He had a sweet and generous nature, and yet was always blundering; had a real feeling for what was beautiful and the capacity to create only what was common­place.

2. FILL IN the missing part of the summary and reproduce the whole of it:

Blanche's presentiment of disaster comes true. When Stroeve, outraged at Strickland's insolence demands that he should leave....

Before leaving for Amsterdam, Stroeve visits his deserted studio, and is filled with jealousy and awe at discovering a picture of Blanche, in which Strickland's new art­istic power has manifested itself…

3. WHEN TELLING HIS STORY, M. keeps commenting on the characters' speech and ac­tions. As you have noticed, he often resorts to repetition. He emphasises the same traits of the characters' behaviour, the same impression his/her appearance produces, etc.

What are the chief things about the characters' appearance, ways of behaviour, attitudes that the author emphasises in the given chapters?

4. IT IS CLEAR THAT M. likes to write about people's oddities. They give him enough material to generalise human behaviour.

How does M. explain the behaviour of Blanche? Is it natural for a woman to be­have in such a way?

5. DOES ANY OF THE chief characters develop into a new personality? Or is he/she basically the same, just viewed by different people in different circumstances? Explain.

6. ON PP.125-126 MAUGHAM SUMS UP Stroeve as an example of the contradictions of human nature. ("He had a sweet and generous nature, YET... He could exercise tact when dealing with the affairs of others, BUT none when dealing with his own").

Are the characters of Blanche and Strickland just as contradictory? Try to sum them up laconically. Mind that your summaries should be BASED ON CONTRAST: "YET" and "BUT" being the key words.

7. THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES things and people with the purpose of sharing with the reader the impression that the thing or the person has produced on him. He wishes to make the readers SEE, FEEL or HEAR as vividly as he can what he has seen, heard or felt. So he provides descriptive details to make us share the experience of the characters. For instance, to emphasise Strickland's poor condition when he was ill in his shabby studio, M. gives the following suggestive details: "He had put all his clothes over him for warmth", "...breathing laboriously". The helpless­ness and loneliness of the sick man are emphasised by such descriptive details as: "...an empty bottle by the side of the bed" and "...in a piece of paper a few crumbs".

SHOW THE ROLE of descriptive details in the chapters under discussion.

8. M. NEVER MISSES HIS CHANCE OF commenting upon human nature and the essence of human emotions in general. What ideas concerning human nature does he express in the given chapters? Comment upon the one(s) that you find worth discussing, no matter whether you agree or disagree with the author.

Lesson 14. Home-reading. MAUGHAM. THE MOON AND SIXPENCE (to the end)

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to see how the author explains his own purpose, the purpose of the trade of a writer, an artist, a man, connected with one of the kinds of arts. In these chapters little action is given. We're confronted by the author's comments, by his attempts to philosophise, formulating LIFE and ART as a number of Truths.

1. PRONOUNCE AND PARAPHRASE THE FOLLOWING IDIOMS:

a) To cut smb.(145); b) To be hard up (147 mid.) c) Entered...on my heels (147)

d) to go out of one's way to do smth. (149,bottom) e) to be taken aback by smth.(156), f) to be at sea (157, lower mid.)

2. In the above examples you explained the LINGUISTIC meaning of the phrases(= значение). A good dictionary is enough: the context only illustrates the expected message. In the phrases below you have to explain the TEXTUAL meaning (=смысл), which entirely depends on what was said before. INTERPRET THE MEANING LACONICALLY.

a) I applied the scalpel boldly. (148,bottom)

b)"And an e x c e l l e n t cook", - Str. added d e r i s i v e l y (149?)

c)"It must be reassuring to her to know that you run no risk of incurring the resentment of the woman you come in contact with" (150, lower mid.)

d)... In his books or pictures the real man delivers himself defenceless. (155)

The plot of the novel is based on the real facts from the biography of a French artist Paul Gauguin. But Charles Strickland and Paul Gauguin are not identical. Study the facts from Paul Gauguin’s biography and single out similar and different points.

3. It is not only the facts of Gauguin’s and Strickland’s life that have some similarity in them. Their attitude to art and its purposes are also similar. Look through the pieces of criticism, study the pages, where Maugham describes impression Strickland’s pictures produce on different people (155-157, 212, 213-214) and say what was in Strickland’s paintings that puzzled, attracted, revolted, fascinated people?

4. “The Moon and Sixpence” is not an illustration to Gauguin’s life. Strickland is a personality in his own right. How can you sum up Strickland's attitude to people in a few words? What reasons can account for it?

5. A story can be told by an OMNISCIENT narrator, who stands in a god-like position above his characters, knows everything about everybody and can penetrate within each character's mind. Another way of telling the story is that of entrusting the narration to the main character or one of the minor characters. In this case, the narrator's vision will be necessarily limited by what h e knows and can observe. Sometimes the storyteller of this kind entrusts part of the narration to yet another witness.

In chapter XVIII Maugham tries to explain him and his motives. The chapter opens with the words: “Looking back, I realise, that what I have written about Charles Strickland must seem unsatisfactory”. Try to give Maugham's reasons for choosing this “unsatisfactory” kind of narrative.

6. Why did Strickland order to burn his paintings? Does this idea seem fantastic to you?

7. Gauguin was buried in the mission cemetery. And on his plain tombstone until a few years ago could be found a circle of red clay on which his native associate had cut the words: "Paul Gauguin, 1903". After more than eighty years, some critics consider that a few words might be added to this inscription, words that he wrote himself shortly before he died: "I have worked well, and used my life well, even intelligently and with courage."

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