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      • Soul Mountain
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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

Please comment on the BExtraordinare Blog. Together we can better understand this novel through a shared conversation.
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  • Home
    • BExtraordinaire Roster
    • BExtraordinaire Calendar
    • RSVP
  • Blog BExtraordinaire
  • Past Reads
    • 2020 >
      • Where the Crawdads Sing
      • Death of a Red Heroine
      • Age of Light
      • Beneath the Scarlet Sky
      • Next Year in Havana
      • What the Wind Knows
      • Simon the Fiddler
      • The Dutch House
    • 2019 >
      • Caleb's Crossing
    • 2018 >
      • Educated
      • To Have and To Have Not
    • 2017 >
      • A Gentleman in Moscow
    • 2016 >
      • The Mare
      • Fates and Furies
    • 2015 >
      • Citizens of London
      • Euphoria
      • The Blue Flower
      • Being Mortal
      • Waiting for Snow in Havana
      • All that is Solid Melts into Air
      • All the Light We Cannot See
    • 2014 >
      • On Such a Full Sea
      • A Canticle for Leibowitz
      • The Luminaries
      • The Lowland
      • Alice Munro shorts
      • The Goldfinch
      • The Round House
      • Salvage the Bones
    • 2013 >
      • The Monuments Men
      • Wild
      • The Great Fire
      • A Time of Gifts
      • Sweet Tooth
      • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
      • To the End of the Land
      • The Casual Vacancy
      • Canada
      • The Light Between Oceans
    • 2012 >
      • One Amazing Thing
      • Bossypants
      • The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
      • Rules of Civility
      • Cutting for Stone
      • Just Kids
      • Red Badge of Courage
      • Lost on Treasure Island
      • The Reluctant Fundamentalist
      • The Children's Book
    • 2011 >
      • The Cellist of Sarajevo
      • Food Rules
      • Freedom
      • Unbroken
      • The Painted Veil
      • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
      • Elegance of the Hedgehog
      • Soul Mountain
  • Highlights
    • The Complete List
  • ReaderRec