The Moon and Sixpence (Vintage classics) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

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 art.

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 to set down his memories of his early interactions with Strickland in London and Paris after Strickland's death and posthumous success. 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 arrived 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 terminal illness (during which he paints his masterpiece), and the fate of this creation further develop the romantic themes. 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.