Silver moon and copper coin

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Silbermond und Kupfermünze ( The Moon and Sixpence ) is a novel by William Somerset Maugham , published in 1919 by Heinemann in London and in the same year by George H. Doran in New York City. The translation into German came out in 1927. It tells episodes from the life of the fictional English painter Charles Strickland, who only became famous after his death.

shape

The plot runs for more than 20 years. The reader is taken to the locations of London, Paris, Marseille and the South Seas . Initially, the first-person narrator is an inexperienced young writer who has completed a medical degree and is looking for access to literary circles in London, and in the process makes the acquaintance of the wife of the stockbroker Charles Strickland. Strickland is around 40 years old at the time.

The first-person narrator freely admits that he understands nothing about painting. Nevertheless, he finds a means of characterizing his protagonist more precisely. Even if the narrator is unable to establish contact with Strickland or one of his wives at the respective location, at each named location there is at least one person who willingly tells him in detail about the painter's vita. And if the flow of information dries up, then that is no longer a handicap for the narrator. In this case, he simply lets his imagination run wild. He did not write a novel, but only shared facts. The reader shakes his head and accepts such incompatibility. But there is one field that the narrator enters with the reluctance required of an Englishman: the sexual. Nevertheless, the reader always knows what is meant. The more, for example, Dirk Stroeves' wife (see below) rebels against Strickland's overwhelming sensuality, the closer the point at which she succumbs to her - fighting desperately - comes closer.

Occasionally the narrator sums up at the end of the chapter. For example, at the end of the 17th chapter it is summarized that suffering is vengeful. Or the narrator criticizes Strickland's complete lack of gratitude.

The two nouns in the title do not appear once in the text of the German edition. If you take the original title literally, “moon” and “ sixpence ” don't help either.

content

Although the narrator is only an acquaintance of Mrs. Strickland, he travels from London to Paris on her behalf to persuade the runaway husband to return to the family. Charles Strickland lives in poor conditions in the French metropolis and has closed the family chapter once and for all. He cared for his wife and their two children for seventeen years. Now may Mrs. Strickland take care of herself in the future. It stays that way. In vain does the narrator speak to the stubborn Strickland into conscience. The refugee is almost destitute and would like to see his wife remarry. Strickland makes it clear that he did not break the marriage, but only wanted to paint. The narrator calls Strickland a scoundrel, gives up and goes out to eat with the future painter.

When the narrator reports back to London, Mrs. Strickland realizes that her husband left her not because of another woman, but because of an idea. She concludes that he will never come back. From then on she successfully took her skills into her own hands. The children, two teenagers, are staying with Mrs. Strickland's sister and her husband - a childless couple.

Five years later, the narrator moves to Paris, writes on a play and soon meets the miserable but successful painter Dirk Stroeve from North Holland. With a sure eye, the Dutchman recognized the important painter in Strickland. The great English artist is now half starved. Strickland sometimes leads London tourists through the city on the Seine and translates Parisian promotional literature into English. The big city is not what he's looking for. On a lonely island, he thinks, he could live entirely his art. Soon after the narrator meets Strickland again, the painter begs the author for money. The narrator gives nothing, but wants to buy one of Strickland's pictures. Strickland would like to send the potential buyer to hell. When Strickland fell seriously ill, Stroeve took him in and nursed him to good health. In gratitude, Strickland takes the woman from the Dutchman. More precisely, she runs away with the convalescent . The relationship ends after three months. The woman poisons herself with oxalic acid and dies a horrible death.

Above, the locations of Marseille and the South Pacific were mentioned. The narrator never met Strickland on his travels there. When Strickland left Paris for Marseille, he lived another six years. On Murea , within sight of Tahiti , he finds the necessary peace for his "carefully worked through work", which art dealers from Paris and Berlin partly unearth after his death. When the narrator comes to Papeete , the painter has already been dead for nine years. Fifty-year-old Tiaré Johnson tells him how years ago she paired her 17-year-old distant relative Ata with Strickland. After the wedding, Strickland and Ata move into a dilapidated hut far from human habitation. Strickland harvests coconuts, fishes and paints. He has arrived at the place where he died. Artist and being lonely are one thing for him. Ata gives birth to two children. Strickland dies of leprosy . Ata sticks to her husband during the illness.

interpretation

It's hard to chalk Maugham's weakness of form. In addition two attempts. First of all, I mentioned the narrator's inexperience in painting. This is admitted right at the beginning of the text. However, his educational gap does not prevent the narrator from occasionally describing Strickland's pictures meticulously. The best example is the very last work of the painter. Strickland had painted his hut in Tahiti. The Maugham supporter objects that the narrator got the description from the doctor Dr. Coutras. This physician claims to be a layman with regard to painting, but was introduced to this art by Strickland. Second, the narrator does not want to be considered omniscient. Nevertheless, a passage in the text can be named where exactly this impression arises when reading superficially. What is meant is the passage in which Dirk Stroeve discusses what has happened in minute detail. Maugham knows his reader well. To be on the safe side, at the end of that passage he once again explicitly refers to Stroeve as the narrator to relieve himself.

When rethinking the text after reading it, the only thing left is to take the book as a fun and deadly serious game in relation to the life of the French Gauguin . In terms of fun, two examples are highlighted. First, the narrator - quite English-quirky - considers the promising time of day for a first visit to Strickland in Paris. It can't be before lunch. Second, Maugham pulls out various stops to create the impression that Strickland did exist. This includes, among other things, the footnotes in which “scientific” works on the Strickland phenomenon are quoted or the fate of a picture is glossed over.

Film adaptations

German edition used

  • Silver moon and copper coin. Translated from English by Susanne Feigl. Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 1978 (1st edition 1973). 236 pages (Licensor: Diogenes Verlag, Zurich)

annotation

  1. ↑ The subtitle of the first edition reads: “Maugham's first 'exotic' novel. Based extremely loosely on the life of Paul Gauguin ”( W. Somerset Maugham bibliography ). See, for example, also: edition used, pp. 2, 8. Zvu

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 161, 15. Zvu
  2. ↑ On Strickland's broker career: edition used, p. 166
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 116, 21. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 120, 4. Zvu, p. 122, 3. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 71, 7. Zvo
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 122, 10th Zvu
  7. ↑ On the history of Stroeve's marriage: edition used, pp. 154–155
  8. ↑ Edition used, p. 173, 17. Zvo
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 225, 8. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 7, 2. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 145
  12. ↑ Edition used, p. 146, 20. Zvo
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 43, 5th Zvu
  14. ↑ Edition used, pp. 7–9
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 93
  16. ↑ The Possession of Tahiti in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  17. ↑ Silver moon and copper coin in the Internet Movie Database (English)