A Brief Review

"The Moon and Sixpence" was written in 1919, just after the first World War, in an era of new order and hope in Europe.Somerset Maugham, then 45, was at the height of his creative powers, and The Moon and Sixpence was his masterpiece in his heyday and his most important work. The main character, Strickland, is based in gauguin. The Moon and Sixpence is written from the point of view of a young writer whose name does not appear. In The Moon and Sixpence, I find it interesting that Maugham illustrates his commonality with Gauguin by describing a character in “my” mouth who seems to be completely independent of the story: the genius doctor Abraham. From the time the doctor started school, he excelled, won all his awards and scholarships, and when he was about to rise to the top of the hospital, he decided that he was destined for the hospital because of a trip to Alexandria in Egypt, quit his job, married a local man, and lived on a tight budget. At the same time, Alec, another physician who had been unable to rise to the throne, took Abraham's place and rose through the ranks. Alec laughs at Abraham's choice, but Abraham is peaceful and happy. Alec's happiness was sixpence, easy to understand, worldly and peaceful. Abraham's joy was the moon, a deep-seated atavistic appeal. It's like a person who comes to a place by accident and somehow feels like he belongs there, but is a stranger in the place of his birth. So follow your heart and choose the moon or the sixpence. The real pain is not to pursue, or seek but not, keep the wrong choice suffering life. If you don't read "The Moon and Sixpence" all the way to the end, you still won't know the full meaning of Strickland's life, or even a tenth of it. Yes, everything, including London, Paris, Marseille, was fantastic and felt like a good story to score at least nine points. But it is only when you arrive in Tahiti and hear from the fat Dr. Coutras what happened at the end of Strickland's life that you realize that the twists and turns of the first 200 or so pages are merely foisters for a better narrative of life's heroic ascent. In reality, Gauguin died of a heart attack after worsening foot eczema and a weakened heart. He considered returning to France for medical treatment, but was unable to make the trip and was stranded at the island's Happy House cabin. Gauguin committed suicide in 1898.According to the Noah, he too often felt lonely and miserable when he lived in Tahiti. He pursued fame "within limits", holding exhibitions and auctions. Part of the reason he survived in the South Pacific for so many years was that he inherited his uncle's estate and sold some of his paintings. He even received a salary from the Civil Service Bureau of Tahiti Babadu. But Strickland at Maugham was a more determined, pure genius -- not only without inheritance, not thinking of any exhibition, not painting for money, not for show. He could give his work away and destroy his life's work at will, without saying a word when he was very ill. The only thing Strickland valued was the process of "expression" itself, and that was all. Thus, although an early ending is a good story, Maugham tries to narrate the possible ambiguity between the moon and sixpence in an almost mystical end-of-life scenario, completely separating Gauguin from Strickland. He certainly did: on the last 20 pages, even after the third reading, I broke out in a sweat -- the abandonment of all true pursuits, the primal and sensual power that, with no more or less bedding, is finally able to transcend the limits of human language. The process itself is no longer the superficial word of "wonderful", but the "real truth" is, for the most part, cruel and tragic, and contains an insufferable human rejection.