The Painted Veil
Kitty marries the quiet bacteriologist Walter Fane mostly to escape her mother, and once they reach Hong Kong she drifts into an affair with a charming, worthless official. When Walter discovers the betrayal, he offers her a cruel choice: a public divorce or a journey with him into the heart of a cholera epidemic in inland China. Among the dying, and among the nuns who nurse them, Kitty is pushed past her own vanity toward something like understanding. First published in 1925, the novel is one of Maugham’s most controlled studies of self-deception and slow moral awakening. This free PDF and EPUB edition brings back a spare, affecting story of a shallow woman remade by grief and duty.
About the Author
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was one of the most popular British authors of the twentieth century, working across the novel, the short story, and the stage. He trained as a physician and served in wartime intelligence, experiences that sharpened his clear prose and unsentimental view…
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