As a fictionalized account of the tumultuous career of Paul Gauguin, W. Somerset Maugham's classic story captured the hearts of a generation. First published in 1919, it provided just the exotic antidote a war-weary world desired. At first, Charles Strickland's life was unremarkable. A stock broker in London, he dwelled quietly with his wife and two children. All who knew him described him as zvery dull.y How shocking it was, then, when he abandoned this respectable identity to wander the world, make a home in Tahiti, and become an unconventional artist who captured passionate images of primitive life. Soon after the publication of The Moon and Sixpence, hordes of young men fell prey to the dreams and wanderlust of its hero. They, too, would leave comfortable middle-class lives for the lure of far off, exotic lands.