The Moon and Sixpence (1919) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Inspired by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin, Maugham set out to capture, the disconnect between an artist's desire, to create and their obligations to their loved ones and society. Praised for its multifaceted portrayal of tortured genius and wasted talent, The Moon and Sixpence explores the distance between expectation and desire in a man whose decisions, however, hastily made,...

It's 1891, Gauguin has exiled himself to Tahiti in order to rediscover his painting, far from the moral, political, and visual codes of civilized Europe. He goes deep into the jungle, managing solitude, poverty, and sickness. He meets Tehura, who will become his wife, and the theme of his greatest paintings.