william somerset maugham the moon and sixpence

The new evangel was old when Nineveh reared her greatness to the sky. They remember that they too trod down a sated generation, with just such clamor and with just such scorn, and they foresee that these brave torch-bearers will presently yield their place also. In their chastened smile is an indulgent mockery.

The wiser go their way with a decent grace. Of their elders some, by imitating the antics of youth, strive to persuade themselves that their day is not yet over they shout with the lustiest, but the war cry sounds hollow in their mouth they are like poor wantons attempting with pencil, paint and powder, with shrill gaiety, to recover the illusion of their spring. The younger generation, conscious of strength and tumultuous, have done with knocking at the door they have burst in and seated themselves in our seats. Youth has turned to gods we of an earlier day knew not, and it is possible to see already the direction in which those who come after us will move. Now the war has come, bringing with it a new attitude. Here he is, early on, describing the impact of the war on the younger generation (bearing in mind that Maugham was 40 when the Great War broke out, 45 when this novel was published). He sounds pompous in a way he rarely does in the stories. In the novel, he has space for a much more leisurely approach and this results in a markedly more orotund and verbose style. In some of the short stories Maugham allows himself a page or so of meandering introduction, but generally he gets to the meat of the characters and their interaction quite quickly. And it initially feels less appealing than the short stories because of the style. This novel, very successful in its own day, is an account of a fictional English painter, ‘Charles Strickland’, who leaves his respectable job as a stockbroker and goes to seek his destiny as a painter first in Paris, then in the South Seas. It is loosely inspired by the career of French stockbroker-cum-artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). (Chapter 41)Īfter three volumes of short stories, I thought I’d try some of Maugham’s (shorter) novels. The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

William somerset maugham the moon and sixpence