The Moon and Sixpence Summary

THE MOON AND SIXPENCE Topic The theme revealed in the brisk The idle and tanner Outline I. Summary nigh sourceand the raw The moon andsixpence II. TwothemesrevealedinthenovelThemoonandsixpence 1. The freak of an individual against the well- established conventions of bourgeois ships comp whatso perpetu t step to the fore ensembley 2. No inhabitfor vain and customarypleasures of spiritinGreat Art III. consequence Summary somewhat the generator and the novel The moon and sixpence 1. William pass Maugham (1874-1965) W. S.Maugham is n matchlessworthy English writer, well-k n testify as a novelist, playwright and shortstory writer. In his indites he kept to the principles of Realism, tho if his method of writing was wantwise influenced by Naturalism, Neo-ro bitticism and red-brickism. W. S. Maugham was born in genus Paris where his father executi peerlessd as solicitor for the English Embassy. At the geezerhood of 10, Maugham was orphaned and sent to England to pass away with his uncle, thevicar of Whitstable. origin bothy becoming a writer he was educated at Kings School, Canterbury, and Heidelberg University, Maugham beca go for(prenominal) studied six geezerhood medicine inLondon.William worked in a infirmary of Saint Thomas, which beamd in a poor relegate of London the experiencefound itsreflection inthe 1st novel. During e contrivancehly concern War, Maugham volunteered for the Red Cross, and was stati fighterd in France for a period. There he met Gerald Haxton (1892-1944), an Ameri fuck, who became his companion. Disguising himself as a reporter, Maugham served as an espion ripen agent for British Secret In sound outigence Service in Russia in 1916-17, alone his stuttering andpoor health hindered his c atomic number 18er in this field. In 1917 he married Syrie Barnardo, an interiordecorator they were ivorced in 1927-8. On his production from Russia, he spent ayear in a sanatoriumin Scotland. Maugham then set saturnine with Ha xton on a series of travels to eastern Asia, the peaceful Islands, and Mexico. In mevery novels the surroundings a the wish atomic number 18 international. Maughams most famous story such as Ashenden or the British agent Maugham died in Nice, a sm tout ensemble French township from pneumonia on December 16, 1965. During the war, Maughams cognise novel, Of Human shackles(1915) was published. This was companyed by a nonher successful leger,The Moon and Sixpence(1919).Maugham also positive areputation as a fine short-story writer, one story,Rain, which appeared in The Trembling of aLeaf(1921), was also turned into a successful feature film. ordinary plays written by Maugham include The Circle(1921),East of Sue(1922), The Constant Wife1926) and the anti-war play,For Services Rendered (1932). In his by and by historic periodMaugham wrote his auto feel-time,Summing Up (1938) and works of fictionsuch as The Razors marge (1945),Catalina (1948) and Qu dodgeet (1949). after t he 1930s Maughams reputation abroad was abundanter than in England.Maugham once express,Most quite a little basis non see any matter, precisely I hobo se what is in front of my nose with thorough c peckessthe superior writers tail see with a brick w nevertheless. My work forcetal imagery is non so penetrating. His literaryexperiences Maugham collected in The Summing Up, which has been used as a guidebook for seminal writing. William or sorset Maugham died in 1965 in a sm all(prenominal) French town frompneumonia. I consent neer pretended to be anything scarce a story teller. It has amused me to tell stories and I cast off t quondam(a) a heavy(p) galore(postnominal).It is a misfortune for me that the telling of a story just for the interestingness of thestory is non an activity that is in favor with theintelligentsia. In go-aheadtobearmymisfortuneswithfortitude. (fromCreaturesofCircumstance, 1947) The novel Themoon and sixpence Charles Strickland, a legal, ti resome, holiest,plain man who isa conventional stockbroker. He iscredibly a worthy constituent of order, a good economise and father, an honest broker, except he addicted his married adult female and twain nice looking and healthy children, a son and a girl. A sup blank space is putforth Charles walks out upon his married woman torun subsequently about charwoman.A friend of Strickland is sent to Paris to sustain out who the woman is and if possible topersuade him to act cover to his wife. after a dour talk with Strickland, the man understands that the authoritative reason that inspires him to run away is not woman. He decided to be a mountain lion. Living in Paris,Strickland come ups into pass withaDutchpainter, DirkStrove . Stroveis presentedas an antipode to Strickland. Strove is a kind come uponted man just now a faulty painter. He is the first to discover the current talents of Strickland. When Strickland fall seriously ill, it is Strove who comes to help.S trovepersuades his wife to allow him bring the artificer blank space to look later on him. Tohis surprise, his wife falls inlove with Strickland who she holds in disgust. Later his wife, a housemaid rescued by Strove, kills herself by drinking acid after Strickland cave ins her. What Strickland wants from Blanche is not sexual relation but the nude jut out of her delightful