The Painted Veil

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Oh, no, she knows they don't go very far. She says she'd like to be able to make friends of the poor little things who fall to Charlie; but they're always so common. She says it's really not very flattering to her that the women who fall in love with her husband are so uncommonly second-rate." William Somerset Maugham, famous as novelist, playwright and short-story writer, was born in 1874, and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with a view to practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. His position as a successful playwright was being consolidated at the same time. His first play, A Man of Honour, was followed by a series of successes just before and after World War I, and his career in the theatre did not end until 1933 with Sheppey. The denouement is not what you think. This is a lovestory and not a lovestory. It's about love and all its definitions. And for me, it was a tribute to the role of different kind of men playing a role in a woman's life. I can't say that there is one "moral of the story" that really stands out to me with the book. There were many. This book was a beautiful, albeit heartbreaking, account of the human experience.

Ersilia mi disse che Pia era una gentildonna senese; il marito, sospettandola di adulterio e non osando metterla a morte per timore dei familiari, la portò in un suo castello in Maremma nella speranza che i mefitici vapori del luogo provvedessero alla bisogna; ma poiché ella tardava a morire si spazientì e la fece gettare dalla finestra. Walter's dying words are "It was the dog that died." This is a reference to the poem "An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" by Oliver Goldsmith. There are various interpretations to be had of the significance of this. The poem tells of a man who is bitten by a mad dog. Yet it is not the man who dies but the dog. In the novel, I believe that Walter sees himself as the mad dog who had dragged Kitty into a life-threatening situation, (foreshadowed by Maugham's prologue) biting her in a way, expecting that it would be a death sentence for her. Instead it was Walter who would pass, thus the irony. (Here is a link to the poem)

FROM THE BLURB: Less known than his masterpiece Of Human Bondage, this 1925 Somerset Maugham novel rips at your emotions with its portrayal of an adulterous wife. When the bacteriologist husband of Kitty Fane learns of her infidelity, he forces her to accompany him into the festering center of a Chinese cholera epidemic.The author explained in the foreword that the book was based on a story, rather than characters. While living in Italy and receiving Italian lessons, his tutor, Ersilia, introduced him to the fifth canto of the inferno. La Pia: Ante-Purgatory, Purgatorio 5 Il secondo adattamento cinematografico è del 1957 e ha il titolo di “Il settimo peccato”. Walter è interpretato da Bill Travers e l’azione è spostata al secondo dopoguerra. Maugham couldn't have found a more perfect setting for exploring the most disastrous of tragedies to a living marriage. Maugham sets up a plethora of symbols on the after-effects of infidelity to contrast with society's notions of a husband and wife.

The title is a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley 's 1824 sonnet , which begins "Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life". In his sonnet “Lift Not the Painted Veil…”, Percy Bysshe Shelley examines life as no more than an illusion. He believes most people are content living behind the opaque curtain provided for them, even though it creates a distorted view of life. Fear and hope are ever present, and truth seems disappointingly absent. For a medical readership, the story really takes off once the couple have relocated to a small Chinese community. The story is recounted through Kitty's eyes, who has little interest or understanding in her husband's role, which makes the restricted insights all the more tantalising. We get to feel what it is like to be married to a devoted doctor and scientist. Per favore vattene - singhiozzò - Questa è l'unica cosa che puoi fare per me adesso. Ti odio e ti disprezzo. Walter valeva dieci volte più di te e io ero troppo stupida per accorgermene. Va' via. Va' via. She worries that her husband may have discovered her affair, but then she recalls their loveless match. She married Walter after several years of unsuccessfully seeking a match who would win her mother's approval; eventually, her homely younger sister Doris was about to be married, and Kitty hastily accepted Walter's proposal of marriage so that she would not be single at her little sister's wedding. The outgoing Kitty and the reserved Walter make a horrible match. Three Reasons you would like The Painted Veil. 1 –The characters are flawed:Kitty is the first character that comes to mind when I think of flaws, but if I scratch the surface a bit more, Walter does not lag far behind. While Kitty obviously crossed the line on occasions more than one, with infidelity and blatant disregard to Walter’s love for her, Walter upon discovering Kitty’s infidelity turns as un-Walter-esque as possible and he exacts a strange and terrible vengeance.I waited, but didn't quite get that, though. Turns out, surprise-surprise, the film adaptation is much more "Hollywood" than Maugham's book. Which isn't a bad thing for the film, actually, especially if you happen to have a crush on Edward Norton, as I do. Some people find this book a huge disappointment. Others like it very much. So how do you go about deciding whether to read it or not? For me the answer is simple. If you need to like the characters in a book, then I doubt this book will suit you. If you need characters to grow wiser, mature and improve themselves then your opinion will be up for grabs. If you want a book that draws realistic characters that do what a person with that personality would do, then yeah, I think you’ll like this. This is why I liked it. This is my favorite by W. Somerset Maugham. Kitty's condescending thoughts toward her lover's wife, Dorothy Townsend, also highlight her shallowness. She considers Dorothy to be old, a poor dresser, dull, and socially insignificant to boot. Kitty notes that Dorothy Townsend's father lives in a small house at Earl's Court, whereas Kitty's family lives in South Kensington. Though the modern reader is unlikely to know the significance of these particular locales, context clues suggest that South Kensington is the more fashionable place to live. What is remarkable about this tale—both the book and the film—is that you come away uplifted in both instances. The film makers have changed the ending, perhaps realising that modern cinema audiences haven't the stomach of Maugham's readers 80 years ago. L’intera trama prende spunto da un altro celebre riferimento letterario: da quella Pia de’ Tolomei che Dante incontra nel Purgatorio. Questi i versi del poeta fiorentino: