<DIV><DIV><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Based on the life of French post-impressionist artist Paul Gauguin, <I>The Moon and Sixpence</I> builds on a long tradition of European writing about the South Pacific as an exotic locale.  It also marks the transformation of British writer <B>W. Somerset Maughm</B> from celebrated playwright to accomplished novelist.<I>  </I> </P><P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </P>In <I>The Moon and Sixpence</I>, Charles Strickland, is a respectable London stockbroker who decides in middle age to abandon his wife and children and devote himself to his true passion: art. Strickland's destructive desire for self-expression takes him first to Paris to learn the craft of painting, and finally to Tahiti in the South Pacific.  <I>The Moon and Sixpence</I> remains a complex and engaging novel echoing Maugham's own struggles between artistic expression and public respectability, and between his public persona and private life.</DIV></DIV>