The ruthless heart of an artist
THE CLASSICS Michael Fanning reads a tale of art elevated to genius
Sunday November 29 2009
The Moon & Sixpence
William Somerset Maugham
THIS biographical novel, which I came across in the Chapter 2 second-hand bookshop in Tralee, was suggested by the life of Gauguin. It tells the story of Charles Strickland, a stockbroker but closet artist who deserts his wife of 17 years to become a painter of considerable genius.
"Don't you care for your wife anymore?"
"."
"And the children?"
"I liked them when they were kids -- but now they're growing up and I haven't any particular feeling for them. My father made me go into business because he said that there was no money in art."
Strickland goes to Paris and falls ill, is taken in by a Dutch art fan, whose wife falls madly in love with the artist. After three months with Strickland, she became suicidal and takes a fatal dose of poison.
Trustworthy narrator Geoffrey Wolfe writes: "There was in my soul a genuine horror of Strickland, side by side with a curiosity . . . Strickland was an odious man -- but I still think he was a great one."
After leaving France, the story shifts to Tahiti. Strickland has already died, and the narrator attempts to piece together his life for us. In short, he settled down with a native woman, fathered a few children, painted several masterpieces and died of leprosy.
The story asks if the pursuit of artistic expression can excuse the artist from social responsibility. Strickland acts ruthlessly to protect his time so that he can give all to art. "I need to draw." Apart from his Tahitian wife, he treats with contempt almost everyone with whom he comes in contact. He is both hero and anti-hero. Does the novel enrich the reader? Yes. Maugham writes exceptionally well, engages the reader and the narrator weaves a fascinating story of a man "who professes art as the only escape from an irrational world".
Is Strickland the pharmakos -- the scapegoat whose suffering and sacrifice restores order to the community?
In a sense, The Moon & Sixpence is the story of art itself in all its myths, beauty, pain and triumphs.
Originally published in
