Would you like to choose moon or sixpence? Or the other way to say, would you like to choose ideal or reality? It is the choice. 

Would you give up everything you have for a new life or world that you always desire when you already settled comfortably life at age 47?

“The great majority are perfectly content to do the ordinary thing."

《The Moon and Sixpence》is a novel by W Somerset Maugham first published in 1919. I bought the free version at Amazon.cn. 

Similar to 《The Great Gatsby》, The book was told in episodic form by a first-person narrator. From his point of view, told about a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandoned his wife and children abruptly for painting. Later on he became an artist.

The story was based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin, who was one of the famous post-Impressionist artist. As Vincent Willem van Gogh, he was not well appreciated until after his death.  

The leading character, named Charles Strickland, was a middle-class stockbroker in London in early 1910 - 1920. The “I” met his wife first and then met him once in London. He had everything, from others point of view. But he was “good, honest, dull and plain”. Suddenly, he left his wife and two children and when to Paris for learning how to paint. He was living poorly. He cared nothing. A friend of the narrator’s, took care of Strickland when he was in serious illness. However, after helping him, the kind heated guy lost his wife, who said she loved the Strickland. She commits suicide some certain time later. 

“She was willing to do everything in the world for me except the one thing I wanted: to leave me alone."

“As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at time."

After the Paris, he went to Tahiti, an island he was alway desired to live in. There he got married again and lived for a couple of years before finally dying o leprosy. At the last living days, he painted on the walls and asked his wife to burnt if after his death. According to the other's words, the painting on the wall "was strange and fantastic. It was a vision of the beginnings of the world, the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve. It was a hymn to the beauty of the human form, male and female, and the praise of Nature, sublime, indifferent, lovely, and cruel……” “I knew that here was a work of genius…I think Strickland knew it was a masterpiece. He had achieved what he wanted. His life was complete. He has made a world and saw that it was good. Then, in pride and contempt, he destroyed it."

Talking about the language of the  book, for me, it was quite difficult at the beginning. I knew most the words, but somehow it was difficulty to understand the whole sentence. Either my poor english, or the difficult language which I am not used to. England-English is difficult for me, the 1910’s english is much difficult. But it was a good challenge. 

this is also the homework for #英语书籍阅读团#第四周打卡