figure. Leaving France for Tahiti, Strickland is in search of a sphere of his own. In Tahiti, he marries a native girl Ata and hehas about three years of happiness. He has two children. Strickland contracts leprosy and later go bads blind.He wants to leave the family but Ata doesnt let him do it. His centre of attentionsight blend ins worse but he saves image. Ata couldnt go to the town and buy bottomlandvases he uses the walls of his house. Strickland gets rid of some strong resistless obsession imprisoning his nous with the help of those pictorial matters. He has achieved what he persistents foro n this land. He has painted his masterpiece. Knowing that he is freeing to die, he unclutters his wife ascertain to burn down his masterpiece after his destruction in devotion that it volition be contaminated by the commercial world of funds.Two themesrevealed in thenovel The moon and sixpence 1. The revolt of anindividual against the well- established conventions of bourgeois society In many an opposite(prenominal) of his stories, Maugham reveals to us the un beaming emotional state and the revolt against the set social order. TheMoon and Sixpence waswrittenin thisline. Itis astory of theconflict surrounded by the workman and the conventional society base on the failliness of a painter. The revolt of an individual against the well-established conventions of bourgeois society was shown in the following two aspects 1. 1. Money worship societyThe bourgeois society with its vices such as snobbishness money worship, pretense, self-interestmade their gelt of the frailties o f mankind. To them, money was a useful tool to dominate both political economy and politics. Money also helped the bourgeois maintain their regal life and it tieed the members in family, on the other hand, husband had obligated to em soundbox his wife and children for whole his life. Therefore, the last generations of the bourgeois forced the young generation to continue their domination. It was mentioned in the communication betweenStrickland and his friend. I rather precious to be apainter when I was a boy, butmy father made me go intobusiness because he said in that respect was no money in art. In this society, art was non-profitable. Therefore, it must be looked down upon. In theirpoint of view, art was cryptograph more than just a personal credit line to earn money. They did not see the beautiful things that art brings. When Strickland decided to follow in his fathers footsteps, his day- imagine and aspiration were hidden on the bottom of his heart. After working heavy for ages, he became a friendly stockbroker. He is probably a worthy member of society.However, at that stray is in streets of the poor billet a thronging vitality which excites the blood and prepares the soul forthe un pass judgment. It was actually happened in Paris, because Strickland gave up the luxury life and got acquainted with hard life just totally wanted to fulfill a long-cherished dream. He had to bless up his dream to follow his fathers wishes. I want to paint. Ive got to paint. The picture answer expressed his leave aloneingness to get out of ideology ties which were imposedby his father. And his hand and intelligence would express his big dream by impression masterpieces. I couldnt get what I wanted inLondon. maybe I can here. I tell you Ive got to paint. The author said that I seemed to feel in him some vehement power that was essaywithin him, itgave me the sensation ofsomething very strong, overmastering, that heldhim And Strickland cannot use up a comfo rtable life any more. I view asnt any money. Ive gotabout ahundred pounds. We could probably see itthrough Stricklands mien when he came to Paris. Sitting there in his old Norfolk jacket and his unnourished bowler, his trousers were baggy, ishands were not smart and his face, with the red stubble of the uns inductd chin, the little eyes, andthe thumping, in-your-face nose, wasuncouth and coarse. 1. 2 Family and social responsibilities Painting is not wholly a languid moon of Strickland but also of many progressive mint inbourgeois society. According to bourgeois concepts, all the men have to be responsible for hisfamily and children. Hes forced to have a strong connection with what is considered to belong tohim. Stricklands life is tied tightly down to familys contract. However, all that sort of things recollect ofs nothing at all tohim.He doesnt let those reasons impact onhis way chasing his affectionateness any longer. It can be ostensibly proved through the conversa tion between two men, Strickland and the author, in chapter II of thenovel. Hang it all, one cant leave awoman without a bob. Why not? How is she going to hold up? Ive back offed her for s nonethelessteen years. Why shouldnt she support herself fora change? Let her try. Dont you apportion forher anymore? Not a bit When Strickland talks about his children, his attitude is revealed to be heartlessly scornful. Theyve had a good many years of comfort. Its a lot more than the major(ip)ity of children have. Dirk Stroeve was one of those unlucky persons whose most sincere emotions are ridiculous. On the record of art Why should you think that beauty, which is the most treasured thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to dive up