"The Painted Veil" by W. Somerset Maugham

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Many people have come to reading this novel after they saw the film based on it which, in my opinion, is a huge mistake. The film depicts a love story, which is very beautiful and deep and meaningful but still it is just a love story.  And reading Maugham's novel people still see this love story which is only one side of it. Now let me explain you what I saw in "The Painted Veil" and why I enjoyed it immensely.



 There is one peculiarity about all Maugham's novels which I truly like alongside with his marvellous style and deep insight into the souls of his characters, and that peculiarity is the title. The title which is always a clue to the understanding of the whole novel. And this is he case with "The Painted Veil" too.
"Lift not the painted veil which those who live Call Life"
- these beautiful words are the first lines of a sonnet of P.B. Shelley. The sonnet says that often the picture of life we see is but a painted veil behind which there is real life, one full of sorrows and fear. This is very true, we often see only what we wish too see if the truth seems too dreadful to accept it.

Now, what has all that to do with Maugham's novel? To understand that let us look at the main character, Kitty.

Kitty Fane was brought up like many young girls of her time that is her mother did her best to transmit a whole range of prejudices to her daughter's mind. Kitty was told to obey the traditions of her country and the rules of her society without understanding them. It's easy to guess that the result of such upbringing was a light-minded baby of a woman.

Kitty wasn't taught to have an opinion of her own. What for? She was going to have a husband to think for her. And so she did. Her mother was eager to make a perfect match for Kitty and that is why Kitty got married to Walter. Again the importance of such step never occurred to her. Walter was "a perfect match" and besides Kitty didn't want to become an old maid. Those two reasons were quite satisfactory to her. Only she didn't think that marriage presupposes some feelings towards each other, if not love than at least respect and understanding. But how could Kitty respect and understand her husband if she didn't make afford even to get to know him?

What Kitty did know about Walter were a few facts lying on the surface which, as she soon found out, were quite dissatisfactory for her:

"What had he to be so conceited about? He danced rottenly, he was a wet blanket at a party, he couldn't play or sing, he couldn't play polo and his tennis was no better than anybody else's. Bridge? Who cared about bridge?"
It is not surprising that such poor judgement about people leads Kitty to being Charles's lover. After all he is quite the opposite to Walter. Although who says that it makes him better...

All this is just an epilogue to the story, the description of Kitty's painted veil which she called life. But the novel tells what happened when Kitty lifted the painted veil, it describes a long and often painful process of killing all the prejudices and false judgements the result of which for Kitty is seeing the life as it is. Kitty begins to understand that life is not just about parties, tennis and polo, and it's not always so easy as her life used to be. She sees another life where people have nothing to eat and their children are dying from cholera. Where people are kind to each other because kindness is all that they can offer. Kitty sees the world built on another values that those taught to her in childhood.

Maugham says a lot about China and Chinese people and you can believe him as he saw all this with his own eyes. He criticizes the attitude of British colonizers towards the native inhabitants, their snobbish, selfishness and vanity. And what Kitty discovers about China shows us hat the author himself think about this country:

"Kitty had never heard the Chinese spoken of as anything but decadent, dirty, and unspeakable. It was as though the corner of a curtain were lifted for a moment, and she caught a glimpse of a world rich with a colour and significance she had not dreamt of."
What is great is that all awful things Kitty witnesses don't break her, don't make her afraid of life. On the contrary, it makes her understand that life is beautiful:

"I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art." 
It's up to every person to decide whether to lift the painted veil or not. La Vie en rose is for sure more pleasant and easy. The life behind the painted veil is much more difficult, but probably much more beautiful too?

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