一個英國證券交易所的經紀人，本已有牢靠的職業和地位、美滿的家庭，但卻迷戀上繪畫，像“被魔鬼附了體”，突然棄家出走，到巴黎去追求繪畫的理想。他的行徑沒有人能夠理解。他在異國不僅肉體受著貧窮和饑餓煎熬，而且為了尋找表現手法，精神亦在忍受痛苦折磨。經過一番離奇的遭遇后，主人公離開文明世界，遠遁到與世隔絕的塔希提島上。他終于找到靈魂的寧靜和適合自己藝術氣質的氛圍。他同一個土著女子同居，創作出一幅又一幅使后世震驚的杰作。在他染上麻風病雙目失明之前，曾在自己住房四壁畫了一幅表現伊甸園的偉大作品。但在逝世之前，他卻命令土著女子在他死后把這幅畫作付之一炬。
Charles Strickland, a rather dull and uninspiring London stockbroker leaves his wife and possessions to go to France, and later Tahiti to follow an ambition to express himself in painting. This desire to paint soon implodes into obsession, with grave repercussions. His life ended tragically, but he left a legacy of genius.
《月亮和六便士》是英國小說家威廉 薩默賽特 毛姆的三大長篇力作之一，成書于1919年。毛姆，一個出生于法國的英國人，他是以戲劇成名的小說家，也是一個擁有博士學位的騎士，他在20世紀初，風靡了整個世紀和世界。他的這部小說問世后，以情節入勝、文字深刻在文壇轟動一時，人們爭相傳看。適合英語專業學生及想要提高英語閱讀水平的讀者品讀。
推薦理由：
1.毛姆被譽為“英國的莫泊桑”，是二十世紀一位會講故事的作家；
2.在這部小說里，毛姆用及時人稱的敘述手法，借“我”之口，敘述了整個故事；
3.小說原型是法國印象派畫家高更，這更增加了它的傳奇色彩，受到了全世界讀者的關注；
4.小說所揭示的逃避現實的主題，與西方許多人的追求相吻合，成為20世紀的流行小說；5.英文原版無刪減，有助于提高文學素養和英文水平。
The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W Somerset Maugham first published in 1919. It is told in episodic form by a first-person narrator, in a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker, who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist. The story is in part based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin.
威廉 薩默塞特 毛姆，英國小說家、戲劇家。生于律師家庭。父母早死，由伯父接回英國撫養。原來學醫，后轉而致力寫作。他的作品常以冷靜、客觀乃至挑剔的態度審視人生，基調超然，帶諷刺和憐憫意味，在國內外擁有大量讀者。著名的有戲劇《圈子》長篇小說《人生的枷鎖》《月亮和六便士》，短篇小說集《葉的震顫》《卡蘇里那樹》《阿金》等。
William Somerset Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. The success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer’s Notebook.
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 successful 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 necessary complement 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 his secret has something of the fascination of a detective story. It is a riddle which shares with the universe the merit of having no answer. The most insignificant of Strickland’s works suggests a personality which is strange, tormented, and complex; and it is this surely which prevents even those who do not like his pictures from being indifferent to them; it is this which has excited so curious an interest in his life and character