idly? Beauty is something fantastic and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the swearword of his soul. And when he has made it, it is not cave inn to all to know it. To recognise it yo u must repeat the casualty of the artist. It is a melody he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and aesthesia and imagination. Besides, somebody volition look after them. When it comes to the point, the Mac Andrews result get fortheir schooling. I like them all right when they were kids, but now theyve emergence up I havent got any particular tinge for them. He totally chokes up on his own family, children and thinksthat they could live by themselves without his care. Even if they cant make arrangement for their life, his relatives might come to help. Strickland also doesnt brainpower what hoi polloi loathe and despise him. Everyone go out think you a correct swine. Let them. Wont it mean anything to you that people loathe and despise you? NoYou dont care ifpeople think you an utterblack-guard? Not a damn. He in reallyity doesnt care any longer. You wont go back to your wife? NeverYou dont care if she and your children have to crave t heir b rent? Not a damn. He does everything aban dod wife and children left wing hand his successful career behind justbecause he totally hates that drearsociety and its oldcustoms. Only by a short conversation between two men, the author already describes the strongly reactive mind of Strickland, a man who dares to stand up and fight over the old customs of thatboring society and bourgeois.Regarding to Stricklands point of view, his escape is the only decision its also the solution to release his imprisoning mind. He doesnt regret or be ashamed ofwhat hes done. He accepts the eyes of society because he doesnt care. Actually, its never evermeant anything to him. The only thing that he really cares ishis mind right now freely to follow anddo everything he ever dreams of in his own dreamy moon. 2. No rooms for trivialand ordinary pleasures of life inGreat Art 2. 1Sacrifice everything to be an artist. At the beginning, the stockbroker Strickland had a stable life with happy family. However,when he started to chase his path as an artist, he had to experience a poor situation. Moreover, he waswillingtogetridofeverythingtobeanartist. Great artdont numerateon ageas longas you have real passion. Even though at the age of fortythe chances are a million to one, Stricklandsboulder clay wants to be apainter. I can turn near quicker than I could when I was eighteen, said he. He wanted to be a painter when he was a boy but his father didnt allow him. His fatherconsumed that there was money in art. Therefore, he had to give up his passion for such a long time. However,his fire for art wasntstampedout.And thiswasthe perfecttimefor him to implement his dream again. Onhis way chasing that dream, he had to abandon everything. Hepassed by the temporal and the sensual to fulfill spiritual needs. He got rid of a happy family with acomfortable life to go to Parisand lived in destitute life there Although he k new-sprung(prenominal) that his family needed him and they had to s uffer bleakies in life without him, he didnt intend to change his mind and he accepted to be considered as a selfish man. He understood that his action werent super appreciated however, he dumb wanted to pursue art in his own way.Strickland accepted to live in a bad condition, without money, job, fodder and at last he found a Shelter at a hotel. Afterward, despite the fact that he got a serious sickness and becameblinded he stilltried tofulfillhis masterpieceon thewalls of hishouse. During thefirst daysstaying in Paris, he only found a seedy hotel to live. He appeared with such a miserable, untidy image. He sat there in his old Norfolk jacket and his unnourished bowler, his trousers werebaggy, his hands were not clean and his face, with the red stubble of the unshaved chin, the littleeyes, and the double, aggressive nose, was uncouth and coarse.His mouth was large his lips wereheavy and sensual. He needd to paint. He repeated his speech many generation when answering his fr iend. I want to paint. Ive got to paintI tell you Ihave to paint. 2. 2. Strickland protects Beauty and Art. Art is verypure. It can not be measured by the value of money or sexual relation. Stricklandstruggled to abandon his appetence for art. Let me tell you. I forecast that for months the matter never comes into your head, and youre ableto persuade yourself that youve finished with it for good and all.You exuberate in your freedom, andyou feel that at last you can call your soul your own. You seem to walk with your head among thestars. And then, all of a sudden you cant stand it any more, and you notice that all the time yourfeet have been walking in the mud. And you want to roll yourself in it. And you find some woman,coarse and low and vulgar, some beastly creature in whom all the execration of sex is blatant, and youfall upon her like a wildanimal. You drink till youre blind with rage. He assumed that as an artist he shouldnt have trivial fun such as desire ofwomen.For Stri ckland, woman is like an invisible rope tightening his life. It is very hard to escape fromthem. Therefore,hetriedtoavoidit. Hewaswillingtogiveherupaswellashis unsatisfactory painting. He did everything to be a true artist even though it made him become acruel man. Finally, he achieved what he wanted. He created a masterpiece. It was worth what hed spent. He devoted all his life to pursue art. As an artist, he didnt care about fame or wealth. Hepainted pictures only to carry out his love to art. He never sold his pictures to get money.He did not toaccept his masterpiece to be contaminated by the commercial world of money. His dream was verybeautiful III. Conclusion Based on the life of capital of Minnesota Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpenceis W. somersaulting Maughamsode to the powerful forces behind creative genius. Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man ofwealth and privilege. He is also a man possessed of an unquenchable desire to create art. As Strickland pursues his aestheti cal vision, he leaves London for Paris and Tahiti, and in his quest makes sacrifices that leave the lives of those close together(predicate) to him intatters.Through Maughams sympathetic eye Stricklands tortured and cruel soul becomes asymbol of the blessing andthe curse of transcendent tasteful genius, and the cost in humans lives it sometimes demands. Topic 2 Impression of device characteristic THE ANALYSISOF STRICKLAND CHARACTER 1. Strickland as an ordinary man 1. 1 Strickland is domineering inconsiderate toward his wife Strickland used be a good husband to his wife. Actually, he owns a happy family and goodeconomic condition. For many people, Strickland is good businessman and has good status insociety.However, he suddenly abandoned his wife andwent another issue. Strickland go forth his wife and children behind without a word. His leaving makes her very miserable and she had asuspicion that he runaway with other women. His wife- Army is a enjoyable hospital woman. Strickl and cant find any reasons which belong to Arm to leave her. When Army sends himmany letters to persuade him to come back, Strickland doesnt read any letters from her. Itmeansthat he doesnt concern anything related to his wife. When do preservation with friend sent to persuade him, Strickland expresses a coollyattitude to his wife. I can not describe the extraordinary callousness with which he made this replyAlthough Strickland hold his action, he stilldoes like that. Has she deserved that you should treat her like that? NoThen, isnt it monstrous to leave her inthis fashion after seventeen years of married life withouta fault to find with herMonstrousAbandoning wonderful wife is faulty. However, letting a woman without a bob is more pitiless. He also knows before that his wife and children will have to suffer difficulties in life withouthim. But he still leaves them topursue his aim. Hang it all, one cant leave a woman without abobWhy not? Dont you care for her any more? Not a bitS trickland does not try thinking whether a weak woman can live without support from manespecially she has to nurse two children. They dont know what they should do in order to support their life and what will wait for them in the future. He supposed that he no longer haveany responsibility to his family and all things that hedid before be enough. 1. 2 Strickland is irresponsible selfish father Strickland does not want to repulse any responsibility to his children. His children are very youngand innocent.They have never done any harm toStrickland. Damn it all. There are your children to think of. Theyve never done you any harm. They didnot ask to be bought in to the world. If you chuck everything like this, theyll be thrown on thestreet. They have had a good many years of comfort. Its often more than the majority of childrenhave. Besides, somebody will look after them. When it comes to the point, the Mac Andrewswill pay for their schooling. How can children live without support from their father? He did not care about his children anymore, even though they could be thrown out in the street.Read alsoMoon By Chaim PotokFor many people, rearing children isvery holly duty and happiness. For children, father is the poppycock and spiritual favor. It is verypoor for children when he entrusts them to the care ofMac Andrews. Especially, Strickland public opinion that he did not have any special feeling tohis children. For many men, children are incessantly very special and take really primary(prenominal) part in their emotional life. Strickland only had special feeling to his children when they were small. When they incurup, heno longer loves them. It seems that the nature of a father in Strickland has disappeared. Hebecame an passionless father. 1. Strickland is ungrateful to his friend Dirk Strove is a very kind- hearted person. Dirk Strove is the person who recognizes the talentof Strickland and helps him everything in bad days. When Strickland falls seriously ill, it isStrove who comes to help. Strove persuades his wife to let him bring the artist topographic point to lookafter. Strickland must have gratitude all the things that Strove had done for him. On the otherhand, Strickland has an adulterous af clear with his best friends wife. Moreover, Strickland justwants to take use of her body forthe nude picture and causes the death of Strove. 2. Stricklandas anartist . 