life and personality of one Charles Strickland, a bland, steady, unremarkable London stockbroker who left his career and family, moved to Paris, and became a painter whose paintings were viewed by few people, most of whom thought they were awful. Eventually he moved to and died in Tahiti, achieving great posthumous fame. The story was apparently inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin, although any parallels between the lives off Gauguin and Strickland are loose indeed.

Based up comments made by other readers, I have several suggestions to make. First, this is not, nor was it intended to be, a biography or work of historical fiction. It is a story quite independent of Gauguin, and I think the reader is advised to forget about Gauguin and not seek similarities. Second, this is not a narrative intending to portray the normative psychological drives of all artists, and attempts to generalize to other painters, authors, composers, etc, are misguided. This is a story of one artist. Third, this is not Maugham’s autobiography in disguise. Fourth, the novel’s narrator may or may not be reliable and should not be assumed to be an alter ego for Maugham; the narrator’s many philosophical comments and artistic judgments are not necessarily those of the true author. This is a probing narrative of personalities and motivations, pure and simple, and the careful reader will find himself responding out of his own experience. And enjoying the language per se.

All that being said, the book is filled with quotable passages. Here are a few:

“Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain.”

“One (can) be certain of nothing in dealing with creatures so incalculable has human beings.”

“Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not given to all to know it. To recognize it you must repeat the adventure of the artist. It is a melody that he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination.”

“The writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of this thought; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.”

I found myself gasping at page after page of this narrative. The author’s precision of language and his insight into human nature, in particular the nature of one specific fictional character, captivated me. Many readers may find that they are reminded of the social ambiance and subtleties in the fiction of Anthony Powell, and the last part of the book may bring back suggestions of Joseph Conrad.

...more

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Feb 04, 2011 Marigold rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: most-unattractive-characters-ever, classic

I admire Maugham’s writing - & I loved The Razor’s Edge. But I didn’t enjoy this book. The extreme misogyny of most of the characters really bothered me - & don’t tell me it’s an accurate depiction of social mores of the time – else I shall have to throw some other books from 1919 at you!

In this book, Charles Strickland leaves his wife & children after 17 years of a conventional life & passionately pursues his art through starvation & being an utter prick in Paris; then goes ...more

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Mar 08, 2008 Khinna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: artists

Shelves: favourites

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 theidea 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 concepti ...more

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Nov 25, 2017 LaCitty rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Gran bel libro.
I primi 3-4 capitoli sono molto lenti e quasi scoraggiano il lettore, ma poi la storia decolla e seguiamo la trasformazione di Strikland da impiegato londinese a pittore nei bassifondi di Parigi e a Tahiti.
È un personaggio strano: freddo, determinato a vivere per l'arte, anaffettivo. Non esita a travolgere quello che si frappone tra lui e il suo destino (emblematico quello che succede con Stroeve e sua moglie) fino al finale agghiacciante, ma per certi aspetti anche catartico.
Be ...more

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May 24, 2018 Nahed.E rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات-مسرحيات-مسموعة

اللقاء الثاني مع سومرست موم .. وكان لقاء رائعا
الا انه لم يكن قراءة ، كان استماعا .. ويمكنني القول ان تقييمي للعمل تأثر كثيرا بجمال الاستماع للرواية التي علمت انها قد بنيت علي قصة حقيقية لرسام مشهور
اعتقد ان موم صار من الادباء المفضلين لي كثيرا خاصة مع الادب المسموع
اما عن الرواية ، فالريفيو الجميل الذي قدمه اخي محمد يفي ما اريد قوله وأكثر
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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Jun 19, 2015 Maryam Hosseini rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: داستان-خارجی

ایده داستان از زندگی ِ نقاش فرانسوی (پل گوگن) گرفته شده
و خـواسـت یک انسان از زندگی اش و چگونگی رسیدن او به هدف اش رو مطرح کرده
. و این دغدغه رو خیلی خوب به ذهن خواننده منتقل می کنه و به فـکـر وا می داره

روند داستان جذاب و پرکشـش هست و تحلیل شخصیت ها از جوانب مختلف خوب صورت گرفته
اگرچه شخصیتی مثل دیرک استروو و رفتار او برای من دور از ذهن و غیر قابل باور بود.
.بخش های گفتگوی راوی با استریکلند(نقاش) فوق العاده جذاب بود

کتاب "راهی به سوی بهشت"از ماریو بارگاس یوسا هم متاثر از زندگی همین نقاش *
نوشته شده

در ...more

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Apr 26, 2018 Stepheny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mentioned-by-stephen-king, books-everyone-should-read, favorites, hands-down-favorites, jeff-said-so, like-a-meth-addiction, pantsless-platoon, reads-with-buddies

Brilliant.
RTC.

