The Moon and Sixpence

2023 Reprint of the 1919 Edition. Based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, this book relates the life of a Paris stockbroker who abandons his home, family, and business to live as an artist in Tahiti. Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man of wealth and privilege. He is also a man possessed of an unquenchable desire to create art. As Strickland pursues his artistic vision, he leaves London for Paris and Tahiti, and in his quest makes sacrifices that leaves the lives of those closest to him in tatters. "Gripped by an overwhelming obsession, Charles Strickland, a conventional London stockbroker, decides in midlife to desert his wife, family, business, and civilization for his art. One of Maugham's most popular works, The Moon and Sixpence is a riveting story about an uncompromising and self-destructive man who forsakes wealth and comfort to pursue the life of a painter. Drifting from Paris to Marseilles, Strickland eventually settles in Tahiti, takes a mistress, and in spite of poverty and a long, terminal illness, produces his most passionate and mysterious works of art...Maugham's timeless masterpiece is storytelling at its best - an insightful work focusing on artistic fixation that propels the artist beyond the commonplace into the selfish realm of genius."-From the Dover Publications Edition. "Witty, compelling." - The Boston Globe.