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The Moon and Sixpence

W. Somerset Maugham

Start date: November 1, 2020

Finish date: November 30, 2020

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Aug 21, 2025 S Ashok rated it really liked it

The Moon and Sixpence is a quite remakrable novel, I had read already The Razor's Edge and the Painted Veil. This is my third novel, Maugham's writing is evocative, the way he explores human nature through his characters, the poetic nature of his language has made him one of my favourite writers. I casually heard Jeyamohan mention it in one of his speeches before that I havent heard about his works. The Moon and Sixpence is an exploration of the idea of a creative artistic genius, what urges him The Moon and Sixpence is a quite remakrable novel, I had read already The Razor's Edge and the Painted Veil. This is my third novel, Maugham's writing is evocative, the way he explores human nature through his characters, the poetic nature of his language has made him one of my favourite writers. I casually heard Jeyamohan mention it in one of his speeches before that I havent heard about his works. The Moon and Sixpence is an exploration of the idea of a creative artistic genius, what urges him to express through art. What happens if the deep rooted creative urge comes directly in conflict with social expectations, duties expected from an individual. The novels central character Charles Strickland is a middle class stock broker, living in London, he seems like a normal middle aged family man. Yet suddenly he disappears, to Paris, what follows is the writer trying to find him. The work itself is through the writers journey to find this man, who had left his family, his wife and children mysteriously. The family suspects that this may be an affair, he has run away with some women, what the writer finds out confuses them, they cannot believe he had left to be a painter.

The meetings between the writer and the artist during the various stages of the painters life are all remarkable. Especially the first encounter when the writer tries to evoke a sense of guilt in him, by pointing out him leaving his wife and children is so wrong. Yet Charles is unfazed, he just casually brushes past these concerns, what matters to him is the art he wishes to pursue, nothign matters to him anymore. His wife or the children he casually says will be ok, they will ocercome it, his only life is to pursue art and beauty. Although Charles's action is so selfish, we sympathise with him, in a way it seems everyone has deep sense of sympathy towards the yearnings of the genius. There is the writer's friend who takes care of Charles when he is extremely sick, this leads to a scenario that completely ruins the man yet he could not fail to see the genius in Charles. It is also quite remarkable how people around him, especially the writer himself does not seem to see anything creative or genius in the paintings that Charles shows him.
Creativity especially genius in art is such a mysterious thing, one can yearn for it life and may not be visited by it, but for someone else it is given and takes over him to depths unknown to other humans. ...more

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