<Tr> <Th> Media type </Th> <Td> Print (hardback & paperback) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Pages </Th> <Td> 263 pp </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> OCLC </Th> <Td> 22207227 </Td> </Tr> <P> The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham first published in 1919 . It is told in episodic form by a first - person narrator, in a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character Charles Strickland, a middle - aged English stockbroker, who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist . The story is in part based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin . </P>

If you look on the ground in search of a sixpence you don't look up and so miss the moon