Books

London: William Heinemann, 1919. Hardcover. Very Good. First edition, second issue with four pages of ads, including one ad for seven, rather than six titles by Eden Philpotts. Cheap paper browned as always, corners a little bumped, a very good copy lacking the dust jacket. This copy Inscribed on the front fly, in what looks like an earlier hand: "E. Ordine, W. Somerset Maugham." A nice copy of one of Maugham's masterpieces. Scarce signed.

'The Moon and Sixpence' is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, based loosely on the life of the artist Paul Gauguin. It tells the story of unremarkable, Charles Strickland, who suddenly gives up his job, family and familiar surroundings to concentrate on painting, giving up everything in the search for authenticity.