The Painted Veil (Maugham)
Short summary
Hong Kong, 1920s. Kitty married Walter, a bacteriologist, not for love but to avoid being overshadowed by her younger sister's marriage.
Soon after arriving in Hong Kong, she began an affair with Charles Townsend, a charming government official. Walter discovered the affair and gave Kitty an ultimatum: accompany him to Mei-tan-fu, a cholera-stricken inland city, or face divorce proceedings naming Townsend as correspondent.
Kitty hoped Townsend would leave his wife for her, but he refused. Devastated, she accompanied Walter to the epidemic zone. There, Walter worked tirelessly to combat the disease while maintaining a cold distance from Kitty. She found solace working at a French convent with nuns who cared for orphans.
I knew you’d only married me for convenience. I loved you so much, I didn’t care... What most husbands expect as a right I was prepared to receive as a favour.
Through her work and suffering, Kitty transformed, gaining compassion and self-awareness. She discovered she was pregnant but uncertain of the father's identity. Walter contracted cholera and died, but not before Kitty attempted to seek his forgiveness.
Returning to Hong Kong, Kitty briefly succumbed to Townsend's advances but felt only shame. She reconciled with her estranged father and decided to accompany him to the Bahamas, embracing an uncertain but hopeful future with her unborn child.
Detailed summary
Division into parts and chapters is editorial.
Part 1. Hong Kong: the affair and its consequences
Discovery of the affair; Walters knowledge
In Hong Kong, a young woman lay in bed with her lover in the afternoon heat, behind shuttered windows. Suddenly, someone tried the door handle. Terror seized her as she realized it might be her husband. The door handle turned again at another window, silently and deliberately. Though the intruder did not enter, the incident filled her with dread.
Her companion tried to reassure her that it could not have been her husband, who never came home during the day. After waiting anxiously, they ventured out to find no one there. Later that evening, her husband returned home and behaved with cold politeness, never meeting her eyes. A note revealed that he had indeed been there earlier, delivering a book.
Kittys background and loveless marriage
Kitty had married Walter two years earlier, largely to avoid being left behind when her younger sister became engaged. Her mother, an ambitious and managing woman, had pushed Kitty into society hoping for a brilliant match, but after several seasons without success, Kitty accepted Walter's proposal more out of convenience than love. She had never loved him and found him cold and boring, though he was deeply in love with her.
Walters ultimatum: cholera station or divorce
The next day, Walter confronted Kitty with cold fury. He knew about her affair and gave her an ultimatum: either accompany him to Mei-tan-fu, a cholera-stricken city in the interior of China where he had volunteered to fight the epidemic, or he would divorce her, naming her lover as co-respondent. However, he offered an alternative—if the lover's wife would agree to divorce her husband and he would promise in writing to marry Kitty within a week of both decrees being made absolute, Walter would allow Kitty to divorce him instead.
Part 2. Journey to Mei-tan-fu
Confrontation with Charlie; preparation for departure
Kitty rushed to her lover's office to tell him of Walter's ultimatum. To her shock and devastation, he refused to leave his wife. He spoke of his career, his children, and his comfortable life, making it clear that while he had enjoyed their affair, he had no intention of sacrificing everything for her. He suggested she go with Walter to Mei-tan-fu, dismissing the danger as exaggerated.
My dear, it’s rather hard to take quite literally the things a man says when he’s in love with you... One can be very much in love with a woman without wishing to spend the rest of one’s life with her.
Kitty realized with bitter clarity that her lover was vain, cowardly, and selfish, and that she meant nothing to him beyond a pleasant diversion.
The journey through China
Kitty agreed to accompany Walter to Mei-tan-fu. They set out on a long and arduous journey through China, traveling by steamer up the Western River and then by sedan chair through the countryside. Walter remained coldly polite but distant, speaking to her only of trivial matters. During the journey, Kitty reflected on her situation with a mixture of shame, anger, and growing indifference. She realized she no longer loved her former lover and felt only contempt for him, yet she could not bring herself to feel anything for Walter either.
