The Moon and Sixpence

'Life isn’t long enough for love and art.'What happens when a man decides that nothing—family, money, reputation—matters more than his inner truth? The Moon and Sixpence begins with an inexplicable act: Charles Strickland, a conventional London stockbroker, abandons his wife and children to pursue art, offering neither justification nor remorse.Told through an observer struggling to understand him, the novel presents a man who is neither heroic nor likeable. As Strickland descends into poverty and alienates everyone who tries to help him, his painting grows more ferocious, as though driven by a force beyond reason.Loosely inspired by Paul Gauguin's life, W Somerset Maugham strips artistic obsession of all romance. What emerges is deeply unsettling: a man altered by vision to the point where ordinary human claims—duty, compassion, responsibility—no longer seem to bind him. Whether this is genius or monstrosity is left deliberately and uncomfortably to the reader.