Методические указания по работе с книгой У.С. Моэма "Луна и грош". Малетина Д.Ю. - 16 стр.

      Appendix 3                                                              parts of the essential human creature who lives eternally by his work? It
                                                                              seems to us that he does not. Where every detail should be pungently
      Read and compare two reviews of this novel written 80
                                                                              real, one is constantly checked in belief by the sense of calculated and
years one after the other. What are the opinions and impressions
                                                                              heightened effect, and by the passion of Mr. Maugham for what is odd
of the authors? Why are they so different? Which one do you
                                                                              and "strong." Such a passion has always defeated its object. Here once
share?
      a) “The Moon and Sixpence” by W.S. Maugham re-
                                                                              more one is repelled, not by Strickland's monosyllabic callousness, but
viewed in the Guardian, May 2 1919.                                           by the knowledge that this callousness is seen and represented without
                                                                              subtlety. The callousness of the artist is something more complex than it
      From the archives                                                       is here shown to be. The callousness of Strickland is merely the
                                                                              conventional brutality employed by other novelists of an older
      Drawing down the moon                                                   generation, the generation which first found in the behaviour of artists a
                                                                              theme to be exploited in fiction. That Mr. Maugham uses the elabo-
       The character of a man insensible to ordinary human relations,         rations of a modern technique does not create the illusion of reality that
who lives the life of pure selfishness which is sometimes supposed to         he is pursuing. It simply emphasizes the cleverness, the clever uncon-
produce great art, has always had its fascination for novelists inspired      vincingness, of his portrait – not at all the vigour and personality of one
only by the unusual. Accordingly there have been novels in plenty             who will starve and suffer for the sake of his artistic ideal.
depicting the conflict of (by ordinary standards) brutal genius with                 All the minor drawings in the book are extremely effective, and
uncongenial environment and Mr. Maugham has followed a recognized             the simplicity of the narrative is notable. Technically the whole thing
convention in this story of an imaginary artist of posthumous greatness.      has great interest. But as an illumination of the nature of bizarre and
He treats him throughout with mock respect, and surrounds his affairs         uncompromising genius, ready to sacrifice every person and every
with contributory detail. Mr. Maugham's story is that of a respectable        association that stands in the way of its fulfillment, "The Moon and
stockbroker who deserts his wife after seventeen years of marriage and        Sixpence" fails through its literary accomplishment and its lack of true
goes alone to Paris to follow a new ideal – the ideal of great and for a      creative inspiration.
time unrecognizable art. The break is succeeded by privation and
industry, by long periods of work and outbursts of savage sexual con-               b) Review by Edward Tanguay published in the Guard-
quest; and the artist at length dies, blind and leprous, in Tahiti.           ian, August 13, 2002
       The book revolves throughout around the character of Strickland
                                                                                     Before reading this I was a bit afraid that Maugham's fictional
and the quality of his art. Does Mr. Maugham so convince us that his
                                                                              Strickland would somehow distort my conception of Paul Gauguin.
Strickland is a real man and a real artist that we can absorb his traits as
                                                                              Whether this is true or not, Gauguin's paintings now glow with that vast
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