The Moon and Sixpence (1919) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
Inspired by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin, Maugham set out to
capture the disconnect between an artist's desire to create and their
obligations to their loved ones and society. Praised for its
multifaceted portrayal of tortured genius and wasted talent, The Moon
and Sixpence explores the distance between expectation and desire in a
man whose decisions, however, hastily made, are done with the loftiest
of intentions. Some people live their whole lives without daring to
dream, going from moment to moment in a haze of dreary reality,
following expectation from birth to grave. Strickland seems to be one of
these people--singularly dedicated to his work as a London stockbroker,
uninterested in the arts, married as though through obligation alone.
One day, he unexpectedly leaves his wife and children to pursue a career
as a painter in Paris, completely and irrevocably severing himself from
the professional and familial ties he sent his whole life building.
Somehow, he proves incredibly adept, but each brilliant work of art is
made at the expense of those he leaves behind. The Moon and Sixpence
is a tale of creativity, disappointment, and struggle by a master
stylist with a keen sense of the complications inherent to human nature.
With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of W. Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence is a
classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
