Individual Reading 1. Chapter 1-7

Charles Strickland was exceptionally multi-faceted painter, but at the end of his death he was unknown. After the death, a writer, Maurice Huret, wrote the article in Mercure de France about him, and through it rescued the man from oblivion. Many other journalists, writers, and even the son of Charles Strickland tried to tell people about the painter's life, his background. But he was so restrained and reserved that nobody could give complete description, and W. S. Maugham as a narrator of the whole novel decided to tell us his own view of Strickland's life. It was the time of Maugham's youth and in one evening he met Mrs. Strickland who prefered literature, enjoyed art and she gave luncheon-parties, after one of which the narrator and the woman made friends. Then Mrs. Strickland invited Maugham to dine with her family and friends, where promised to introduce the husband to. Charles Strickland was an ordinary husband and father of two children, he worked as a stockbrocker, people thought about him as a dull man, but his wife described him as awfully good and kind one. The summer was coming, and Mrs. Strickland and Maugham was going to go out of London and they arranged to meet in the autumn.