The Painted Veil
by W. Somerset Maugham
Category: Fiction

The novel is set in the 1920s in England and Hong Kong and tells the story of the beautiful but loveless Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her extramarital affair, he forces her to accompany him to the epicenter of a cholera outbreak. She is prompted by her awakening personality to reassess her life and learn how to love after being stripped of the British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to achieve in Hong Kong. The title of this novel alludes to Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1824 sonnet, "Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life." "The Painted Veil" is a beautifully written testament to the human capacity to change, grow, and forgive.