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The Moon And Sixpence
The Moon And Sixpence
Dec 31, 2025 4:36 AM

Author:W. Somerset Maugham

The Moon And Sixpence

Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker, abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. Whilst his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications. Inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpence is at once a satiric caricature of Edwardian conventions and a vivid portrayal of the mentality of a genius.

Reviews

I picked it up and couldn't put it down.

—— Alexander McCall Smith , Mail on Sunday

Magnificent

—— Express

From an era that produced George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and John Galsworthy, Maugham is the great survivor

—— Economist

If anyone deserves resuscitation, he does... As a teenager, I read and reread my sister's long shelf of Maughams. What I enjoyed was their atmosphere: the brooding, sensual, sinister mood of exotic locations, where his characters seemed always on the verge of mania and where no-one behaved nearly so well as they were expected to

—— Rosemary Goring , Herald

This is one of the most compelling novels I've read in ages, a triumph of style and perception

—— Joseph O' Connor , Irish Times

A hot-tongued, howling wolf of a book, strange and tender, luscious and cool, frisky as a pup but with a mouthful of fangs. Once bitten, I was smitten by its beauty

—— Joseph O'Connor

This free-verse novel about the lusts and longings and furies of a group of lycanthropes in Southern California may just turn out to be one of the literary highlights of the decade. It's odd, intriguing, absorbing, at times beautiful and always unique. At last a writer has appeared who is unafraid to do something new with an old form. I wolfed it down

—— Niall Griffiths

Toby Barlow is a true original. Sharp Teeth is darkly funny, witty, philosophical in its quirky, deceptive way, technically accomplished and strangely moving. It's eccentric and original, but it might just get the readership it deserves. It's a fine book

—— John Burnside

Not for the faint-hearted

—— Financial Times

Gripping

—— Independent

Vigorous, enjoyably bloodthirsty, Sharp Teeth would make a stunning graphic novel

—— Guardian

Wodehouse was quite simply the Bee's Knees. And then some

—— Joseph Connolly

I constantly find myself drooling with admiration at the sublime way Wodehouse plays with the English language

—— Simon Brett

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

—— Jane Moore

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

—— John Julius Norwich

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

—— Lindsey Davis

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

—— Kathy Lette

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

—— Arabella Weir

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

—— Hugh Laurie

The greatest comic writer ever

—— Douglas Adams

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

—— Sebastian Faulks

Sublime comic genius

—— Ben Elton

You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour

—— Stephen Fry

He exhausts superlatives

—— Stephen Fry

The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare

—— Evening Standard
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