Review
WL Rating
About ten years ago I was living abroad and traveling regularly across Asia. As I moved through parts of the old English empire I become besotted by the author Somerset Maugham, and his rich descriptions of remote and exotic colonial outposts. While lounging on the beaches of many of these same outposts, I read everything he wrote including this book, The Moon and Sixpence. Interestingly, The Moon and Sixpence winds up in a French colony, Tahiti, which is why it’s worth a review on this site. The book, which is loosely based on the life of tormented artist Paul Gauguin, is divided into three sections. The first deals with the main character, Charles Strickland, an English stockbroker who is living an ordinary and, for him, boring life. As the need to create rises in Strickland, he abruptly leaves his wife and family and moves to Paris, the setting for the second part of the book. In Paris, a more established painter recognizes Strickland’s genius and decides that he is worth mentoring. Unfortunately for the painter, Strickland’s method of repayment comes at the expense of his mentor. Strickland then vanishes from Paris, eventually winding up (like Gauguin) in Tahiti where he descends into a hedonistic, but artistically prolific life before leprosy finishes him off for good. Strickland’s “create at all costs” approach to life is reminiscent of Ayn Rand’s egocentric architect Howard Roark, but without all the political baggage. While the book isn’t what I consider one of my traditional water-related books, it is a classic, and definitely a good way to spend an afternoon while lounging on a beach somewhere in Polynesia. (March 2010)
The Moon and Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham
