Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Moughm

I'd like to write here about a book I read a few weeks ago.

In the first chapters we can see a man and his wife. The man was called Strikland. He was forty. He had an excellent wife and two nice children. He had a very good job. They lived in luxury and comfort.
Strikland was avery ordinary man. He loved his wife and his children. He had lived about twenty years that way. He was very far from artistic. He had not got did not have any hobbies, but he was kind and thoughtful. His wife liked the arts. She often have had some guests - painters, writers and so forth.
One day Strikland dissapeared. He left his family without any money. Everyone thought that he had left his wife for another woman. No one could think that he did it for art. He became a painter. He became avery selfish person. He lived in aterrible room which was very cheap. He left his work and family for art. People did not like* his pictures. They said that he was self important and egotistic without any talent.
But he was agenius. People understood it only after his death. Some people who bought his pictures for very little money ,sold them for a vast sum of money.

What Which is better? The first part of his life or the second? Do you think it is better to be just anusual ordinary man, but have someone who loves you or to be a genius, but egotistic and alone?