The Moon and Sixpence was written in such an interesting way that it captivated me throughout. As I was introduced to the lives of different characters, the only thing that connected them was that they had once been acquainted with the enigmatic and despicable Charles Strickland, a stockbroker who had abandoned his mediocre life and family in England to live in absolute poverty so long as he could paint. I found myself enthralled by all the questions asked about his life, even those that were never answered. - Natasha, 8th-grade teen volunteer
Publisher's description:
The Moon and Sixpence (1919) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Inspired by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin, Maugham set out to capture the disconnect between an artist's desire to create and their obligations to their loved ones and society. Praised for its multifaceted portrayal of tortured genius and wasted talent, The Moon and Sixpence explores the distance between expectation and desire in a man whose decisions, however, hastily made, are done with the loftiest of intentions...The Moon and Sixpence is a tale of creativity, disappointment, and struggle by a master stylist with a keen sense of the complications inherent to human nature.