"Of Moon and Sixpence", loosely modeled after the life of Paul Gaugin, is Somerset Maugham's novelette about an English stockbroker who abruptly leaves his wife and two children to move to Paris. Thinking that her very conventional husband has fallen for a young shopgirl and is living the life of luxury, she sends a friend to retrieve him. The friend finds there is no shopgirl, and no luxury, and that the stockbroker has been driven by an uncontrollable urge to become a painter. Unsucessful in Paris (and blessed with a horrible personality and value system), the painter winds up on Tahiti where he paints until he dies of leprosy. After his death, he is recognized as a genius and major artist of the century.
The book is well written; it moved me right along. I read it on the airplane between Washington and Ft. Myers.
Is it realistic? Not really. Is each scene credible? Not at all. But does it hold together? Yes, in large part because of Maugham's artful use of language.
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