The Painted Veil

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Kitty Fane is a beautiful, vain, upper-class British woman unhappily married to Walter Fane, a bacteriologist working in Hong Kong. She is conducting an affair with Charles Townsend, the Assistant Colonial Secretary, and the two are in her room when the knobs to her door mysteriously turn from the outside.

For a medical readership, the story really takes off once the couple have relocated to a small Chinese community. The story is recounted through Kitty's eyes, who has little interest or understanding in her husband's role, which makes the restricted insights all the more tantalising. We get to feel what it is like to be married to a devoted doctor and scientist. About the author: W. Somerset Maugham: William Somerset Maugham was one of the twentieth century’s most popular novelists as well as a celebrated playwright, critic, and short story writer. He was born in Paris but grew up in England and served as a secret agent for the British during World War I. He wrote many novels, including the classicsOf Human Bondage,The Razor’s Edge,Cakes and Ale,Christmas Holiday,The Moon and Sixpence,Theatre, andUp at the Villa. I waited, but didn't quite get that, though. Turns out, surprise-surprise, the film adaptation is much more "Hollywood" than Maugham's book. Which isn't a bad thing for the film, actually, especially if you happen to have a crush on Edward Norton, as I do. The Painted Veil is a 1925 novel by British author W. Somerset Maugham. The title is a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1824 sonnet, which begins "Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life".

Mrs. Garstin is dismayed to realize that her only hope of achieving success is through her husband, and she pushes him relentlessly to success. She also strives to make advantageous connections by inviting important people to their home for dinner, but her tendency to cut corners in the effort to save the most money possible proves at odds with her political ambitions. Her husband never advances very far in his career. The two Garstin daughters have little affection for their father, seeing him primarily as a source of income. I think by tomorrow I will have forgotten most of the plot of The Painted Veil. Not that it was extremely boring (though it kinda was), I just didn't see what was so astonishing or different about a couple who never loved each other until the last ten minutes of the movie. Edward Norton and Naomi Watts were very convincing, but I didn't find their characters very compelling. "Oh, she's cheating on the husband that she so obviously has no feelings for... meh." In fact the word "meh" can describe most of this movie, namely the scenes involving the love story and cholera epidemic (oh wait, that's the whole movie). The story should be a banality, really. Woman marries unsuited man to appease an unreasonably ambitiousand cold mother, then falls head over heals in love with the first good-for-nothing she comes across. The marriage is brutally broken and the story ends on vaguely defiant note. You can appreciate the movie better once you read the book and get to know the characters as they were originally intended. The movie does a good job of interpreting those characters honestly and uses dialogue verbatim from the book. But, in the movie, Walter and Kitty are much more likeable -- probably because they find (SPOILER ALERT)redemption in their love for one another, and Kitty is able to resist Charlie's later advances. Il secondo adattamento cinematografico è del 1957 e ha il titolo di “Il settimo peccato”. Walter è interpretato da Bill Travers e l’azione è spostata al secondo dopoguerra.

Wonderful writing and a good read from Maugham. I had not read him lately so I forgot how good a writer he is.Steady on, old girl," Charlie said. "A chap says a lot of things he doesn't mean with his trousers down. You go off with Walter; cholera isn't so bad as long as you don't get it. Must bolt!" Three Reasons you would like The Painted Veil. 1 –The characters are flawed:Kitty is the first character that comes to mind when I think of flaws, but if I scratch the surface a bit more, Walter does not lag far behind. While Kitty obviously crossed the line on occasions more than one, with infidelity and blatant disregard to Walter’s love for her, Walter upon discovering Kitty’s infidelity turns as un-Walter-esque as possible and he exacts a strange and terrible vengeance. Kitty Fane moved to Hong Kong with her husband, Walter. An incredibly intelligent man, Walter is also socially awkward. He loves Kitty, but is rather unapproachable and aloof. Eventually, Walter grew on me, but he isn't the type of "warm-fuzzy" character that you bond with immediately. From the start, it is made very clear that he is head-over-heels in love with his wife. Writing was Maugham’s true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays. His innate empathy and ability to get strangers to reveal intimate stories suggest that he had many qualities that would have made him a first class general practitioner or psychiatrist. As it was his training was not wasted as there are medical themes running through many of his stories. The Painted Veilis a fine example.

In the novel, THE PAINTED VEIL serves as a grim metaphor for life. More specifically, the speaker equates the veil with what people like to call life. In this sense, the speaker asserts that what we believe to be pure reality is actually nothing more than a covering that masks what really lies beneath. The veil represents the set of beliefs that people live by. It’s a comforting illusion that impacts the way we see and perceive others. But when others behave in a way that is not consistent with what we perceive of them, our belief is shattered and the veil is torn apart. Maugham’s portrayal of Kitty and her anguishing journey towards self-realization and atonement is hypnotic. We follow her from self-absorbed young girl, to selfish and delusional adulteress, to guilt ridden and forgiveness seeking wife. Never one for the overly simplistic, Maugham mixes in complications and complexities to Kitty’s emotional state to make this more realistic. In Townsend, Maugham has created a truly despicable villain, but also very believable.

So, it was no big surprise that Kitty spent her days in the arms of the charming, and also married, Charles Townsend, while Walter was busy at work. No doubt, the dumb twit was just the most recent in what was bound to be a long line of extramarital conquests for Charles. Stupid Kitty believed that he was as in love with her as she was with him. Poor fool. I won't tell you any more. Somerset Maugham was one of my absolute favourite authors growing up. I've read just about everything he's written. You have to read this book. Talk about suspense! Walter's dying words are "It was the dog that died." This is a reference to the poem "An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" by Oliver Goldsmith. There are various interpretations to be had of the significance of this. The poem tells of a man who is bitten by a mad dog. Yet it is not the man who dies but the dog. In the novel, I believe that Walter sees himself as the mad dog who had dragged Kitty into a life-threatening situation, (foreshadowed by Maugham's prologue) biting her in a way, expecting that it would be a death sentence for her. Instead it was Walter who would pass, thus the irony. (Here is a link to the poem) Kitty, a woman used to being at the height of society, was frustrated to realize that she had little social importance as the wife of the government bacteriologist. Her husband Walter is indifferent to his social position, but recalls a time when he awkwardly tried to reassure his wife when he saw how irritated she was about this.