William Somerset Maugham

Day 1: Charles Strickland

I confess that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary. discerned (辨明，觉察出)

Yet now few will be found to deny his greatness. (few...deny双否定)

That is a quality which belongs to the place he occupies rather than to the man, and a change of circumstances reduces it to very discreet proportions. 

The Prime Minister out of office is seen, too often, to have been but a pompous rhetorician and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town. The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic.

at all events: in any case

It is still possible to discuss his place in art, and the adulation of his admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his detractors.  capricious (反复无常的)

To pursue his secret has something of the fascination of a detective story.

Art is a manifestation of emotion, and emotion speaks a language that all may understand. 

Charles Strickland lived obscurely.

It is not strange, then, that those who wrote of him should have eked out their scanty recollections with a lively fancy, and it is evident that there was enough in the little that was known of him to give opportunity to the romantic scribe; there was much in his life which was strange and terrible, in his character something outrageous, and in his fate not a little that was pathetic.

To be frank, I have read the first chapter three times but I can't understand it fully till now. I read the Chinese version and the notes as well as the background information. I found the interest in confessing my inability. I didn't understand it so I read it again and again even if asking for help from others. 

5月27日：补

查尔斯·斯特里克兰：主人公

也许你并不欣赏他的艺术，但无论如何，你很难抗拒这份天赐。他打动你，俘获你。他被人嘲笑的时代已经过去，捍卫他或颂扬他，不再是一个有悖常理的离奇标志。他的缺点，被当作他的优点的必要补充而被接受。

相反，克里特岛那位画家的作品，充满肉欲与悲剧，彷佛永恒的献祭，将他灵魂的秘密奉献出来。

莫里斯·赫特：《法兰西信使》——评论斯特里克兰

艺术是情感的体现，情之所至，人人都能理解。

爱德华·列格特：作家&画家《一位现代派画家：对查尔斯·斯特里克兰作品的评论》