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annyway47's review against another edition
4.0
Gauguin is a controversial figure. What does he say, if you hear him out?
No one is good; no one is evil; everyone is both, in the same way and in different ways. It would be needless to point this out if the unscrupulous were not always saying the opposite. It's so small a thing, the life of man, and yet there is time to do great things, fragments of the common task. I wish to love, and I cannot. I wish not to love, and I cannot.
After reading [b:The Moon and Sixpence|44796|The Moon and Sixpence|W. Somerset Maugham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348314865l/44796._SX50_.jpg|2095270] - a fictional book based on Gauguin's life, and [b:Gauguin|28206800|Gauguin|Ingo F. Walther|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1483437988l/28206800._SX50_.jpg|317785] non-fiction book about Gauguin and his art, I was intrigued to find out there are his own journals to be read.
I came across this book by accident in a Dutch museum. The book is beautiful. Comfortably large print, great thick paper. It's a facsimile of the first edition, which was only available to members of a closed society. So I was delighted to see this page in it:
The book is not a memoir in a sense that it's not a thought-out narrative, organized to tell a single story. It reads more like a bunch of diary entries: random everyday life stories; memories about Degas and Van Gogh; musings about art, society, colonialism, religion, nature, work, justice, customs and habits of native Tahitians, etc.
Brave as you may be, wise even as you may be, you tremble when the earth trembles. That is a sensation common to everybody and which no one would ever deny.
I was surprised by how beautiful and poignant some observations were. I bookmarked many of them. I wonder if these were indeed Gauguin's words, or if Gauguin was quoting someone else, or if an editor made the writings more beautiful. If not, Gauguin certainly had a way with words, besides a keen eye.
It takes very little to bring about a woman's fall, but you have to lift the whole world in order to lift her.
To a man who has not succeeded we say 'You made a mistake'.
To a man who ha lost at the lottery, 'You had bad luck'.
Be stingy of nothing but the name of friend, and take care not to waste your insults.
The book includes many black-and-white sketches. I suppose these were simply sketched within the manuscript of the journals, so they were published the same way.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly.
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