While a rather depressing read, The Painted Veil has all of the masterful components of a Maugham novel: an engaging plot, nuanced and morally ambiguous characters, poetic descriptions, and philosophical musings.
Kitty Garstin, the novel's heroine, is unlucky and quite alone. When we're first introduced to her, we get the impression that her family isn't exactly the loving sort. Her conniving mother seems to admire her, but only for her beauty and potential to raise the family's status through a "brilliant match" in marriage.
Pressured to beat her younger sister to the wedding aisle, Kitty hastily marries the shy and bookish Walter Fane, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. She soon finds herself isolated in the Far East and deeply bored in her incompatible marriage. When she meets Charlie Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary, at a party, it's love at first sight—at least for Kitty. The two begin an affair, however Walter soon discovers Kitty's infidelity and pressures her to accompany him to a cholera-infested village to avoid a scandal. Against a backdrop of plague and death, Kitty crosses paths with Waddington, a Taoist deputy commissioner, and a convent of nuns as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
The title of the novel comes from a sonnet by Shelley that perfectly encapsulates Maugham's philosophy: "Lift not the painted veil which those who live all life." When we attempt to seek out life's meaning, or look beyond the "veil" of man-made illusions that make up our reality, we're bound to discover a dreary truth: there is nothing there—it's a fruitless quest. This theme is explored when Kitty converses with Waddington and reflects on the self-sacrificing lives of the nuns at the convent. "Suppose there is no life everlasting?" she says. "They've given up all for nothing. They've been cheated. They're dupes." In response, Waddington says: "I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they've aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art."
While a rather depressing read, The Painted Veil has all of the masterful components of a Maugham novel: an engaging plot, nuanced and morally ambiguous characters, poetic descriptions, and philosophical musings.
Kitty Garstin, the novel's heroine, is unlucky and quite alone. When we're first introduced to her, we get the impression that her family isn't exactly the loving sort. Her conniving mother seems to admire her, but only for her beauty and potential to raise the family's status through a "brilliant match" in marriage.
Pressured to beat her younger sister to the wedding aisle, Kitty hastily marries the shy and bookish Walter Fane, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. She soon finds herself isolated in the Far East and deeply bored in her incompatible marriage. When she meets Charlie Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary, at a party, it's love at first sight—at least for Kitty. The two begin an affair, however Walter soon discovers Kitty's infidelity and pressures her to accompany him to a cholera-infested village to avoid a scandal. Against a backdrop of plague and death, Kitty crosses paths with Waddington, a Taoist deputy commissioner, and a convent of nuns as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
The title of the novel comes from a sonnet by Shelley that perfectly encapsulates Maugham's philosophy: "Lift not the painted veil which those who live all life." When we attempt to seek out life's meaning, or look beyond the "veil" of man-made illusions that make up our reality, we're bound to discover a dreary truth: there is nothing there—it's a fruitless quest. This theme is explored when Kitty converses with Waddington and reflects on the self-sacrificing lives of the nuns at the convent. "Suppose there is no life everlasting?" she says. "They've given up all for nothing. They've been cheated. They're dupes." In response, Waddington says: "I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they've aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art."
While a rather depressing read, The Painted Veil has all of the masterful components of a Maugham novel: an engaging plot, nuanced and morally ambiguous characters, poetic descriptions, and philosophical musings.
Kitty Garstin, the novel's heroine, is unlucky and quite alone. When we're first introduced to her, we get the impression that her family isn't exactly the loving sort. Her conniving mother seems to admire her, but only for her beauty and potential to raise the family's status through a "brilliant match" in marriage.
