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This book is a historical bestseller that is said to have written about Gauguin's life, largely from the point of view of the narrator, who is a writer.
<Synopsis>
The narrator, a writer, is invited to Mrs. Strickland's dinner party and meets her husband Charles Strickland. Charles was working as a stockbroker in London when he suddenly disappeared, leaving his family behind. At the request of Mrs. Strickland, the narrator heads to Paris, where Charles lives. Charles is living a poor and lonely life. He says he abandoned his family to paint.
Five years later, the narrator lives in Paris. When he visits a Dutch painter, Dirk Stroeve, a third-rate painter, who knows Charles and praises his talent. When the narrator meets Charles, who coldly says, “Stroeve is a guy with no special skills.” Charles's life became even poorer, and when the narrator and Stroeve visited Charles' studio before Christmas, they found him seriously ill. When Stroeve told his wife that he wanted to take care of Charles at home, Stroeve’s wife strongly objected. However, as her husband persuades her to take care of Charles, his wife begins to like him. She eventually abandons her husband and takes care of Charles, but Charles does not love her, and she commits suicide by taking poison. When Stroeve learns of his wife's death, he invites Charles to his hometown of Holland, even though he is in despair. The narrator meets Charles and harshly criticizes his cruelty and bad mouth toward his family and those around him.
After Strickland’s death, the narrator visits Tahiti. There he meets Captain Nichols, who worked with Charles, and hears that Charles was working as a sailor. Tiare, the innkeeper, arranged for Charles to find a wife named Ata. Dr. Coutras tells the narrator about Charles’ later years when he was infected with leprosy, and learns that Charles's paintings were burned as per his will.
The narrator returns to London and meets Mrs. Strickland again. As he finished talking about Charles’ time in Tahiti, the narrator imagined Charles and Ata's son steering a ship on the high seas.
<Impressions from the book club>
Charles Strickland in this novel is said to be modeled after Gauguin, and I was interested in the historical background and the last painting Gauguin painted. Differences in peoples’ lives such as “geniuses vs ordinary people,” “devils vs angels,’ “restricted vs free lives,” or “men's vs women's lives” are not viewed from the perspective of “good or bad” but the story tells us the Christian teachings of the existence of God and that people’s destiny is given by God but people do not control their own destiny. I also realized that I was glad to be an ordinary person who was not chosen by God.
Without ever having seen Gauguin's paintings or having the artistic talent to appreciate them, I unexpectedly and easily accepted Charles Strickland's complete ruthlessness, brutality, and madness as a result of being a “genius painter,” and I read the story of his heroic life in one sitting. Although this was my first time to read a novel by Maugham, the resolution of the characters and scenery is clear, and the words that touch upon the core of human psychology and social conditions are interspersed with words that give rise to the title “The Moon and Sixpence.” I would also like to read another of his masterpieces, “Human Bonds.”
Among the descriptions of Charles Strickland's life in Tahiti, expressions such as “There was no sound in Charles's home” and ”The air smelled of white flowers that bloom at night” were particularly impressive. Charles' life may seem reckless, but I believe that he was obsessed with the religion of natural beauty and art, and lived a life that pushed him forward.
If you look into the meaning of the quote at the end of the book, “The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small,” you will find that it is more like God's divine retribution than “praising God's works” according to the write up found in wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_of_God). In response to Charles’ son Robert in London who said that Charles' death from leprosy was God's punishment, the narrator felt it was a strange comment as the narrator remembers how the son by Charles and Charles's second wife's, Ata, had grown up so freely and lively. I will read the Japanese version and think about it again. I think it's a great ending that leaves an impression on the book.
This was my first-time reading Maugham's work. I read his bio and I learned that he had a life of hardships from an early age, including stuttering and separation from his parents. I think these hardships are connected to the structure and depth of the work. Writers who lived uneventful lives may not be able to write a complex and ruthless character like Charles in their books. The Raffles Hotel in Singapore seems to have been the main character's permanent residence, and Somerset MRT Station is said to come from there. This is a place I want to stop by when I go to Singapore.
