The Painted Veil
by W. Somerset Maugham
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Book Summary Information
Author: W. Somerset MaughamEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-11-14
ISBN: 0307277771
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Vintage
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780307277770
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Painted Veil
Book Review: Very human view of society, class, and culture.
Summary: 4 Stars
Pity how many Amazon.com user's reviews are mostly those who are slamming the book AFTER they see a Hollywood film version of it. Doubly so for a film that is produced some 80 years after the book is published.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO RELIVE A MOVIE, DO NOT PICK UP THE BOOK THAT WAS WRITTEN FIRST. Seriously. See the movie again. Don't complain about the book being different from the movie. There are things like dead authors that scriptwriters cannot consult with. There are budgets. There are actors who are unable to portray the character the way that the writer intended. There are movie studios that hammer out a long listing of demands and restrictions, like length of the film and where it can be shot, etc. Don't ever expect a book to be like a movie, and vice versa. Unreal.
***Spoilers below***
Kitty Garstin is the elder daughter of a controlling woman and her put-upon, beleaguered husband. Mr. Garstin has never lived up to his wife's expectations, and neither has Kitty. She's unmarried and bordering spinsterhood (according to 1920s standards - NOT 2006 WHEN THE MOVIE WAS MADE). She meets Dr. Walter Fane, a bacteriologist and also an M.D. who is a public servant in Hong Kong. As Kitty's younger sister, Doris, is marrying a baron, and Kitty feels pressure to marry and leave her father's home.
Kitty impulsively accepts Walter's unexpected proposal of marriage, knowing fully that she does not love him. Walter immediately takes Kitty to live with him in Hong Kong, where she enters colonial society. She very soon meets the Townsends and begins an affair with Charlie, a forty-something colonial secretary. Walter discovers the affair and demands that Kitty accompany him to a remote village, Mei-fan-tu, which has been overrun with a cholera epidemic ... certain death for them both.
Kitty balks and refuses to go to Mei-fan-tu, and Walter agrees to divorce Kitty quietly only if Charlie will divorce his wife AND immediately marry Kitty. He does this knowing that Charlie will not leave his wife for Kitty, which Kitty soon discovers. Since Kitty cannot procure a divorce and remarriage with Charlie, she leaves Hong Kong with Walter, who shows her no kindness.
The majority of the novel is Kitty's personal growth in Mei-fan-tu. She discovers that her husband is selfless and adored by the nuns who run the hospital he does his research and treats the cholera patients at. The other characters here, particularly British civil servant Waddington and the French Mother Superior, are well-written and assist Kitty in growing from a petulant, selfish young girl to a humbled, generous woman. She works with the Chinese orphans and from a distance understands the extent of the cholera epidemic swirling around her. Quite unexpectedly, she discovers that she is pregnant. She tells Walter, who has barely warmed to her, and he asks if the child is his. She knows that it is not, and in fact it is Charlie Townsend's, but doesn't lie to Walter to gain his love and trust back.
Walter eventually catches cholera and his death is quick; Kitty barely has time to prepare for it. She is shocked at how little she grieves for him, and tries to continue the life she has built in Mei-fan-tu ... her friendly, platonic relationship with Waddington, her friendships with the nuns, and the work that she does with the orphans. She soon discovers that pregnant or not, she soon realises that her place is not in Mei-fan-tu. The nuns ask her not to return to work as it is too dangerous, and packs up what little she has in Mei-fan-tu and returns to her home in Hong Kong.
Upon her return to Hong Kong, she is unexpectedly met by Charlie Townsend's wife, Dorothy. Dorothy admits that she thought that Kitty was quite vulgar when they lived in Hong Kong at the same time, and felt horrible about it. She begs Kitty to stay with her and Charlie as it was too overwhelming for Kitty to return to her home. Kitty reluctantly agrees and avoids Charlie, but eventually Charlie worms his way into Kitty's room and takes advantage of her weak emotional state. Until Charlie approaches her, Kitty has never really grieved for Walter, but breaks down into heaving sobs ... and Charlie pounces on her sexually. It is a consensual sexual act as Kitty is reminded of the passion between them, but hates herself afterward and leaves the Townsend's home immediately to return to her parents' home.
En route to England, she finds that her mother has died, but not without some coarse words from her via post before she dies. She arrives home to find that her father has finally been awarded the Chief Justice position in the Bahamas, ironically after Mrs. Garstin had pushed him into such a role for their entire marriage - she never lived to see it. Mr. Garstin is finally free of the women in his life and looking forward to starting out again on his own. Kitty begs him to take her with him, and he reluctantly agrees. The book ends with an odd kiss to Kitty from her father ("on the lips, almost like a lover"), and her declaring that she would raise her unborn daughter (she is sure it was a girl) to be independent and not befall the same marital/extra-marital fate that Kitty had.
Overall, it is beautifully written. The chapters are very short and quite descriptive, so it's easy to paint a picture in your mind. Maugham's writing style is very easy to follow; not too dense or too simplistic. The story is tragic yet very human, and Kitty is easy to identify with. Very well done, and I highly recommend it.
Unless, that is, you've seen the movie first.
Summary of The Painted Veil
Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life and learn how to love.The Painted Veil is a beautifully written affirmation of the human capacity to grow, to change, and to forgive.
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