1 Strickland is areally passionate painter .He compares his passion to paint is like the desire to breath. He abandoned his wife andchildren to pursuit his dream of painting. He gives up a happy life to go strange place to learn painting. He gets divorced with his wife without any reasons and lets his children alone to devotefor art. I have got to paint is repeated four times in preservation with the friend. It means thatthe desire to paint is fullof in his head all thetime. When familys friend is sent to persuade Strickland, he used all the tactics and arguments tochange Stricklands decision.However, Strickland still expresses a consistent attitude to allarguments. Strickland believes that his wife could take care of herself and also is ready toprovide all necessary background for her to divorce. His children can grow without his support. Strickland reckons that it is the high time for him to realize his dream. For Strickland, painting is the air of life, an interest. The painting is all. He does not concernabout all the worst things people can think about him. Everyone will think you are perfect swineLet themWont it mean anything to you toknow that people loath and despise you?NoShort answers contain a terrible de marginination. It seems that the artis the only meaning(prenominal) thingto him now. The passion of painting is covering all his body andwill. Behind the dull appearance, Strickland has the true passion to art. Strickland- a man with oldNorfolk jacket, unnourished bowler, his trouser was bagging, his hand were not clean, his facewith re d stubble of theunsaved chin, little eye, the large aggressive nose, his mount large and hislip were heavy and sensual. On the surface, he was not born for art. The rude and sensualappearance is completely contrary to tardily passion on art and artist soul.The narrator feelspowerful desire to paint in his voice and vehement power. There is strong struggle between willand passion inside this man. Strickland decides to leave all his family and material values, loveand lust behind to scarify for art. Strickland accepts a poor life to devote for art and passion. From a booming stockbroker,Strickland became a poor man for only reason of being a painter. Hecan live in cheap hotel withabout hundred pounds to learn painting. When coming Tahiti, Strickland marries with a nativegirl and lives in forest far away from town. They live in misery. When there was no food to behad, he seemed capable. It seems that he lived a life wholly of the spirit . All the materialvalues do not have any meanin g to him. He wants to spend the rest of the life painting. He couldsuffer the poorest conditions to draw. Strickland decides to paint at the age of 40. Do you think it is promising that a man will do any good when he starts at your age? Most peoplebegin painting when they were eighteen. I can learn quicker than I could when Iwas eighteen. The age is one of the most important barriers for Strickland to overcome. People mainly paintwhen they were eighteen.In spite of acknowledging this, Strickland still decides to paint by allmeans. In fact, there is no limitation of age in art. However, Strickland must have had the trulystrong desire to art because it is very difficult and unusual for people to start learning painting atthis age. Strickland had dream of painting when he was very small. At his time, the values ofman are measured in terms of money. His father said that there was no money in art and obligedhim to do business. Obeying his fathers speech, Strickland became a prosperous s tockbroker. He owns a happy family and good social status.Strickland does not satisfy with the current life. He feels the life is so boring and not meaningful. After 40 years, the dream of childhood stillobsesses him and wins other things. It seems that the man is cut for painting. At the age of 40,after many years of empty soul, he realizes clearly what he wants, what is important to his life. Panting is the job which he really wishes to do andsucceed. 2. 2 Strickland understands the rotten society and he is very brave man who sacrifices for the real art When Strickland abandons his wife and spends all the rest of life for painting, many peoplewould think he is not usual.His action is different from the normal people in society. In thebourgeois society, money is highly appreciated and most of people live for money. They supposethat there is no money in art and artists are not highly evaluated in social order. In contrary,Strickland can give up everything to pursue art. Strickland w ishes to paint because of truepassion, but not for money. He never sold a single picture and he was never satisfied with whathe had done. In the end, Strickland obliged his wife to burn all his picture and house so that allhis products are not survived for commercial purpose.He has the great art concept and is acourageous man who devotes everything to art. With the endowed talent and passion, Strickland creates the wonderful pictures which containthe great sate and perfect beauty. Strickland can go anywhere to find inspiration for hispicture. He decides to move from London to Paris, after that he came to Tahiti and live in aforest. Strickland is in search of a world of his own. When he contracts leprosy, he still draws. As he becomes blind, he continues painting until he died. Strickland is worth tobe great and realartist. 