The Moon and SixpenceThis title tells the story of Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker who abandons his wife and children for Prais and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. Whilst his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications. |
Common terms and phrases
absinthe absurd answered artist asked Avenue de Clichy beauty Blanche Stroeve Captain Nichols Charles Strickland Colonel MacAndrew colour comfort cried damned dinner Dirk Stroeve door Dr Coutras El Greco emotion excited eyes face fancy feel felt fool francs friends gave girl give gone hands hated heard heart husband imagine island knew laugh Liza of Lambeth looked married mind Moon and Sixpence natives never night paint painter Papeete pareo Paris passion Paumotus perhaps played poor remember Richard Twining Rogue Herries round seemed seen seized shoulders shrugged silent sitting smile Somerset Maugham sometimes soul speak story strange street Strick Strickland lived Stroeve's studio suddenly suppose sympathy Tahiti talk tell there's thing thought Tiaré told took Tough Bill turned walked Waterford wife woman women wondered word
Popular passages
Page 150 - Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them.
Page 53 - not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set. It affords you then an inordinate amount of self-esteem. You have the self-satisfaction of courage without the inconvenience of danger.
Page 7 - THE FACULTY for myth is innate in the human race. It seizes with avidity upon any incidents, surprising or mysterious, in the career of those who have at all distinguished themselves from their fellows, and invents a legend to which it then attaches a fanatical belief. It is the protest of romance against the commonplace of life. The incidents of the legend become the hero's surest passport to immortality. The ironic philosopher reflects with a smile that Sir Walter Raleigh is more safely enshrined...
Page 11 - I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked ... it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed.
Page 55 - ... himself has brought his enemy within his gates; and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd. It will force him to place the good of society before his own. It is the very strong link that attaches the individual to the whole. And man, subservient to interests he has persuaded himself are greater than his own, makes himself a slave to his taskmaster.
Page 5 - It is still possible to discuss his place in art, and the adulation of his admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his detractors ; but one thing can never be doubtful, and that is that he had genius. To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist ; and if that is singular, I am willing to excuse a thousand faults.
Page 5 - I CONFESS that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary. Yet now few will be found to deny his greatness. I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the fortunate politician or the successful soldier ; that is a quality which belongs to...
Page 5 - ... the place he occupies rather than to the man; and a change of circumstances reduces it to very discreet proportions. The Prime Minister out of office is seen, too often, to have been but a pompous rhetorician, and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town. The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic. It may be that you do not like his art, but at all events you can hardly refuse it the tribute of your 10 interest.