I think Maugham thought that we too often attach the wrong meaning to life, that we strive too often for what others tell us should be our want instead of the things that our soul cries out for in the night. Is to do what you want, to live under the conditions that please you, in peace with yourself, to make a hash of life and is it success to be an eminent surgeon with ten thousand a year and a beautiful wife? I suppose it depends on what meaning you attach to life, the claim which you acknowledge to society, and the claim of the individual." "I wondered if Abraham really had made a hash of life. Is it truly about how much you acquire outwardly or how much you acquire inwardly? One of the important questions Maugham raises in this novel is what makes up success and who gets to decide if you are successful. Of course, for Strickland and anyone who happens to come too close to him, the costs are extreme. I can't help wondering how much Maugham felt that he was, himself, a man who had to follow his art at any cost. Even our narrator never manages to understand the man, and he has been observing him for a lifetime.
You cannot like Maugham's character, Strickland, nor, I think, can you truly understand him.
With this conversational tone, Maugham leads you into the depths of the human soul and sometimes leaves you to find your own way out.īased very loosely on the life of Paul Gauguin, this novel is a study in how much a true artist will do for the sake of his art: not only how much he will endure, but how much he will inflict upon others. I like his writing style, which always makes me feel as if I am sitting with a friend and he is telling me about someone he actually knows. It must be said up front that I am a huge fan of Maugham.
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