Pressured to beat her younger sister to the wedding aisle, Kitty hastily marries the shy and bookish Walter Fane, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. She soon finds herself isolated in the Far East and deeply bored in her incompatible marriage. When she meets Charlie Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary, at a party, it's love at first sight—at least for Kitty. The two begin an affair, however Walter soon discovers Kitty's infidelity and pressures her to accompany him to a cholera-infested village to avoid a scandal. Against a backdrop of plague and death, Kitty crosses paths with Waddington, a Taoist deputy commissioner, and a convent of nuns as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
The title of the novel comes from a sonnet by Shelley that perfectly encapsulates Maugham's philosophy: "Lift not the painted veil which those who live all life." When we attempt to seek out life's meaning, or look beyond the "veil" of man-made illusions that make up our reality, we're bound to discover a dreary truth: there is nothing there—it's a fruitless quest. This theme is explored when Kitty converses with Waddington and reflects on the self-sacrificing lives of the nuns at the convent. "Suppose there is no life everlasting?" she says. "They've given up all for nothing. They've been cheated. They're dupes." In response, Waddington says: "I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they've aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art."
While a rather depressing read, The Painted Veil has all of the masterful components of a Maugham novel: an engaging plot, nuanced and morally ambiguous characters, poetic descriptions, and philosophical musings.
Kitty Garstin, the novel's heroine, is unlucky and quite alone. When we're first introduced to her, we get the impression that her family isn't exactly the loving sort. Her conniving mother seems to admire her, but only for her beauty and potential to raise the family's status through a "brilliant match" in marriage.
Pressured to beat her younger sister to the wedding aisle, Kitty hastily marries the shy and bookish Walter Fane, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. She soon finds herself isolated in the Far East and deeply bored in her incompatible marriage. When she meets Charlie Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary, at a party, it's love at first sight—at least for Kitty. The two begin an affair, however Walter soon discovers Kitty's infidelity and pressures her to accompany him to a cholera-infested village to avoid a scandal. Against a backdrop of plague and death, Kitty crosses paths with Waddington, a Taoist deputy commissioner, and a convent of nuns as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
The title of the novel comes from a sonnet by Shelley that perfectly encapsulates Maugham's philosophy: "Lift not the painted veil which those who live all life." When we attempt to seek out life's meaning, or look beyond the "veil" of man-made illusions that make up our reality, we're bound to discover a dreary truth: there is nothing there—it's a fruitless quest. This theme is explored when Kitty converses with Waddington and reflects on the self-sacrificing lives of the nuns at the convent. "Suppose there is no life everlasting?" she says. "They've given up all for nothing. They've been cheated. They're dupes." In response, Waddington says: "I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they've aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art."
While a rather depressing read, The Painted Veil has all of the masterful components of a Maugham novel: an engaging plot, nuanced and morally ambiguous characters, poetic descriptions, and philosophical musings.
Kitty Garstin, the novel's heroine, is unlucky and quite alone. When we're first introduced to her, we get the impression that her family isn't exactly the loving sort. Her conniving mother seems to admire her, but only for her beauty and potential to raise the family's status through a "brilliant match" in marriage.
Pressured to beat her younger sister to the wedding aisle, Kitty hastily marries the shy and bookish Walter Fane, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. She soon finds herself isolated in the Far East and deeply bored in her incompatible marriage. When she meets Charlie Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary, at a party, it's love at first sight—at least for Kitty. The two begin an affair, however Walter soon discovers Kitty's infidelity and pressures her to accompany him to a cholera-infested village to avoid a scandal. Against a backdrop of plague and death, Kitty crosses paths with Waddington, a Taoist deputy commissioner, and a convent of nuns as she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
The title of the novel comes from a sonnet by Shelley that perfectly encapsulates Maugham's philosophy: "Lift not the painted veil which those who live all life." When we attempt to seek out life's meaning, or look beyond the "veil" of man-made illusions that make up our reality, we're bound to discover a dreary truth: there is nothing there—it's a fruitless quest. This theme is explored when Kitty converses with Waddington and reflects on the self-sacrificing lives of the nuns at the convent. "Suppose there is no life everlasting?" she says. "They've given up all for nothing. They've been cheated. They're dupes." In response, Waddington says: "I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they've aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art."
