# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Paul Gauguin - the inspiration of "The Moon and Sixpence"

# data[].attributes.headline
The inspiration of "The Moon and Sixpence

# data[].attributes.subject
The inspiration of "The Moon and Sixpence

# data[].attributes.body
The story is inspired by the life of the French artist Paul Gauguin. However, the character of Strickland is portrayed as a lonely and sociopathic genius, this character is more related to the mythological version of Gauguin's life, which the artist himself developed and promoted, than the actual course of his life.

"The Moon and Sixpence is not, of course, a life of Paul Gauguin in the form of fiction. It is founded on what I had heard about him, but I used only the main facts of his story and for the rest trusted to such gifts of invention as I was fortunate enough to possess.", Maugham explained.

In fact, The real Gauguin was a participant in the artistic developments in France in the 1880s, he exhibited his work regularly with the Impressionists, and was a friend and collaborator with many artists. Gauguin did work as a stockbroker, did leave his wife and family to devote his life to art, and did leave Europe for Tahiti to pursue his career. Yet, none of that happened in the brutal way of the novel's character. Maugham took inspiration from the published writings about Gauguin available at the time, as well as personal experience living among the artistic community in Paris in 1904, and a visit to Tahiti in 1914.

"...I met men who had known him and worked with him at Pont-Aven. I heard much about him. It occurred to me that there was in what I was told the subject of a novel".

The character of Strickland is created as an extreme version of the "modern artist as 'genius'", who is indifferent and frequently hostile to the people around him, a man who has zero compunction in using and disposing of those who help him, and is merciless towards those who make the mistake of seeking any kind of emotional succor from him.

# data[].attributes.body
Other main works besides " The Moon and Sixpence" of the author William Somerset Maugham.

-       William Somerset Maugham ((1874 – 1965) was a British playwright, novelist, and short-story writer.

-       Maugham trained as a doctor, although he never practiced professionally, as in his first novel, Liza of Lambeth.

-       Much of his non-fictional writing was published in book form, and covered a range of topics, including travel, current affairs, autobiography, and belles lettres.

-       In 1903 his first play was performed, A Man of Honour at the Imperial Theatre, London

-        The Times obituarist called Maugham "the most assured English writer of his time", and wrote that "no writer of his generation.

-       Besides, Some of his particularly famous works are The Hour Before the Dawn(1942), Cakes and Ale: or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard( 1930), The Narrow Corner( 1932), The Casuarina Tree: Six Stories( 1926), Of Human Bondage(1915), Ashenden: Or the British Agent(1928), Theatre(1937), Up at the Villa(1941).

# data[].attributes.body
Who was William Somerset Maugham?
William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), a British playwright and novelist, was one of the most reputed and well-known writers of his era, and one of the highest-paid authors of his time. His work was popular for his simple style of writing, as well as his sharp and accurate understanding and judgment of human nature. He is also remembered for his short stories, most of them dealing with the lives of the Western colonists, mostly British, in the Far East. Maugham can also be regarded as one of the important travel writers of the inter-war years. Many of his works have also been adapted for both television and radio.

Achievements

In 1954, William Somerset Maugham was honored by being made a Companion of Honor, which is an honorable order of the Commonwealth Realms.

On the list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century by the Modern Library, Maugham's ‘Of Human Bondage’ was ranked at No. 66.

In 1903 his first play "A Man of Honour" was performed at the Imperial Theatre, London

The Times obituarist called Maugham "the most assured English writer of his time", and wrote that "no writer of his generation".

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
'The moon''- the ideality which is a dream but unattainable and untouchable. ''Sixpence'' represents intolerable for Strickland.

# data[].attributes.body
- According to some sources, the title, the meaning of which is not explicitly revealed in the book, was taken from a review of Human Bondage in which the novel's protagonist, Philip Carey, is described as "so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet." According to a 1956 letter from Maugham, "If you look on the ground in search of a sixpence, you don't look up, and so miss the moon."

- Somerset Maugham adopted the phrase as the title of his next novel. The author explained its meaning in a note which was intended to precede the text, but which did not appear, '. In his childhood, he was urged to make merry over the man who, looking for the moon, missed the sixpence at his feet, but having reached years of maturity he is not so sure that this was so great an absurdity as he was bidden to believe. Let him who will pick up the sixpence; to pursue the moon seems the most amusing diversion.'

# data[].attributes.headline
Adaptations of " The moon and Sixpence "

# data[].attributes.subject
Adaptations of " The moon and Sixpence "

# data[].attributes.body
- The book was made into a film of the same name directed and written by Albert Lewin. Released in 1942, the film stars George Sanders as Charles Strickland.
- The novel served as the basis for an opera, also titled The Moon and Sixpence, by John Gardner to a libretto by Patrick Terry; it was premiered at Covent Garden in 1958.
- Writer S Lee Pogostin adapted it for American TV in 1959. It starred Laurence Olivier.

# data[].attributes.headline
The main characters of "The moon and Sixpence"

# data[].attributes.subject
The main characters of "The moon and Sixpence"

# data[].attributes.body
1.  Charles Strickland is the central character who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist.
2. The narrator is a young, aspiring writer and playwright in London. The book is written largely from the point of view of the narrator.
3. Charles Strickland's wife is a character who is abandoned by Strickland.
4.  Dirk Stroeve is a commercially successful but hackneyed Dutch painter, is also an old friend of the narrator, who recognizes Strickland's genius as a painter.
5. Blanche is the wife of Dirk Stroeve, who abandons him for Strickland.
6. Ata is a native woman and has two children by her and Strickland.

# data[].attributes.headline
Historical background " The Moon and sixpence"

# data[].attributes.subject
Historical background " The Moon and sixpence"

# data[].attributes.body
- The Moon and Sixpence (1919) is a short novel by William Somerset Maugham based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.
- The story is told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland.

# data[].attributes.body
Other main works besides " The Moon and Sixpence" of the author William Somerset Maugham.

-      Soon, he wrote his first novel 'Liza of Lambeth’ (1897) where he wrote about his experiences as an obstetrician. The book became an instant success, which made him give up medicine and take up writing as a full-time career.
Over the next decade, he struggled for the next ten years before finding massive success in 1907 with the play 'Lady Frederick.' By the next year, he had four plays running simultaneously in London.
In 1908, he wrote the supernatural thriller 'The Magician', which also proved to be a great success.
By 1914, he had become quite famous with ten plays as well as ten novels to his name. When World War I broke out, he joined the British Red Cross’ “Literary Ambulance Drivers”, along with twenty-three other well-known writers. After the war, he continued to write and edit works as well.
Maugham later focused on a novel based on the life of Paul Gaugin which was named 'The Moon and Sixpence', published in 1919.
He also did intelligence work for the British Secret Intelligence Service and undertook a special mission in Russia.
He wrote a book about his experiences as a spy, which was published as 'Ashenden: Or the British Agent.'

-       Besides, Some of his particularly famous works are The Hour Before the Dawn(1942), Cakes and Ale: or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard( 1930), The Narrow Corner( 1932), The Casuarina Tree: Six Stories( 1926), Of Human Bondage(1915), Ashenden: Or the British Agent(1928), Theatre(1937), Up at the Villa(1941).

# data[].attributes.body
- We know our friends by their defects rather than by their merits.
- There are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.
- A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her, but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.
- Tolerance is another word for indifference.
- As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.
-It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
- Impropriety is the soul of wit.