.
MAKING
SENSE OF ''MOON AND SIXPENCE''
Dr.V.S.Gopalakrishnan Ph.D., IAS Retd.
BOOK: MOON AND SIXPENCE
Author: W. Somerset Maugham
Published in 1919
Why review this old novel now? Well, old could be gold! Maugham was a great writer. This book is about a ‘genius’ and tells us what the life and times of a genius could be like. A great novel, though not Maugham’s greatest. Here the genius is an English painter who is a “Paul Gauguin copy”. This device would have fulfilled Maugham’s patriotic aspirations and also increased the book’s sale in England .
Why the title ‘Moon and Sixpence’? Maugham himself is quoted to have said “People tell me it’s a good title but they don’t know what it means. It means reaching for the moon and missing the sixpence at one’s feet”. The book was followed by an Opera and a Movie too.
The story is told in an episodic form by the narrator (let us call him Author). The Author writes about the central character called Charles Strickland. (I would have invented a better name like Jeremy Jumblehead, more memorable!). Strickland (what a cumbrous name to type) lives a comfortable life in London , working as a stockbroker. He was a dull man (how can a genius be dull?). He has a charming and sociable wife and two children. Suddenly he deserts them to take to painting in Paris . The ‘Author’ is sent to him by Mrs.Strickland in a vain attempt to persuade him to return to London . The Author however discovers that there is no woman behind Strickland’s desertion to Paris .
Five years later, Author himself goes to live in Paris . His friend Dick Stroeve –another difficult name here and I would have invented a better name such as Dick Donavon (Donavon, derived from Irish, meaning ‘dark-brown’! )–has already been struck by the genius of Jumblehead, sorry Strickland. When Strickland was almost at death-bed, Stroeve takes him to his house to look after him though his wife Blanche –I like this name! –was against it. Blanche later on falls for the genius and he, after his first passion was sated, has no use for her! Geniuses, indeed, are generally peculiar and misanthropic. Blanche takes oxalic acid and dies. Stroeve was upset by the betrayal. But suddenly he discovers Strickland’s painting of Blanche in the nude! This sky-rockets his admiration for the genius and so he makes up with him!
The genius-painter leaves for Marseilles . Then he goes to Tahiti where he marries a native girl called Ata (not a bad name, I think, but somewhat atavistic!). He has two children, and he paints on and on until he is finished by leprosy and blindness. A sad saga all-told, is well told.
Dick excites sympathy in the reader as he is a good hearted man and yet fate is unkind to him. Strickland excites little sympathy in the reader as he is utterly inhuman. He not only hates society but is out to destroy it. His motivation and courage however are admirable. It’s no joke to cut oneself from civilization and one’s roots and die unsung in a distant land. The Author rightly says, “I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place”.
The genius’s idea on sex and marriage was, “I know lust. That’s normal and healthy. (But) love is a disease. Women are the instruments of my pleasure. I have no patience with their claim to be helpmates, partners, companions”. (I wonder why then he married Ata.)
Maugham has a very good idea of artists and their works. He refers to Delacroix, Chardin, Sisley, Brueghel the Elder, Degas, Monet, Manet, Eeco, Velasquez, Ingres et al. Maugham’s personal favourites, I infer, are ‘Odalisque’ by Ingres and ‘ Olympia ’ by Manet. In his novel ‘Of Human Bondage’, Maugham mentions the character Philip Carey as constantly admiring the prints of these two paintings mounted on the wall. Again, in ‘Moon and Sixpence’, Maugham makes a particular reference to ‘ Olympia ’.
Personally I am searching for the real meanings of the words such as “genius”, “intellectual”, “prodigy” etc which are being used sometimes thoughtlessly. I have read someone referring to the hobo-poet W.H.Davies, known for his “what is life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”, as an (autodidactic) "intellectual". Are you convinced of that? I really wonder if a painter can be called a genius. I should perhaps say "an excellent painter" or a "gifted painter".
Dr.V.S.Gopalakrishnan
Published: November 13, 2007
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