The Painted Veil (novel)

First U.S. edition
(George H. Doran Company)

The Painted Veil is a 1925 novel by British author W. Somerset Maugham. The title is taken from Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet which begins "Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life".

Biographer Richard Cordell notes that the book was influenced by Maugham's study of science and his work as a houseman at St Thomas' Hospital. In the Preface to his book, Maugham tells how originally the main characters were called Lane not Fane but a couple of that name in Hong Kong successfully sued the magazine publishers of the initial serialised version for libel and won £250. To avoid similar problems after A. G. M. Fletcher, the then Assistant Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong, also threatened legal action, the name of the colony was changed to Tching-Yen. Later editions reverted to Hong Kong but the name Fane was kept for all editions.

The novel was first published in serialised form in five issues of Cosmopolitan (November 1924 – March 1925). Beginning in May 1925, it was serialised in the United Kingdom in eight parts in Nash's Magazine.

Plot summary

Shallow and lost, Kitty marries the intellectual and passionate Walter Fane, a bacteriologist on leave from the Far East, who is madly in love with her. She does this purely so that she can be married before her younger sister, Doris, and to get away from her mother. They move to Hong Kong where, bored by the stifling climate and social mores, Kitty quickly starts an affair with the "perfect" Charles Townsend, the handsome assistant colonial secretary.

When Walter finds out about their affair, he gives Kitty an ultimatum. She must either accompany him to the Chinese interior to deal with a cholera epidemic, risking death, or he will divorce her, causing a scandal, unless Townsend will agree to marry her.

Kitty goes to see Townsend who betrays her badly, after previous declarations of love, by refusing to divorce his wife to marry her. Their conversation, when she realizes he doesn't really love her, takes up several chapters as Townsend's true nature is slowly revealed to Kitty. She is surprised to find when she returns home that Walter has already had her clothes packed—he knew Townsend would let her down. Heartbroken and disillusioned, Kitty decides she has no option but to accompany Walter to the cholera-infested mainland of China.

At first resentful and bitter, Kitty softens as she meets Waddington, a cynical British man living locally with a Chinese mistress and some French nuns who are nursing the sick in the cholera epidemic. Seeing the respect with which Walter is held she also begins to understand what a good man he is. She begins to help the nuns by working in the nursery with the orphaned children. She is humbled by the unshakeable faith of the Mother Superior and the nuns working there.

Kitty discovers that she is pregnant and strongly suspects that Charles Townsend is the father. She cannot bring herself to deceive her husband about the paternity and tells him, but cannot answer his question as to whether he is the father by a simple "yes".

Soon after, Walter dies in the epidemic and Kitty returns to Hong Kong where she is met by Mrs. Townsend, Charles' wife who convinces Kitty to come to stay with them - as Kitty is now mistakenly regarded as a heroine who voluntarily and faithfully followed her husband into great danger. At the Townsend house, much against her intentions, she is seduced by Charles and makes love with him one more time despite realising he is vain and shallow, much as she once was. She is disgusted with herself and tells him what she thinks of him. She returns to the UK, en route finding her rather domineering mother has died. Her father, an only moderately successful barrister, is appointed Chief Justice of a minor British colony in the Caribbean and she persuades her father to allow her to accompany him there where she intends to dedicate her life to her father and to ensuring her child is brought up to avoid the mistakes she had made.

Film adaptations

The novel has been adapted for the screen three times:

• The Painted Veil (1937)
• The Seventh Sin (1957)
• The Painted Veil (2006)

Publication history

• Maugham, W. Somerset. The Painted Veil. (1925 first edition) London: Heinemann
• Maugham, W. Somerset. The Painted Veil.(1925 first edition) New York: First American Trade Edition, George H. Doran
• Maugham, W. Somerset. The Painted Veil. (2002 reprint) Replica Books ISBN 978-0735101739