{"product_id":"2026100012061-secondhand-the-moon-and-sixpence","title":"The Moon And Sixpence","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Fair\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Yellowed\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat drives a man to abandon everything — wealth, family, and respectability — in pursuit of an obsession he cannot name? The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham chronicles the fictional life of Charles Strickland, a stolid London stockbroker who, at middle age, shocks his social circle by deserting his comfortable existence to become a painter in Paris, eventually finding his ultimate canvas under the blazing sun of Tahiti. Narrated with cool, ironic detachment by an unnamed writer, the novel presents a searing portrait of artistic genius in collision with bourgeois morality, drawing heavily from the real life of Post-Impressionist master Paul Gauguin. Maugham constructs his narrative with the precision of a master craftsman, dissecting the tension between the soul's hunger for beauty and the world's demand for conformity, all while maintaining a tone that is simultaneously sardonic and deeply sympathetic. A devastating meditation on sacrifice, obsession, and the true cost of artistic vision, the novel leaves one final, haunting question unanswered: was Strickland's transcendence worth the trail of ruined lives left in his wake?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51070624760027,"sku":"2026100012061-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/f9fb1dd1-c5a3-454c-9d42-b112b9df4ad4.png?v=1794188209","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100012061-secondhand-the-moon-and-sixpence","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}