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The Painted Veil (Paperback)

by W. Somerset Maugham (Author)

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

List Price:	CDN$ 18.95
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Product Details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Vintage (Nov 14 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307277771
ISBN-13: 978-0307277770
Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.4 x 1.3 cm
Shipping Weight: 182 g

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #26,560 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Library Journal

Shallow, poorly educated Kitty marries the passionate and intellectual Walter Fane and has an affair with a career politician, Charles Townsend, assistant colonial secretary of Hong Kong. When Walter discovers the relationship, he compels Kitty to accompany him to a cholera-infested region of mainland China, where she finds limited happiness working with children at a convent. But when Walter dies, she is forced to leave China and return to England. Generally abandoned, she grasps desperately for the affection of her one remaining relative, her long-ignored father. In the end, in sharp, unexamined contrast to her own behavior patterns, she asserts that her unborn daughter will grow up to be an independent woman. The Painted Veil was first published in 1925 and is usually described as a strong story about a woman's spiritual journey. To more pragmatic, modern eyes, Kitty's emotional growth appears minimal. Still, if not a major feminist work, the book has literary interest. Sophie Ward's uninflected reading is competent if not compelling. Recommended only for large literature collections. I. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From AudioFile

With the author's characteristic detachment, this novel tells of a shallow, young adulterous whose bacteriologist husband takes her to a remote area of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic, where their propinquity and peril in battling the health crisis leads to her spiritual awakening. Sophie Ward reads primly and accurately, with little investment or enthusiasm. Y.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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	57% buy the item featured on this page: The Painted Veil 4.9 out of 5 stars (7) CDN$ 13.83
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

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4 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great Lost Hong Kong Novel!, Nov 13 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: 20th Century Painted Veil (Paperback)

I agree with the many reviewers here who enjoy this as a gripping literary read. But it is also the first of three fine novels about Hong Kong - along with Timothy Mo's The Monkey King and Paul Theroux's Kowloon Tong, this book for me contained insights into certain Hong Kong personalities I encountered during my residence there in the 90's. In the case of the Painted Veil, a novel from the 1920's (!), certain actions and attitudes of western expatriates were still visible in my day (before and after the end of British rule). A little bit of playing at being "gentlemen" by people who could not afford the pose back home. This book, like Mo's and Theroux's, caused no end of upset in certain quarters of Hong Kong when released. Though it was not banned in China, like Kowloon Tong, in Hong Kong "writs were served!" (Parts of Hong Kong can react a little bit like a small town when its described by someone who's left it for better things - the other parts read these books with pleasure.) The detached reader need not worry about any of this - it's a great read. Enjoy.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Of marriage and freedom, Jul 30 2001

By	Boris Bangemann "boyse" (Singapore) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: 20th Century Painted Veil (Paperback)

The kernel of this novel dates back to 1895 when Maugham was twenty years old and stayed in Florence to learn Italian. He came across a story in which a "husband suspecting his wife of adultery and afraid on account of her family to put her to death, took her down to his castle in the Maremma the noxious vapours of which he was confident would do the trick; but she took so long to die that he grew impatient and had her thrown out of the window." It is around this core (which is not exactly the plot line of the novel, don't worry) that Maugham developed the story of Kitty Fane, a woman who is vain, superficial and in need of appreciation. It is a story that plays in Hong Kong and China in the 1920s. Maugham knew both places from his extensive travels in the South East but, characteristically for him, he does not spill much ink on descriptions of the landscape or the natives, which is a pity. He is much more interested in his fictitious characters.

As always, Maugham is a master of drawing characters who possess all the self-importance, weakness, and suffering that underlie human existence. His characterizations are so sardonically true that he was sued two times over the book by people in Hong Kong, and had to change the name of Hong Kong into Tching-Yen, and the name of one of the characters from Lane (innocent enough, one would think) to Fane.

I was wondering why this rather obscure novel by Maugham has received nothing but glowing five-star reviews by almost exclusively female readers. The reason is that this novel is about marriage and the restraints that marriage imposes upon passion. Also, it is a classic story of a woman's spiritual awakening. Two themes that appeal to female readers to such an extent that they tolerate Maugham's biting sarcasm and his rather unromantic view of life (he is quoted as saying that "habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous"). If there is an author who is not touchy-feely, it is W. Somerset Maugham. Marriage, he soberly concludes, is a matter of convenience. Passion, on the other hand, is a matter of inconvenience: it lurks untamed behind "the painted veil which those who live call life". What is left? Faith? Maybe, I think Maugham would say, but most people are not humble enough to be truly religious ("no egoism is so insufferable as that of the Christian with regard to his soul" is another quote by the master).

"The Painted Veil" is well worth reading. However, it suffers a bit from Maugham's self-assured way of portraying people and constructing a plot. It is a well-told story, but it is not a first rate novel. I think the problem is that Maugham's characters in this book are too one-dimensional which works well in a comedy of manners, but not in a book that wants to discuss matters like love, passion, marriage, life and spiritual growth in a serious way.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Mystique Of Maugham, Jan 13 2001

By	"colette21c" (Dallas, Tx. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 20th Century Painted Veil (Paperback)

An unusual read, I was engrossed after the first page! And as avid readers, we know what a delight it is to find a book that can enchant us in the first chapter and hold our interest until the end, and even beyond. The story follows a married British couple,Walter and Kitty Fane. Walter Fane is a bacteriologist that is working for the British government while stationed in Hong Kong. Kitty, a young and bored wife, soon succumbs to her passions with another man. Charles, another British government official. This affair comes to an end when they suspect Walter has found out about their liaisons. This is where the real excitement begins, and maybe the first form of "biological punishment" witnessed in a classic novel. What does this mean? Buy the book, and I promise that you will not be disappointed!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING!
Maugham is one of my favourite authors, and The Painted Veil is one of his best books. I ended up so involoved with all the characters' lives that I couldn't put it down. Read more

Published on Jul 5 2000 by A zealous gun girl

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Maugham's excellent work on human conditions
Maugham's keen perception of human frailty and complex courage had always been his trade mark. This book is no exception. Read more

Published on April 8 2000 by Ajspinach

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping immediacy of the characters

The Painted Veil is a delight to read, a sometimes cruel but more often sympathetic description of the weakness of the human condition. Read more

Published on April 10 1998 by Cara O'Driscoll (donald.smith@...

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Good Read
Maugham is a master of the easy read. His novels flow so easily but have an emotional bite. Once again he writes of the frail human condition but the protaganist tries to... Read more