Classics for Beginners discussion

This is the thread for our October group read The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham. You can use this thread to post your thoughts, comments, questions or whatever else you like. Please use the Spoiler Alert function to hide spoilers in case you are more advanced in your reading than other in the group.

I added some summaries of the plot as well as a summary of the author's life here below. Also, the book is inspired by the life of the French painter Paul Gauguin, so I added some information on him as well.

Summary of the book (Goodreads)
Based on the life of Paul Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpence is W. Somerset Maugham's ode to the powerful forces behind creative genius.

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 leave the lives of those closest to him in tatters. Through Maugham's sympathetic eye Strickland's tortured and cruel soul becomes a symbol of the blessing and the curse of transcendent artistic genius, and the cost in human lives it sometimes demands.

Summary of the book (Wikipedia)
The novel is written largely from the point of view of the narrator, a young, aspiring writer and playwright in London. Certain chapters entirely comprise accounts of events by other characters, which the narrator recalls from memory (selectively editing or elaborating on certain aspects of dialogue, particularly Strickland's, as Strickland is said by the narrator to have a very poor ability to express himself in words). The narrator first develops an acquaintance with Strickland's wife at literary parties, and later meets Strickland himself, who appears to be an unremarkable businessman with no interest in his wife's literary or artistic tastes.

Strickland is a well-off, middle-class stockbroker in London sometime in late 19th or early 20th century. Early in the novel, he leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris. (The narrator enters directly into the story at this point, when he is asked by Mrs Strickland to go to Paris and talk with her husband.) He lives a destitute but defiantly content life there as a painter, lodging in run-down hotels and falling prey to both illness and hunger. Strickland, in his drive to express through his art what appears to continually possess and compel him on the inside, cares nothing for physical discomfort and is indifferent to his surroundings. He is helped and supported by a commercially successful but hackneyed Dutch painter, Dirk Stroeve (coincidentally, also an old friend of the narrator's), who recognises Strickland's genius as a painter. After helping Strickland recover from a life-threatening illness, Stroeve is repaid by having his wife, Blanche, abandon him for Strickland. Strickland later discards the wife; all he really sought from Blanche was a model to paint, not serious companionship, and it is hinted in the novel's dialogue that he indicated this to her and she took the risk anyway. Blanche then commits suicide – yet another human casualty in Strickland's single-minded pursuit of art and beauty; the first casualties being his own established life and those of his wife and children.

After the Paris episode, the story continues in Tahiti. Strickland has already died, and the narrator attempts to piece together his life there from recollections of others. He finds that Strickland had taken up a native woman, had two children by her, one of whom dies, and started painting profusely. We learn that Strickland had settled for a short while in the French port of Marseilles before traveling to Tahiti, where he lived for a few years before dying of leprosy. Strickland left behind numerous paintings, but his magnum opus, which he painted on the walls of his hut before losing his sight to leprosy, was burnt after his death by his wife per his dying orders.

W. Somerset Maugham (Wikipedia)
William Somerset Maugham, (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965), better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.

After both his parents died before he was 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a physician. The initial run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time.

During the First World War he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he travelled in India and Southeast Asia; these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.

Paul Gauguin (Wikipedia)
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style that were distinctly different from Impressionism. Towards the end of his life he spent ten years in French Polynesia, and most of his paintings from this time depict people or landscapes from that region.

His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Gauguin's art became popular after his death, partially from the efforts of art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who organized exhibitions of his work late in his career and assisted in organizing two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris. Gauguin was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. His expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

Some questions to start off with:

Have you read this book before or is it the first time you're reading it?
Have you read other work by W. Somerset Maugham?
What made you read this book?

For me:
This is the first time I read this book and also my first W. Somerset Maugham. I've been wanting to read one of his books for a while, so quite happy about this. I actually had this book for a while, I found it in one of those book exchange libraries and took is with him but been waiting for the right moment to read it.

I started with the first chapter earlier this week and it seems like a bit of a slow read but let's see, maybe things just need to get going.

I read The Painted Veil several years ago and thought it was fantastic. I have wanted to read more of Maugham, but have been too busy.

Good to hear that you enjoyed The Painted Veil so much. I quite like the movie and been meaning to read the book for a while.

I loved The Painted Veil and Cakes and Ale. I read this one not too long ago and gave it 4*. A great read, though I thought that Charles Strickland was probably the most selfish and least likeable character I have come across in a long time.

This is my first time reading Somerset Maugham - I'm a little over half way through and loving this story... the characters are so vivid and I enjoy his writing style. I found the beginning a bit slow but it picked up and now I can't wait to see what happens next.

This is my second W. Somerset Maugham book. I read Of Human Bondage many years ago and very much enjoyed it. This is my first time reading a book along with this classics group although I've been following the group for several years. I just finished The Moon and Sixpence.

