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Good Reads Book Reviews
The Moon And Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Apparently Strickland was based on the artist Paul Gauguin, but if this was the case, there is a very loose connection between the two for this in not a novel a clef. The book held my interest while the narrator had personal contact with Strickland and his wife. Almost from the beginning of the novel, before Charles Strickland had appeared, I thought him a thoroughly reprehensible character.
Admittedly his wife was not an imaginative woman and used her established position in society to cultivate the society of writers and artists although she appeared to be devoid of any artistic talent herself. She obviously regarded her "dull" husband as nothing more than a meal-ticket and she had never encouraged his artistic inclinations. It is only after he leaves her to her own devices that she manages to pull herself together, fend for herself and look after her children without being dependent on a man any longer.
The portrait of a completely self-centred, inarticulate Strickland, who does not care about the opinion of others was well-drawn but after the narrator is no longer in personal contact with Strickland and the rest of the story of Strickland's life is related to him by a third person the story is less satisfactory. I have to admit that I did not finish the last fifty pages of the book. Although I like Maugham's work, this was not my favourite Maugham novel.
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My photo gallery
Standar 3 class, Hendrik VanderBijl Primary School, 1953.
Webster Booth at the height of his fame.
A Personal Memoir
Webster and Anne (1938)
A stitch of photos!
David and Jean Campbell with the Prefect on the way to Warner Beach, Natal
Euphemia McIntyre Campbell and David McIntyre Campbell
John Orr’s, Pritchard Street, Johannesburg
Our home in Kensington (1959)
Anne Ziegler & Webster Booth (1956)
David McIntyre Campbell and Margaret McPhail Kyle
The house in Stephenson Street.
Errol Collen in his library.
Anne Ziegler & Webster Booth (1963)
My mother is the pretty young woman towards the right of the photograph.
Bill Curry and Denise Newman in a play in 1981.
The great accompanist Gerald Moore
Compiled and edited by Jean Collen
Ruth Ormond.
Sylvia Sullivan with her great-niece
Paddy entertaining the troops during World War 2 (1943)
Standard 2. I am seated in the front row on the left
My Books on Good Reads
Jean Collen's books on Goodreads
Sweethearts of Song: A Personal Memoir of Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth
reviews: 1
ratings: 3 (avg rating 5.00)
ratings: 3 (avg rating 5.00)
"Webster Booth & Anne Ziegler: Excerpts from 'Gramophone' & Discography"
ratings: 2 (avg rating 5.00)
"A Scattered Garland: Gleanings from the Lives of Webster Booth & Anne Ziegler"
ratings: 2 (avg rating 5.00)
JEAN COLLEN ON WORDPRESS 