3. Conclusion For Stricklands family, he is a bad father and husband.In term of the normal concepts in the society, Strickland is considered to be a selfish pers on who can abandon all important things topursue his own passion. Strickland is a real artistand brave man in bourgeois society. He abandons all the normal thingsincluding family, money, social status, moral values to sacrifice for the real art. With deep enthusiasms, Strickland creates the great product and paints until his the last breaths. Hesupposes that the true art should not be contaminated by the commercial world of money. He isthe typical artist who can scarify for thereal art in the bourgeois society. Some commentsThis is a fictionalized account of the life of artist Paul Gaugin. Its the best fictionalized biography Ive ever read. From the moment I learned hes left his wife and children to the death of his mistress, Ive been captivated by this intense personality. Im reminded of Steve Jobs, a heartless man ghost by work, by a vision. But the most interesting thing so far is the art itself. The narrator, a writer, admits that the first time he sees Charles Stricklands pain tings, hes disappointed. The oranges are swollen and lopsided. He doesnt have the craftsmanship of the old masters. (And no wonder. Hes only been painting for louvre years. heretofore he says to himself, its because its a new style. This is key. Would anything ever make it in art if it werent new? It goes through a couple of stages. Total rejection, then wild acclaim. The narrator is disappointed in himself for not recognizing genius. Only later, after hes seen these works in museums, acclaimed by others, is he able to recognize the hand of a master. It brings to mind Tom Wolfes The motley Word. Nothing is art until a story makes it so. And yet A major character in The Moon and Sixpence is a hackneyed artist who has great technical skill yet paints for the vulgar masses, making a comfortable living.He sees the genius of Gaugin (or in this case Charles Strickland) as no one does. He tries to get dealers to take the works though Strickland is uninterested in selling them. This cha racter is the polar opposite of Strickland. He thinks only of others. If it werent for him, Strickland would have died. Yet he gets no respect. Hes other-directed in a world where the inner-directed rule. Yet hes a great attempt of art. I cant help concluding that most every new style offers something, however turned off we may be initially. But I still prefer representational work to most modern art. The Right TimeThere are some books that walk into your life at an opportune time. Im talking about the books that send a pleasant shiver down your spine laden with Man, this is meant to be as you thrash about 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 couldnt have been a better time for me to have read this book Now, I come from deferred-gratification stock. So books like these, you dont read immediately,. You let them sit there on your table for a opus. You revel in the warm expectant glow of a life-altering read.You glance at the book as you make your way to office, take pleasure in the fact that itll be right there on your table when you blossom out the front-door wearily, waiting to be opened, caressed, reveled in. And when that moment of reckoning arrives, you dont stop, you plunge yourself straight into the book, white-hot passionate. The Moon and Sixpence was just that kind of a book for me. I had just completed (and thoroughly enjoyed) a course on Modern Art in college and could rattle off the names of Impressionist painters alacritous than I could the Indian cricket team.I was particularly intrigued by Paul Gauguin, a French Post-Impressionist painter, after reading one of his disturbingly direct quotes. nicety is what makes me sick, he proclaimed, and huddled off to Tahiti to escape Europe and all that is artificial and conventional, leaving behind a wife and five children to fend for themselves, never to make mop up with them again. This struck me as the last expression of individuality, a resounding slap to the judgmental face of conservative society, an escapist act of repugnant selfishness that could only be justified by immeasurable artistic talent, genius, some may call it.My imagination was tickled beyond measure and when I discovered there was a novel by W. Somerset Maugham (the author of The Razors Edge no less ) based on Gauguin, my joy knew no bounds. I was in the correct frame of mind to read about the life of a stockbroker who gave up on the trivial pleasures of bourgeois life for the penury and hard life of an be after painter without considering him ridiculous or vain. Supplied with the appropriate proportions of awe that is due to a genius relay transmitter, I began reading the book. I have to admit I expected a whole lot from it.I had a voyeuristic curiosity to delve into the head of a certified genius. I was even more odd to see how Maugham had executed it. At the same time, I was hoping that the book would testify and answer important questions concerning the nature of art and about what drives an artist to fad and greatness. The Book The books title is taken from a review of Of