文档介绍：A Universal Download Edition
The Moon and Sixpence
by W. Somerset Maugham
Author of "Of Human Bondage"
THE MOON AND SIXPENCE
The Moon and Sixpence
Chapter I
I confess that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a
moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary. Yet now few will be
found to deny his greatness. I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the
fortunate politician or the essful soldier; that is a quality which belongs to the place he
occupies rather than to the man; and a change of circumstances reduces it to very discreet
proportions. The Prime Minister out of office is seen, too often, to have been but a
pompous rhetorician, and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market
town. The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic. It may be that you do not like his
art, but at all events you can hardly refuse it the tribute of your interest. He disturbs and
arrests. The time has passed when he was an object of ridicule, and it is no longer a mark
of eccentricity to defend or of perversity to extol him. His faults are accepted as the
plement to his merits. It is still possible to discuss his place in art, and the
adulation of his admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his
detractors; but one thing can never be doubtful, and that is that he had genius. To my mind
the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am
willing to excuse a thousand faults. I suppose Velasquez was a better painter than El
Greco, but custom stales one's admiration for him: the Cretan, sensual and tragic, proffers
the mystery of his soul like a standing sacrifice. The artist, painter, poet, or musician, by
his decoration, sublime or beautiful, satisfies the aesthetic sense; but that is akin to the
sexual instinct, and shares its barbarity: he lays before you also the greater gift of himself.
To pursue hi