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Jul 06, 2017 John Farebrother rated it it was amazing

This book is awesome. It's about a middle-aged English stockbroker who gives up his family, job and everything and moves to Paris to live his dream of being a poverty-stricken painter. Still not satisfied, after he has learned the basics he works his way by sea to Tahiti and goes native, living only to paint, and ultimately dying in the midst of his ultimate creation and his new family. Selfish? Yes. Irresponsible? Yes. But you only live once. If you have a dream don't let conventions and routin ...more

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Jan 04, 2015 Chrissie rated it it was ok

Shelves: france, arts, tahiti, audible, 2015-read, great-britain, classics, fiction

Don’t repeat my mistake. I chose this book because I thought it would give me a better understanding of Paul Gauguin’s life and inner thoughts. This is instead a book of fiction. Maugham creates a new story from a few of the well known facts about Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was a stockbroker who left his wife and family to paint. Maugham creates the fictional character Charles Strickland. He too is a stockbroker who leaves his family. Both go to Tahiti. Neither receives recognition for their artistic Don’t repeat my mistake. I chose this book because I thought it would give me a better understanding of Paul Gauguin’s life and inner thoughts. This is instead a book of fiction. Maugham creates a new story from a few of the well known facts about Paul Gauguin. Gauguin was a stockbroker who left his wife and family to paint. Maugham creates the fictional character Charles Strickland. He too is a stockbroker who leaves his family. Both go to Tahiti. Neither receives recognition for their artistic talent until after death. The differences are however so numerous that you cannot look at Strickland’s life and draw any conclusions about Gauguin’s motivations or thoughts. Here follow just a few of the differences:
(view spoiler)

Because of these differences you cannot draw any parallels. You cannot get inside the head of Gauguin through the character of Strickland. For this reason, the book cannot be classified as a book of historical fiction whose purpose is to teach you more about the artist Gauguin.

OK, what does the book offer? It looks at the motivation of an artist, any artist. What drives them? What motivates them? What pleasures and what sacrifices result from this creative urge? Except…. can you generalize to this extent? Isn’t it better to look at one specific person? The only person we have to follow is Strickland.

Strickland’s story/biography, which constitutes the story of this book, is told by an unnamed author who knew Strickland, his wife and his acquaintances. His story is told in episodic form employing a first-person narrative. However, the narrator himself points out that information is lacking and that some of his sources are unreliable. The unreliable evidence is not weeded out; all is related. By collecting information from different sources the retelling becomes both choppy and disconnected. Few of the characters in the side-stories are well developed. Dirk Stroeve and his wife were the exception. Only this diversional side-story drew me in. I adored Dirk, but then Strickland’s story goes on and that is the last we hear of Dirk. What are we given? A choppy, disconnected and incomplete story about a man who is in some ways similar to Gauguin. You cannot draw any conclusions from such a story.

Still, Maugham has a way with words. How he describes people, the dialogs, the humorous lines and his ability to capture how people behave, talk and interact - all of this is marvelous. It was the details of the story that I liked not how the story is constructed and laid out.

Steven Crossley narrates the audiobook. It is easy to follow. Fine in all respects.

And then there is the title: The Moon and Sixpence. It is fun to think about. What is Maugham saying? Wiki says: “According to some sources, the title, the meaning of which is not explicitly revealed in the book, was taken from a review of Of Human Bondage in which the novel's protagonist Philip Carey, is described as ‘so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet.’ According to a 1956 letter from Maugham, ‘If you look on the ground in search of a sixpence, you don't look up, and so miss the moon.’ One can reason either way. They are not the same. But I would add the question: Do we choose, or is it our personality that decides? Could Gauguin be anything except who he was? I am back to Gauguin again because it is him that I am interested in, not Strickland!
...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Antonomasia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks-kindle, 2013, art, film-and-tv, y, early-twentieth-century

Since I last read a full-length novel, at the end of August 2012*, I've watched c. 450 films - that's a quarter of the total number of films I've seen in my life. I think this has led to a new set of likes and dislikes in the way a story is communicated, which may be as much about written fiction per se as about this book in particular.

Quite my favourite thing was Maugham's authorial voice: wise, certain and given to bold idiosyncratic statements which not all will agree with, and not all of whi Since I last read a full-length novel, at the end of August 2012*, I've watched c. 450 films - that's a quarter of the total number of films I've seen in my life. I think this has led to a new set of likes and dislikes in the way a story is communicated, which may be as much about written fiction per se as about this book in particular.

Quite my favourite thing was Maugham's authorial voice: wise, certain and given to bold idiosyncratic statements which not all will agree with, and not all of which have aged well in the ensuing 94 years. The Moon and Sixpence, like Colin Wilson's The Outsider, having the theme of art above all, art at all costs, could be taken as a late-teens to student book. But the narrative is that of one who, whilst nowhere near life's end, has seen a little of the world and knows what it is to observe a younger generation coming up behind with a slightly different way of doing things which you just don't like as much, even if you know that's how the world inevitably grinds its cogs. At mid-thirties it has considerable resonance. The obviousness of one voice is rarely so strong in film, and this must be something I've missed.