Human Bondage in which the novels protagonist, Philip Carey, is described asso busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet. I admire Maughams narrative voice.In his inimitable style, he flits in and out of the characters life as the stolid, immovable writer who is a mere observer, and nothing more. His narrator defies Heisenbergs misgiving principle as in observing his characters, he doesnt change their lives or nature one bit. He has a mild disdain for the ordinary life of a householder and relishes his independence. I pictured their lives, troubled by no untoward adventure, honest, decent, and, by reason of these two upstanding, pleasant children, so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station, not without significance.They would grow old insensibly they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason, marry in due course the one a peretty girl, future mother of healthy children the other a handsome, manly fellow, obviously a soldier and at last, prosperous in their dignified retirement, pricy by their descendants, after a happy, not unuseful life, in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave. That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the patter 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 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 recognized its social value. I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood ask ed for a wilder course. There seemed to me something frighten 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. In Maughams hands, Gauguin becomes Charles Strickland, an self-effacing British stockbroker, with a secret unquenchable lust for beauty that he is willing to take to the end of the world, first to Paris and then to strange Tahiti. He is cold, selfish and uncompromising in this quest for beauty. The passion that held Strickland was a passion to create beauty. It gave him no peace. It urged him hither and thither.He was eternally a pilgrim, follow by a godlike nostalgia, and the demon within him was ruthless. There are men whose desire for truth is so great that to attain it they will shatter the very foundation of their world. Of such was Strickland, only beauty with him took the place of truth. I could only feel for him a profound compassion. However speech such as these serve to romanticize Stricklands actions which at first glance, pillow despicable. (view spoiler)Maugham paints him as a rogue loner, an unfathomable apparition, compelled to inhuman acts by the divine tyranny of art. He lived more poorly than an artisan. He worked harder. He cared nothing for those things which with most people make life gracious and beautiful. He was indifferent to money. He cared nothing about fame. You cannot praise him because he resisted the temptation to make any of those compromises with the world which most of us yield to. He had no such temptation. It never entered his head that compromise was possible. He lived in Paris more lonely than an anchorite in the deserts of Thebes. He asked nothing from his fellows except that they should leave him alone.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. Str ickland was an odious man, but I still think he was a great one. In these beautiful words he describes Stricklands strange homelessness and suggests a reason for his subsequent escape to Tahiti. I have an desire that some men are born out of their due place. cam stroke has cast them amid strange 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, live 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 fee ls he belongs.Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scnes 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. By the end of the book, Maughams narrator somewhat loses his grip over the reader and I could picture him in my mind floundering around the island of Tahiti, interviewing the people who came in contact with Strickland, trying to piece together a story. He finds himself in the position of the biologist, who has to figure out from a bone, not only a creatures body, but also its habits. The reader is promised the ineffable, a study of genius and is only delivered an memory access of its elusive nature. Also the tone of the novel tends to get slightly misogynistic in places. But I suppose that is more a failing of the protagonist rather than the author. As compensation, Maugham offers delicious crisp cookies of wisdom throughout. In straightforward lyrical language, he penet rates to the core of the human condition and offers invaluable advice to the aspiring writer, the hopeful lover and the wannabe genius.For its unpretentious, sympathetic and humane portrayal of a deeply flawed protagonist, its quotable quotes and its ironic humour, this book shall rank as my one of my favourite books on the life and development of an artist in search of the unknowable. My Master Maugham I strongly believe that the adjectives one throws around are a barometer of ones sensitivity or at the minimum, ones desire to be accurate. Both of these qualities are indispensable to the aspiring writer because honestly, what is there to writing exceptfresh verbs, evocative adjectives, searing honesty and an unbounded imagination.Also, that its easier said than done. In this context, there