Ah, so glad to hear that you found the beginning slow but now really enjoy, I still struggle my way through the first chapters ... 😬

Hi everyone! I'm usually a silent lurker, but by coincidence I am also starting this book, so I'd be happy to join in the group read, if I may :D

I've read Of Human Bondage, The Painted Veil and The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham so far, The Razor's Edge being my favorite. I found all of them slow at the start, but well worth the time.

Its gonna be my first time reading this one, but I've been wanting to read it for years - (after seeing it praised in Stephen Kings Bag of Bones)

Just finished! So sad that it's over - I really enjoyed this book and it made me do a bit of research into Paul Gaugin and his art. I remember studying his works in school, but I'm looking now with fresh eyes. There are significant differences between Gaugin's actual life and Strickland's, but I can also see the connections. While I found Strickland impudent, ungracious and downright rude, I also envied him more than a little - it was clear his detachment to civilized, artificial society was not merely an act and that he was seeking something beyond what normalcy could provide.

Yes! Was just thinking I would read a biography on Gauguin now.

I'm about halfway and enjoying it quite a bit now. I particularly enjoy the style. I also keep wondering how someone can be as cold and detached from literally anything as Strickland.

About Strickland and his wife:
(view spoiler)[ Do you think things could have gone differently if they had lived in a time and place where women were less dependent on men and where divorce was not leading to complete ruin in financial, societal and whatever other way? I was wondering about that. Strickland clearly doesn't care the least about his wife. She, however, doesn't seem to care too much about gaining him back because she loves him but more because she is entirely dependent on him. Him leaving her leads to her financial ruin and the loss of her social status. If that hadn't been the case, they might have decided mutually to get divorced? Or maybe even never gotten married? (hide spoiler)]

Possibly... it's interesting, though, that nothing much is said about their early lives together. I wonder whether his indifference came gradually over time or if he just made a complete break emotionally at some point later in their relationship. She makes some interesting remarks at the end of the book about him. Her reaction once she found out he had left her for art and not for another woman leads me to believe that she clearly feared and despised that more - she couldn't compete with it in any way, she didn't understand it and couldn't make sense of it. I do believe that if times were different she wouldn't have had to worry about the societal implications and the personal insult nearly as much.

You are right, Mrs Strickland does seem to struggle a lot more with the fact that her husband left her for pursuing the arts than as if he had left her for another woman. Which says a lot about how being an artist was perceived, I guess. Having an affair was apparently something that you saw happen in other marriages as well but becoming an artist was beyond anything that she could even imagine.

Another thing that I was thinking quite a bit about and I would love to hear others' opinions is Blanche. (view spoiler)[ What made her go with Strickland although she must have known that he didn't actually love her? Was it really that she hoped that he might fall in love with her eventually? Was it that she couldn't stay with Dirk as she felt unfree with him because he saved her? Why did she not leave Strickland once she realized that she would not be able to 'domesticate' him? Because she couldn't go anywhere else? (hide spoiler)]

Blanche HAD to have known Strickland would never love her - well, then again, maybe she just wanted to feel powerful, like she had " "gotten a man" of her own free will and abilities - not because she needed saving. Perhaps it was important to demonstrate this, to herself and to others. Or maybe, as in all aspects of life, you never want what you have, always what you can't! She rejected Dirk because it was too easy. But none of that really explains what eventually happened...

I'm sorry for being so late, just finished. I'm sad to say I was bored for most of the book.

If anyone is still up for some discussion, I was impressed with:

1. The constant belittling of women
2. The contemptuous manner in which Dirk Stroeve was depicted and refered to. I thought he was an incredible person, and felt sad that kindness (even if his degree of selflessness drove me mad) was so looked down upon.

I agree that Mrs Strickland would probably not have been so affected by the separation if the importance of how society perceives her was less of a factor, like it was in those days.

There did seem to be overtones of disparagement of women throughout, whether overt or just hinted at. I didn't know whether to take that as Maugham's overall philosophy or his depiction of the times. And I also hated the way Dirk Stroeve was treated and mocked continuously and made out to be a complete dunce - there were far more redeeming qualities to him than not. I feel that maybe he was portrayed as the complete opposite of Strickland, which only further demonstrated Strickland's complete lack of empathy.

Nina wrote: "Some questions to start off with:

Have you read this book before or is it the first time you're reading it?
Have you read other work by W. Somerset Maugham?
What made you read this book?"

Finished this last month, but with very limited computer time, I never had a chance to reply. This was my first time reading this novel, though not my first Maugham -- I read The Painted Veil when this group read it a couple years ago.

As for why I read it... I stumbled across a copy in the clearance section at HPB last year, and the connection with Guaguin caught my attention. One of the criteria for the 2018 Popsugar Ultimate Reading Challenge is a novel based on a real person, so total win-win. Can't say I liked the character of Strickland, but it was a good book.