The Moon and Sixpence

Charles Strickland is a dull, respectable London stockbroker until, in middle age, he walks out on his wife and children without apology or explanation. His single purpose from then on is to paint, and he pursues it with a coldness that wrecks everyone who tries to love or help him, drifting at last to Tahiti and a strange, feverish greatness. Maugham loosely modeled him on Paul Gauguin, using the story to ask how far genius excuses cruelty and whether beauty is worth the ruin it can leave behind. First published in 1919, it became one of his most widely read novels. This free PDF and EPUB edition offers a hard, unforgettable portrait of the artist as a man beyond ordinary rules.