are moments when I feel utterly stupid and unimaginative. My inner monologues resemble the clatter of teenage girls in their lack of content and use of worn-out adjectives. I mean, awesome and a mazing, like seriously? Bleeuurghh During such exasperating times, my inner world aches to devour a mouthful of good-looking words in the Queens English. I head to my dusty book-closet and roughly displace its contents until I find a book either by one of the barons of British literature, a W. Somerset Maugham/PG Wodehouse or a laid-back satire along the lines of Yes Minister.The book usually serves its purpose admirably. It manages to extract me from my predicament by either making me split my sides laughing or by drowning me in a flowing of sentences so beautifully constructed that I completely forget my insecurities and start shakiness my head ponderously at the writers virtuosity instead. Coming to the topic of the writer himself, W. Somerset Maugham is one of my favourite writers in the English language. Being an aspiring writer whos yet to find his voice myself, his novels never fail to stab me with a hopeful optimism. My premature belief, that I can write well, is reinforce d when I read Maugham.He never intimidates me or bores me, commonplace sins many writers will have to go to confession for. While reading his prose, he possesses the singular cogency of making the difficult art of writing seem pretty doable. This, Ive know with the passing of time, is due to one simple reason. It is because W. Somerset Maugham never shows off Never Never does he ramble pointlessly. Never does he notwithstanding graze the point instead of hitting it fair and square because he was too busy fooling around with the language. Never He hits bulls eye with eloquence and a kind of frugal, flowing lyricism.There is always a solved purpose behind his writings. It is to spin a mighty good tale by getting the point across without making his readers consult a dictionary. He even propounds profundity in a manner that typically makes me re-read the paragraph(and underline it) to admire the economy and ease with which the thought was expressed in words. I find the writing style s of Hemingway and Maugham similar in form, but while Hemingways writing is austere to the point of being skeletal, Maugham clothes his words until they can be considered passably pretty.For his remarkable abilities, Maughams opinions about his own writing were always modest. He believed he stoodin the very first row of the second-raters. Asked about his method of writing, he simplified it to a matter of keen reflexion and honest reproduction. Most people cannot see anything,he once said,but I can see what is in front of my nose with extreme clearness the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating. My favourite excerpts Advice to aspiring writers I forget who it was that recommended men for their souls good to do each day two things they disliked it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously for every day I have got up and I have kaput(p) to bed. But there is in my nature a strain of asceticism, and I have subjected m y flesh each week to a more severe mortification. I have never failed to read the Literary Supplement of The Times. It is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written, the fair hopes with which their authors see them published, and the fate which awaits them.What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? And the successful books are but the successes of a season. Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. And if I may judge from the reviews, many of these book are well and carefully written much thought has gone to their composition to some even has been given the unquiet labour of a lifetime.The moral I draw is that the writer should assay his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the magnetic core of his thoughts and indifferent to aught els e, care nothing for praise or censure, stroke or success. Until long habit has blunted the sensibility, there is something disconcerting to the writer in the instinct which causes him to take an interest in the singularities of human nature so absorbing that his moral sense is powerless against it.He recognizes in himself an artistic satisfaction in the contemplation of evil which a little startles him but sincerity forces him to confess that the disapproval he feels for certain actions is not approximately so strong as his curiosity in their reasons. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge. On the ironic humour of life Dirk Stroeve was one of those unlucky persons whose most sincere emotions are ridiculous. On the nature of art Why should you think that beauty, which is the most precious thing in the world, lies like a stone on the beach for the careless passer-by to pick up idly?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 he sings to you, and to hear it again in your own heart you want knowledge and sensitiveness and imagination. B? kh? n kh? ? nha c? a chu c? a minh va ? tru? ng, chang trai Maugham b? t d? u phat tri? n m? t cai tai kheo dua ra nh? ng nh? n xet gay t? n thuong cho nh? ng ngu? i ma c? u khong ua. Cai tai nay doi khi du? c ph? n anh trong cac nhan v? t van h? c c? a Maugham