The Painted Veil

Name: The Painted Veil
ISBN: 9787229050238

W. Somerset Maugham / 阮景林Chongqing Publishing House · ChinaMar 2016

4.5

Word count: 128K words
ISBN: 9787229050238

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Summary

Kitty, a beautiful yet vain young Englishwoman, accepts the proposal of the reserved physician Walter Fane to avoid becoming an old maid. She leaves the glamorous but empty social circles of 1920s London to follow him to the exotic colony of Hong Kong. Dissatisfied and bored with her marriage, Kitty begins a secret affair with Charles Townsend, the charming assistant colonial secretary of Hong Kong. When Walter discovers her infidelity, he makes a desperate move and begins his strange and terrible revenge: Kitty must accompany him to remote mainland China to quell a raging cholera epidemic. In this beautiful but dangerous foreign land, they experience emotional turmoil unimaginable in their comfortable English home. Through love, betrayal, and death, Kitty's fantasies are shattered after she has witnessed disillusionment and parting in life and death; the veil is gradually lifted from before her eyes, and she sets out on a path of spiritual growth without regret.

Editor's review

Maugham's The Painted Veil is far more than a story of marriage and betrayal. With a cool, clinical eye, the novel dissects the complexity and hypocrisy of human nature, exploring the timeless themes of love, duty, awakening, and redemption. The protagonist Kitty's trajectory—from vanity and shallowness to facing a bleak reality and seeking spiritual independence—is portrayed with remarkable conviction and emotional power. Maugham offers no simple moral verdict; instead, he places his characters in an extreme situation (Mei-tan-fu, ravaged by cholera), forcing them to strip away the "veil" imposed by society and confront the truth of their souls. The depiction of the East (China) bears the limitations and exotic imaginings of its era, yet its role as both setting and catalyst for the protagonist's spiritual transformation cannot be overlooked. Walter's dying words, "the dog it was that died," have become one of literature's most memorable enigmas, capturing with precision resentment, disillusionment, and a certain twisted sense of victory. Reading The Painted Veil is not merely to witness a tragedy but to follow Maugham on an exploration into the dark recesses of human nature; it compels readers to ask: when every disguise is stripped away, who are we really? And for what can we truly be held responsible? The work's enduring value lies in its timeless insight into human nature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with a deep interest in the complexity of human nature and emotional entanglement
Readers seeking themes of women's spiritual growth and self-awakening
Literature lovers who appreciate Maugham's incisive style and profound psychological portraiture
Readers drawn to philosophical reflection on love, marriage, and moral dilemmas

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a light romantic love story or a happy ending
Readers uncomfortable with early twentieth-century Western perspectives on the East

Reading tips

Read alongside Maugham's life and other works (such as The Moon and Sixpence) to understand his recurring themes and worldview.
Pay attention to the details of Kitty's psychological shifts in Mei-tan-fu—they are key to understanding her awakening.
Consider the multiple symbolic meanings of the title "veil": it is not only an interpersonal disguise but also a barrier to self-knowledge.

About the publisher

Chongqing Publishing House China · Founded in 1950

Chongqing Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher known for its titles in the humanities, social sciences, literature and arts, with about 940 books in its catalogue. Its publishing areas cover world history, science fiction, foreign literature, architecture and philosophy. Representative titles include Xiang Da's A History of Communications Between China and the West, Liang Sicheng's Rules of Qing-Style Construction, Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem II: The Dark Forest and III: Death's End, Ann Rand's The Fountainhead (25th Anniversary Edition), and Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series. Its authors include Xiang Da, Liu Cixin, Liang Sicheng and Ann Rand. The press has developed distinctive strengths in historical source editing, the introduction and creation of science fiction, the translation of foreign literature, and architecture and philosophy titles, balancing scholarly value with general readership. As public information is limited, this profile outlines its publishing directions based only on the books in the catalogue.

FAQ

Where is The Painted Veil set?

The story takes place mainly in 1920s colonial Hong Kong and in Mei-tan-fu, a fictional cholera-stricken region in inland China.

How should we understand Walter's dying words, "the dog it was that died"?

The line comes from Goldsmith's poem "An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog," in which a good man saves a dog, the dog bites him, and the dog dies. Walter casts himself as the dog: he meant to take revenge on his wife (the good man), yet in the end he himself dies of cholera. The line is steeped in irony, resentment, and disillusionment, and it is key to understanding his character and the tragedy.

How does this novel compare with Maugham's other works?

The Painted Veil focuses more intently on marital crisis, female awakening, and spiritual redemption. The plot is tight, the dramatic conflict intense, and the psychological analysis especially penetrating—a perfect fusion of his gift as a storyteller and his role as an observer of human nature—while the Eastern setting gives it a distinctive exotic atmosphere and sense of cultural collision.

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About the author

W. Somerset Maugham Author · British · 1874–1965

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) was a British novelist, playwright and short-story writer, born in Paris. He trained in medicine and turned to writing after publishing his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, in 1897. His representative works include Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale and The Razor's Edge, as well as a substantial body of short stories. His plain, direct style and his insight into human nature and society place his works among foreign literature and classics. Maugham excelled in both the novel and the short story; his restrained narration and penetrating observation have earned him a wide readership in Chinese, and this site holds 176 of his works.

阮景林 Author

Ruan Jinglin is a literary translator whose publicly available information remains limited; his work centers on translating foreign literature into Chinese. Two of his translations are included in the database, both related to The Painted Veil, a novel by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham: The Painted Veil and The Painted Veil (New Edition). The former was published by Chongqing Publishing House, with a first edition in 2006 and subsequent reprints in 2012 and 2020, suggesting that his version has retained a certain readership over the years. His choice of material leans toward foreign literary classics, with an emphasis on presenting narrative works in full; his translations aim to be fluent, natural, and faithful to the original, serving Chinese readers of Maugham. Beyond these translations, no clear record of his biography, education, or affiliations is available, and no speculation is offered here.