The Painted Veil (novel)

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

Biographer Richard Cordell notes that the book was influenced by Maugham's study of science and his work as an houseman at St Thomas' Hospital. Cordell. Richard A. Somerset Maugham at Eighty. "College English", Vol. 15, No. 4 (Jan., 1954), pp. 201-207] . In the Preface to his book, Maugham tells how originally the main characters were called Lane not Fane but a couple of that name in Hong Kong successfully sued the magazine publishers of the initial serialised version for libel and won £250. To avoid similar problems after the Assistant Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong also theatened legal action, the name of the colony was changed to Tching-Yen. Later editions reverted to Hong Kong but the name Fane was kept for all editions.

ummary

Shallow and lost, Kitty marries the intellectual and passionate Walter Fane, a bacteriologist on leave from the Far East who is madly in love with her. She does this purely so that she can be married before her younger sister, Doris, and to get away from her mother. They move to Hong Kong where, bored by the stifling climate and social mores, quite quickly Kitty starts an affair with the "perfect" Charles Townsend, the handsome assistant colonial secretary.

When Walter finds out about their affair, he gives Kitty an ultimatum. She must either accompany him to the Chinese interior to deal with a cholera epidemic, risking death, or he will divorce her, causing a scandal, unless Townsend will agree to marry her. She goes to see Townsend who betrays her badly, after previous declarations of love, by refusing to divorce his own wife to marry her. Their conversation when she realises he doesn't really love her takes up several chapters as Townsend's true nature is slowly revealed to Kitty.

Heartbroken and disillusioned, Kitty decides she has no option but to accompany Walter to the cholera-infested mainland of China. She is surprised to find when she returns home that Walter has already had her clothes packed - he knew Townsend would let her down.

At first resentful and bitter, Kitty softens as she meets Waddington, a cynical British man living locally with a Chinese mistress and some French nuns who are nursing the sick in the cholera epidemic. Seeing the respect with which Walter is held she also begins to understand what a good man he is. She begins to help the nuns with their nursing and is humbled by the experience and their unshakeable faith. Kitty discovers she is pregnant but does not know whether her husband or Charles Townsend is the father. She informs her husband and cannot bring herself to lie to him and tell him the baby is his - despite knowing how much he would like to hear this and that it would bring him to forgive her.

Soon after this Walter dies in the epidemic and Kitty returns to Hong Kong where she is met by Mrs Townsend, Charles wife who convinces Kitty to come to stay with them - as Kitty is now mistakenly regarded as a heroine who voluntarily and faithfully followed her husband into great danger. At the Townsend house, much against her intentions, she is seduced by Charles and makes love with him one more time despite realising he is vain and shallow, much as she once was. She is disgusted with herself and tells him what she thinks of him. She returns to the UK, en route finding her rather domineering mother has died. Her father, a rather unsuccesful barrister, is appointed Chief Justice of a minor British colony in the Caribbean and she persuades her father to allow her to accompany him there where she intends to dedicate her life to her father and to ensuring her child is brought up to avoid the mistakes she has made.

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)

References

External links

*Maugham, W. Somerset. "The Painted Veil". (1925 first edition) London: Heinemann
*Maugham, W. Somerset. "The Painted Veil".(1925 first edition) New York: First American Trade Edition, George H. Doran
*Maugham, W. Somerset. "The Painted Veil". (2002 reprint) Replica Books ISBN 978-0735101739