The Painted Veil (novel)

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The Painted Veil is a 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The title is taken from Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet "Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live."

Biographer Richard Cordell notes that the book was influenced by Maugham's study of science and his work as an intern at St Thomas' Hospital. ^[1]

A young British woman, Kitty Fane, is one of two daughters--the older, prettier one. Kitty's father is an unambitious solicitor, and her mother--Mrs Garstin--is a "a hard, cruel, managing, ambitious, parsimonious, and stupid woman." Mrs Garstin pins all of her thwarted and frustrated ambitions on the hope that Kitty will marry well. Kitty, who has a rather inflated idea of herself, spurns all suitors until her younger sister's engagement. Under the threat of being "left on the shelf," Kitty accepts a marriage proposal from a very serious, intent, intelligent, young bacteriologist, Walter Fane. Kitty isn't really interested in Walter as a person or as a husband--he isn't her type at all, and a year or so previously, she wouldn't have considered him good enough. But gentle Walter "loved her so passionately that he was prepared to accept any humiliation if sometimes she would let him love her." Due to social pressures combined with the fact that Walter is leaving for Hong Kong, Kitty agrees to a swift wedding and sails off to her new life.

In Hong Kong, Kitty very quickly succumbs to the oily attentions of an older, polished, married British official. Kitty isn't a bad person, but she is empty-headed and shallow, and she underestimates her husband's reaction to discovering her affair. Kitty doesn't really know Walter, and she certainly doesn't understand him. Walter's role--in Kitty's mind--is exactly that of her father--the role of someone who is only there to pay for things. Walter is devastated by the discovery of Kitty's affair and immediately volunteers as the doctor in a Cholera epidemic at Mei-tan-fu, but even this seemingly spontaneous and suicidal act is well-planned by Walter. In forcing Kitty to accompany him, Walter exposes Kitty's lover for the vain, self-centered womanizer he really is, and Kitty is forced to examine her life and the choices she has made. In the middle of a Cholera epidemic--living in the house of a dead missionary, Kitty faces her shallow and selfish existence.

[edit] Film adaptations

The novel has been adapted for the screen three times:

• The Painted Veil (1934 film)
• The Seventh Sin (1957 film)
• The Painted Veil (2006 film)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Maugham, W. Somerset. The Painted Veil. (1925 first edition) London: Heinemann
• Maugham, W. Somerset. The Painted Veil. (2002 reprint) Replica Books ISBN 978-0735101739