The Painted Veil

If you have chanced upon some of the entries pertaining to book reviews, you might have guessed that I was more of a contemporary fiction kind of reader than a fan of classical novels. Yes, I have read some of the works of Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare of Jane Austen when I was younger. Sad to say, I cannot recall much of these works. Neither will I feel compelled to revisit their works.

Among the classics, I so far have not read anything from W Somerset Maugham. The name rang a certain bell but I could not recall where I have seen this name. I mistook Somerset Maugham to be a Nobel Prize winner, but Google results confirmed this misimpression.(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/)

The Painted Veil was quite surprisingly an easy read as the works of a classic writer. The protagonist - Kitty was a simple minded girl who loved parties and dances. She lived in an age where the success of a lady was determined by the husband she was betrothed to. Being the prettier sister, she was pressured to marry the next person who came along when her uglier but younger sister found her suitor. Needless to say, a loveless marriage soon bored the fun-loving Kitty to tears and subject her to other temptations - extra-marrital affair with another married man.

When her bacteriologist husband discovered her affair, the tamed and boring Walter issued an ultimatum. If Kitty could get her lover to marry her immediately, Walter would divorce her. If not, Kitty had to follow Walter to the cholera-plagued China city of Man-fu-tan. Walter, being a better judge of characters than the air-headed Kitty, was very certain that the lover was a self-centred callous man. The lover would never marry Kitty and jeopardise his current family, status and career.

Kitty was certain that Walter was so infuriated by her affair that he set to kill her by bringing her to a death zone when she could not get her lover to marry her or to convince Walter for a change of mind. What started off as a misadventure soon became an opportunity to be reacquainted with her husband as well as her own character building. She was startled to discover Walter's intelligence and compassion towards the sick and destitute. At the same time, she was surprised of her ability to contribute at the home for the orphans and sick.

At this point, if you are expecting a happily-ever-after, maybe a more contemporary fiction will be more of your cup of tea.

Walter soon died of cholera which attacked his low immunity due to overwork. His death was not as accidental as it seemed. Apparently, he had injected himself with the virus. Was it for his own research purpose that he experimented on himself? Or was it a self-destruction with his unreciprocated love? Or did he view his death as a way of freeing Kitty? No one knew.

Kitty was indeed free from her love-less marriage and from a husband whom she never quite got along with. Instead of flocking to her exlover's arms, she decided to leave Hong Kong and went back England to accompany her father.  

It was a simple story. The language was not as archaic as other classical writers. If you wish to cultivate your reading pleasure in classical works, The Painted Veil may be a good starting point. Perhaps I have oversimplified the whole story moral and theme? Being one of the worst literature students ever (I have once only gotten one mark for my Literature test where the one mark was simply sympathy for my pathetic effort), I tend to read things rather literally, at face value. If you gain a different understanding, please share. This is the beauty of reading. Unlike television, you are not just shown in the face of everything that is there with no room for different imagination and interpretation.