Description of characters though, and their personalities especially - even if it was a balanced portrayal - had me rolling my eyes at this embarrassing, repetitive exposition . But I've a feeling that with books, you need some of it. I also watched the film of The Moon and Sixpence a year ago so the story was already familiar. Was that the only reason I felt like I'd heard too many of these tropes before? Or simply because I've read and seen rather a lot on similar subjects? (At any rate I was entirely unable to decide between 4 and 5 stars. I'd probably fumble similarly if attempting to review sculpture ... I just don't feel I've quite got a handle on the medium right now... )

Maugham gets a great deal of praise for his style. And the book sailed by at a rate of knots because he is very readable, in a relatively serious and occasionally dry-witted manner. Whilst not every single sentence is perfect of course, he manages to make much other prose appear flabby. Just after finishing this I opened St. Aubyn's Never Mind which had likewise been loitering about in the infernal Kindle for many months and I was seized by the impulse to give those sentences a good tidy.
As one who can be perhaps too much a fan of biographical interpretations, it stupidly surprised me that such sparkling clean prose was produced by a man so decadent.

*Not exactly so. I had forgotten that in January I read a mostly-autobiographical novel, but it was by a screenwriter and therefore rather filmic. ...more

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Nov 07, 2015 Cheryl rated it really liked it

A book about genius and the artistic process. The story is told by a man who knew Strickland, years after the artist's death. (The format of the novel reminded me of Citizen Kane.) The narrator relates both first and second hand info about Strickland's life.

The novel is sort of divided into two parts, with the first part portraying Strickland from society's view (his behavior towards people, more than his painting), and the last part showing Strickland's psychology and artistic process (from th ...more

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Apr 23, 2018 Ginger rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pantless-fun

"Which way do you go?" I inquired.
"Your way," he smiled.
"I'm going home."
"I'll come along with you and smoke a pipe."
"You might wait for an invitation," I retorted frigidly.
"I would if I thought there was any chance of getting one."
"Do you see that wall in front of you?" I said, pointing.
"Yes."
"In that case I should have though you could see also that I don't want your company"
"I vaguely suspected it, I confess."

Both the narrator and the subject are despicable characters. I rather hoped that the ...more

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Sep 22, 2015 Pradnya K. rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017, classics

Quite an insightful read into the behaviours of men! (and women, of course) I picked it up sooner due a recommendation from a friend and I say, it surpassed my expectations. Though it's not very long book, the description never seemed lacking and one can easily picture and feel the surroundings. And the paintings too. The characters, though make short and fleeting appearances, are unforgettable. The events and the situations they face are intricately unfolded that I was marvelled how a few parag Quite an insightful read into the behaviours of men! (and women, of course) I picked it up sooner due a recommendation from a friend and I say, it surpassed my expectations. Though it's not very long book, the description never seemed lacking and one can easily picture and feel the surroundings. And the paintings too. The characters, though make short and fleeting appearances, are unforgettable. The events and the situations they face are intricately unfolded that I was marvelled how a few paragraphs can make this happen. But that's the art, right? And in my first rendezvous with Maugham, I accept him as an artist.

The story inspired on the life of the artist, Paul Gauguin, is told matter of fact, without taking sides. Sometimes I felt the author was on a constant lookout for finding something to give thumps up to the protagonist but if so, he isn't very articulate about it. So many things are left to the reader's imagination without being stated but well-hinted. The wife of the protagonist, Charles Strickland, for example, comes across as a hypocrite but only in the end reader can conclude so. Blanche Stroeve, a lady who falls in love with Strickland, seems obscure but not untill the revelation of Strickland of after her sad fate one can be sure of.

The protagonist is, though central figure, remains obscure. I was somehow in knowledge of the story did not find his acts shocking. Inhuman? Base? No. Cruel, yes. Inconsiderate, yes. But would he be happy or could have kept his family happy if he remained his home and kept on doing what he did. I feel the answer is no. People often spend lives in compromise, though always beckoned by some true passion. And repent in the end days. I asked myself what would have happened if he was dead? The things won't change much. But we are not taught to think this way. Saying that I'm not justifying the deeds of Strickland but I cannot find him wrong entirely. But then, I'm talking and thinking the situation in today's world. For centuries back, I don't know how it might have been. So without any further thought I'd let the things go.

Great artists are not always great human beings. And if we expect so, we're setting wrong expectations. As Maugham says in the very beginning that the artist's personality is something as important as his art, we might be in dark in many cases. Today, we know the artist well through social media but earlier their company was limited to a very few people and their art required them to live a life of hermit. Hence we never know the complete truth about them.

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The 1700-1939 Boo...: The Moon And Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham (Ch. 30-58).	5	30	Nov 04, 2012 02:53AM
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About W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham

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William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.

His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost l ...more

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