The novel’s central character, Charles Strickland, is a London stockbroker who renounces his wife, children, and business in order to paint. In Paris, Strickland woos and wins a friend’s wife away just so that he can paint her; when she kills herself, he is seemingly unaffected but leaves Paris, later settling in Tahiti with a young native woman. The story is in part based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.

W. Somerset Maugham, in full William Somerset Maugham,is an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era. His work is characterized by a clear unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature.