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The Painted Veil

By William Somerset Maugham

(67)

| Paperback | 9780307277770

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Book Description

Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and the smalContinue

6 Reviews

4 people find this helpful

I love the book more than the movie. It is a story about how to resist vanity. A girl with look becomes picky in man hunting, at the end her not so pretty look sister married better and earlier than she is. Then she picked a guy who loved her more, and travelled with him all the way long to HK. (BTW ... (continue)

I love the book more than the movie. It is a story about how to resist vanity. A girl with look becomes picky in man hunting, at the end her not so pretty look sister married better and earlier than she is. Then she picked a guy who loved her more, and travelled with him all the way long to HK. (BTW, the backdrop is set in the early 19th C.) She had an affair with another guy who was as vain as she was; as revenge her husband took her to a rural village in China where was under the threat of an outburst of plague.
Then she discovered the real meaning of "love".
Pretty cheesy but it's Maugham.
By reading the story the most striking note must be another cheesy question: whether you will marry someone who loves you more, or vice versa. I already knew it is question which is set with a problematic agenda. This story further illustrated how wrong the question is. Love is not an act of mere give and take. It is about BOTH give and take. Without mutual understanding, the incessant giving and infinite tolerance are stupid. It is not touching and if should we love another person back only because they treat you good? I don't know. I guess it is different in the case of marriage... Anyway.
The second half of the story (which the couple moved to Mainland China) is better. The protagonist took revenge to his unchaste wife and himself by committing an indirect suicide. They went to the plague area without vaccinating themselves. When love is at its extreme, the hatred it could bring forth is to the level of death? It proves love is suffocating... because one cannot find a way out to release his/her anger and frustration, the only result would be destruction.
An act to "unbe" ourselves. The love is so strong that we wish we never loved, we never born to have to chance to love. However, without this love, how could we prove we have lived a life?
In this way, we are reborn. We love, and love kills us, yet we are reborn inside the love of your significant others. Being alive as a responsibility to yourselves as well as to the one you love. (it's old-fashioned... but it is the TRUTH) hahah anyway by far except "The End of the Affairs" my most beloved novel.

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張小張・Cons said on Mar 28, 2007 | 1 feedback

1 person find this helpful

"There is only one way to win hearts and that is to make oneself like unto those of whom one would be loved."

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Rami said on Jul 8, 2010 | 1 feedback

1 person find this helpful

I wrote a pretty comprehensive review but it went off and was gone on me, what happened?
BTW, it it necessary to know how much we each have paid for the book?

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Houwen S said on Aug 2, 2007 | Add your feedback

I found this story quite beautiful and loved the novel. Until it ended. It was not that the ending was bad, but that the ending wasn't in the right place. Obviously it is the author's prerogative to pick some segment of time in which to narrate a finite storyline, but I felt like the characters we ... (continue)

I found this story quite beautiful and loved the novel. Until it ended. It was not that the ending was bad, but that the ending wasn't in the right place. Obviously it is the author's prerogative to pick some segment of time in which to narrate a finite storyline, but I felt like the characters were just beginning to develop and the author just stuck a giant THE END sign at the bottom and called it quits. Despite the unsatisfactory ending I suppose I still liked the book a lot, though I say that a bit grudgingly because of the distress this untimely finish undoubtably caused.

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Sarabear135 said on Feb 8, 2011 | Add your feedback

I saw the film first (which I thought was excellent) so I had high expectations for this novel. The changes to the film work a lot better than the ending Maugham created. While sad and superficial, it does provide interesting character studies.

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Moirne Stark said on Nov 29, 2008 | Add your feedback

Maugham is surely one of the most under-rated author. His painting of human nature is among the very first class. I am sure I'll keep on reading his works in this coming summer.

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Vincent said on Jul 5, 2008 | Add your feedback

Book Details

Rating:
(67)
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- 1 star
English Books
Paperback 256 Pages
ISBN-10: 0307277771
ISBN-13: 9780307277770
Publisher: Vintage
Pub date: Nov 14, 2006
Dimensions: 1290 mm x 774 mm x 65 mm Just how big is that?
Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
In other languages: other languages Libros en Español, Libri Italiani