SOLVED. Man quits job. Goes to an island to live on his savings. [s]

[Joy H.]

I can't remember what story this is. A man quits his job, intending to take his savings and go to live on an island until his savings run out. Then he plans to kill himself.

SPOILER: (view spoiler)[It turns out that when he runs out of money, he becomes very poor and lives a happy life even though he's poor. (hide spoiler)]

The story sounds like story of Paul Gauguin, but I'm not sure that the Gauguin story ends as described above.

Somerset Maugham may be the author, but again, I'm not sure about the ending or if the man in Maugham's story had planned to kill himself. Wiki says: "Paul Gauguin's life inspired Somerset Maugham to write 'The Moon and Sixpence'." See the Wiki page at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gaugin

So I may be thinking of Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence" but I'm not sure of the details in that story.

Did the man in Maugham's story plan to kill himself?
How did Maugham's story end?

[Lisa]

It doesn't sound like The Moon and Sixpence but there are plot points that are similar:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon...

[Joy H.]

Lisa wrote: "It doesn't sound like The Moon and Sixpence but there are plot points that are similar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon... "

Thanks, Lisa. The description of "The Moon and Sixpence" doesn't sound like the story I'm looking for. But at least I learned where that title came from. Wiki said:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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." [1:] Presumably Strickland's "moon" is the idealistic realm of Art and Beauty, while the "sixpence" represents human relationships and the ordinary pleasures of life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So I learned something anyway. (g)
Thanks again for the link, Lisa.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Joy, it's The Lotus Eater, as revealed in this thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The wiki summary has spoilers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lot...

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Moving from Abandoned to Solved.

[Joy H.]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Joy, it's The Lotus Eater, as revealed in this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The wiki summary has spoilers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lot...

Thank you, Lobstergirl. I just found your answer now.