The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Painted Veil
Book Review: The Painted Veil
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm not sure what to think of this book. It's definitely a masterful telling of growth and sorrow, but despite that I didn't feel connected with the novel. The characters are hard to like even though they are only doing what is in their nature.
Kitty is a silly foolish girl interested only in frivolity and parties. She is not all to blame, her mother has made her this way in hoping that she'd make a good match for marriage. However, time flies by and soon Kitty finds herself a spinster at twenty-five, not having made a suitable match. The same is not said for her younger sister who, although not as pretty, is getting ready to marry a very notable man. Desperate not to be left behind, Kitty agrees to marry Walter, a doctor who is returning to China where his work as a bacteriologist is.
After two years with him though, Kitty has discovered that they have nothing in common and does not love him at all or could even begin to. During her time she has found a lover, whom she has fantasies that she can run off and be with him forever. Her hopes are dashed though when they are finally caught by Walter and he gives her two choices. Come with him to a cholera infected area of China, or convince her lover to marry her and divorce his wife. She asks her lover and receives an unexpected answer that forces her to go with Walter in the face of certain death by cholera. It is here however, that she begins to learn and change and try to make herself a better person. The only thing holding her back is the lack of Walter's forgiveness.
Kitty is definitely not a like-able character. I don't care that she does work towards becoming a better character as she cannot be consistent with it. I realize it is human nature to do the best for yourself and take the easy route, but she does it quite a bit and I find it hard to sympathize with her. I also don't feel any pity for Walter, her husband. He wasn't a very strong person and in addition to that he just has very strange mannerisms that seem unlikely in a doctor. He would have had trouble going through medical school with some of his social issues.
The writing was ok. There was some description but it wasn't written very interestingly. It was in the 3rd person and mainly followed Kitty and all her day to day proceedings. Maugham does great dialogue, but he didn't do as well with making a connection to his characters in my opinion. At times I found myself skimming through some boring parts of the book hoping something would happen.
This could probably be considered a classic. But that to me doesn't automatically make a book excellent. I thought this one was average, not fantastic but not poor either.
The Painted Veil
Copyright 1925
246 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2010
Book Review: The Painted Veil
Summary: 5 Stars
The Painted Veil is a moving book, offering details that the movie, as is usual, does not. However, I think this is one of the few times that seeing the movie actually complements Somerset Maugham's book. There are a few differences. For instance, in the book the Fane's begin their married life in Hong Kong; in the movie it is Shanghai. Overall, the movie brings warmth and color to the story.Book Review: Touching Tale
Summary: 5 Stars
A touching tale of love (or false love) and betrayal (adultery). The principal character, Kitty is flawed but grows in the story. We experience her revelations and development, and that is main-spring of this tale set in Hong Kong and China. It is all very credible. Maugham is simple and persuasive with his characters and narrative. There are no tricks or unnecessary meanderings.
Maugham is the consummate story-teller. Story-telling, I feel has become a forgotten art and is becoming under-rated. Somerset Maugham has survived. Other authors peaked during his lifetime, but are becoming forgotten (like James Joyce or William Faulkner); except by esoteric college professors. Maugham has out-lasted many of his contemporaries.
Book Review: UNVEILING OF LOVE AND INFIDELITY
Summary: 5 Stars
Kitty, a superficial socialite groomed by her ambitious mother to marry someone of political, social, and economic stature. After years of many social functions and rejecting numerous suitors Kitty is now put under pressure as her younger, unattractive sister is engaged. Kitty senses her marital clock is ticking, hurriedly marries a profoundly serious, shy, medical researcher by the name of Walter Fane. He is just about to leave to go to Hong Kong for work. She goes with her husband, he adores her but she finds it too much all this adoration. Kitty also finds that there is something missing in her relationship with him. She becomes lonely and vulnerable.
Kitty then has an affair with a married man with three children, Colonial Secretary Charlie Townsend and they begin a torrid affair. Walter eventually discovers his wife's adultery. In an act of revenge he threatens to divorce her and make public the scandal that would ruin Carlie Townsends career if she does not accompany him to Cholera plauged Mei-tan-fu in China. Kitty is torn in two emotionally.
I highly recommend this book. I'd even consider giving it a 5.5 if I could.
Book Review: Unique Loveless Story
Summary: 3 Stars
For a book whose narrative focuses entirely on the romantic trials of a young woman, love is an almost insignificant character in Maughm's The Painted Veil; it is a luxury that barely surfaces in Kitty Fane's family, and Kitty's own (unfortunate) experiences with it are inconclusive and unreliable. In fact, the book is about how Kitty's character develops as she laggingly acknowledges and understands her failures with men. Largely, her faults exist not because of her lack of emotional mechanics, but as a result of her inability to accept a woman's (secondary) position in her society. By the end of the book, Kitty, having learned from her 'enlightening episodes', resolves to start a new life.