The Painted Veil
by W. Somerset Maugham
List Price:
Our Price: $3.69
You Save: $11.26 (75%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
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: "As If a Woman Ever Loved a Man for his Virtue..."
Summary: 4 Stars
I discovered W. Somerset Maugham's novel after the release of the adaptation starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. Though it is a beautifully performed and filmed movie, I found that it was quite different in essentials from the book. Whilst the film heightens the love story between an estranged husband and wife, the book is much more interested in the spiritual awakening of Kitty and her relationship with the world.
Kitty Garstin is a beautiful but shallow woman, who marries bacteriologist Walter Fane in order to escape spinsterhood and her controlling mother. She travels with him to Hong Kong, only to find that she's bored and unsatisfied with the marriage despite her husband's adoration for her, and soon enough she's fallen into an affair with the charismatic and exciting Charles Townsend. But when Walter finds out, Kitty discovers that he has more pride than she gave him credit for. He delivers an ultimatum: if she cannot get Charles to divorce his wife, then Kitty has to accompany him to a new posting in the midst of a cholera epidemic.
Sure enough, Charles is proven to be something of a cad, and a rather shell-shocked Kitty finds herself shipped into midland China. Yet it is there that she begins to discover that there's more to life than her cosseted and luxurious lifestyle. In the midst of death and disease, Kitty gradually learns more about herself and her place in the world, the people who surround her and the way in which she affects them.
Unlike the film, the book is told entirely from Kitty's point of view and remains a character-study of a young woman's emotional growth throughout. Walter remains a distant figure who exists only in relation to Kitty, and the historical context of China remains unexplored. Unlike the film, Kitty never comes to love Walter, and there's no insight on Chinese culture whatsoever, only that Kitty doesn't understand it and is interested in it insofar that it is alien to her, opening up the possibility that she's incomplete.
The title is taken from a Percy Shelley's sonnet, which begins with "lift not the painted veil which those who live call Life," a quote that is open to wide interpretation as to how it relates to the text. Kitty herself remains close to both life and death throughout the story, both by living in the midst of an epidemic and her later pregnancy, and there always seems to be a "veil" between herself and the things that she desires. It's clear that she's searching for something, though not even she knows what it is, and the book doesn't necessarily end on a clear and decisive note. She's not the same woman she was at the beginning of the book, but it's clear that she's still young, and still has much growing to do.
Maugham writes in delicate prose and though he doesn't offer much description in the way of the setting or time period, his portrayal of Kitty's though-process manages to be realistic and sympathetic even as she's being utterly selfish. Anyone looking for a historical novel or a romance will be disappointed, for "The Painted Veil" is a character study first and foremost. Though it is not the best of its genre, it is still a memorable and beautifully written novel.
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.17
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.14
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Moon and Sixpenceby Somerset Maugham
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-07-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.06
Price in other shops:
Round the Red Lamp and Other Medical Writingsby Arthur Conan Doyle
Valancourt Books; Valancourt Books; Published: 2007-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.94
Price in other shops:
UP at the Villaby W. Somerset Maugham, Somerset Maugham
Vintage; Published: 2000-04-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)by George Eliot
Penguin Group USA; Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops:
Rain and Other South Sea Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)by W. Somerset Maugham
Dover Publications; Published: 2005-09-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.58
Price in other shops:
Cakes and Aleby W. Somerset Maugham
Vintage; Published: 2000-12-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.21
Price in other shops:
The Citadelby A.J. Cronin
Back Bay Books; Published: 1983-11-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Of Human Bondage (Signet Classics)by W. Somerset Maugham
Signet Classics; Published: 2007-01-02; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.90
Price in other shops:
The Painted VeilWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-05-08; Published: 2007-05-01; DVD
Best price: $6.97
Price in other shops:
The Razor's Edgeby W. Somerset Maugham
Vintage; Published: 2003-09-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.23
Price in other shops: