Book of the Month–December 2012
The Painted Veil
By W. Somerset Maugham
Kitty Garstin, a pretty but shallow socialite, rejects dozens of marriage proposals although her mother urges her to settle down with a suitable husband. At the age of 25 and fearful that her younger, less attractive sister will marry first, she agrees to marry Walter Fane, a bacteriologist who is passionate about Kitty. While living in Hong Kong where Walter is stationed, she begins an affair with the charming and handsome Charles Townsend, Assistant Colonial Secretary. The relationship continues for two years until Kitty’s infidelity is discovered by her husband. Walter presents Kitty with an ultimatum–if she does not accompany him into a cholera-infested region, he will divorce her on the condition that she must immediately marry Charles. When Charles declines, Kitty reluctantly travels with Walter to mainland China.
Although initially distressed and bitter, Kitty’s journey into the heart of the cholera epidemic provides her with a chance to reassess her values and life.
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About the Author
W. Somerset Maugham was born on January 25, 1874 in the British embassy in Paris, France. The French government had issued a decree that all children born on French soil could be conscripted into the French armed forces so Maugham’s father, a lawyer at the British embassy, arranged for his son to be born there, technically on British soil. Orphaned by the age of ten, he was sent to live with his uncle. Miserable in his new home and school, Maugham developed a stammer that would last throughout his life. Although passionate about writing, Maugham studied medicine and was invigorated by his contact with people from diverse classes. His first novel Liza of Lambeth featured a plot about the consequences of adultery on a working class family. The book was a great success and Maugham became a full time writer. In World War I, he served as an ambulance driver, an experience that inspired his novel Of Human Bondage. During this time he met Frederick Gerald Haxton who became his lover. Maugham also had relationships with women, producing a daughter Liza with interior decorator Syrie Wellcome in 1915. The couple married in 1917 although Maugham lived with Haxton throughout the marriage. By this time, Maugham was working as a spy, travelling extensively in Europe and Asia, writing and gathering information for the British intelligence agency.
Syrie and Maugham divorced in 1929; their marriage had been strained by his relationship with Haxton. After Haxton’s death in 1944, Maugham became lovers with Alan Serle who remained his companion until Maugham’s death in 1965.
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