The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham

The Painted Veil is a 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham set during the 1920s. The title of the novel is taken from a sonnet by P. B. Shelley, "Lift not the painted veil which those who live call Life," infering that if we choose to lift the veil, we will discover the truth. The main character is Kitty, a superficial English society girl who is looking to catch a husband. She believes her opportunities for marriage are dwindling so hastily marries love-struck Walter Fane, a young doctor. After discovering Kitty in bed with another man, Walter volunteers to work in China during a cholera epidemic . The two move to a small Chinese village where Kitty discovers her true nature. The book ends as Walter succumbs to cholera and on his deathbed,speaks his last words, a quote from the last line of the 18th-century Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith's An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog: "The dog it was that died!" The meaning of the cryptic line near kept our book club members talking for a long time. Does it means he died peacefully without remorse?

See Greta Garbo in the 1934 movie version of The Painted Veil.

Author Quotes: "A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident." W.Somerset Maugham

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