Arrival at the plague-stricken city
They arrived at Mei-tan-fu at night, passing through streets where the dead lay unburied and the living cowered in fear. The city was in the grip of a terrible cholera epidemic, with people dying by the hundreds each day. Kitty was installed in a bungalow that had belonged to a missionary who had died of the disease. The atmosphere was one of death and desolation, and Kitty felt utterly alone and terrified.
Part 3. Life in Mei-tan-fu
Meeting Waddington and visiting the convent
Kitty soon met the Deputy Commissioner of Customs, a small, bald man with bright blue eyes and a cynical sense of humor. He became her only companion in the isolated city, visiting her regularly and providing conversation and whisky. He told her about the French convent where nuns were caring for orphans and cholera victims. He arranged for Kitty to visit the convent, where she met the Mother Superior, a woman of aristocratic bearing and profound spirituality.
The convent made a deep impression on Kitty. She saw the nuns' dedication, their sacrifice, and their faith in the face of death and suffering. The Mother Superior spoke of duty and love, and Kitty felt both drawn to and excluded from the spiritual world the nuns inhabited.
Beginning work with the nuns and orphans
Kitty asked if she could work at the convent, and the Mother Superior agreed, assigning her to care for the younger children. Kitty found the work refreshing and meaningful. She taught the girls sewing, looked after the babies, and gradually grew attached to the children. The nuns treated her with kindness and interest, particularly after they learned she was pregnant. A cheerful and talkative nun became especially friendly with Kitty.
Through her work at the convent, Kitty began to change. She found purpose and meaning in caring for the children, and the nuns' example of selfless devotion moved her deeply. She began to see beyond her own troubles and to feel compassion for others. The Mother Superior's words about duty and love resonated with her, though she could not fully embrace the religious faith that sustained the nuns.
Remember that it is nothing to do your duty... the only thing that counts is the love of duty; when love and duty are one, then grace is in you and you will enjoy a happiness which passes all understanding.
Deepening relationships with Waddington and the Mother Superior
Waddington continued to visit Kitty, and their conversations ranged widely. He told her about his life in China and his relationship with a princess, whom he lived with despite the social impropriety. Kitty visited the princess and was struck by her exotic beauty and dignity. Waddington spoke philosophically about life, death, and the search for meaning, introducing Kitty to ideas about the Way.
The Mother Superior also spoke to Kitty about her own life and vocation. She told of leaving her aristocratic family in France to serve in China, of the hardships and losses the convent had endured, and of the faith that sustained her. Kitty was moved by the Mother Superior's combination of strength and tenderness, her dedication to the orphans, and her serene acceptance of suffering.
I feel like someone who’s lived all his life by a duck-pond and suddenly is shown the sea. It makes me a little breathless, and yet it fills me with elation. I don't want to die, I want to live.
Self-discovery and changing perspective on life
As weeks passed, Kitty found herself changing profoundly. She no longer thought constantly of her former lover, and when she did, it was with contempt rather than longing. She felt free from the degrading passion that had consumed her. She began to see Walter differently too, recognizing his courage, dedication, and the depth of his love for her, even as she remained unable to love him in return. She felt pity for him and a desire to ease his suffering.
Kitty discovered she was pregnant, which brought mixed emotions. She did not know whether the child was Walter's or her former lover's, and this uncertainty troubled her. The nuns were delighted by her pregnancy and treated her with special tenderness. Kitty began to think about the future and what kind of mother she wanted to be, determined to raise her child differently from how she had been raised.
Part 4. Walters illness and death
Kittys pregnancy; Walter contracts cholera
One morning at the convent, Kitty suddenly felt violently ill and fainted. The nuns realized she was pregnant, not suffering from cholera as she had feared. The news filled Kitty with complex emotions—she was relieved not to be dying, but uncertain about the child's paternity. When she told Walter, he asked if he was the father. Unable to lie, she answered that she did not know. Walter's face showed terrible pain, but he said nothing more.
Shortly after, Walter fell ill with cholera. He had been working tirelessly, conducting experiments and treating patients, and had become infected. Kitty was summoned to the military headquarters where he lay dying. She found him in terrible condition, his face grey and sunken, barely conscious.
Walters final hours and cryptic last words
Kitty begged Walter for forgiveness, desperate to ease his suffering and her own guilt. She told him she was sorry for the wrong she had done him and that she bitterly regretted it. Walter lay silent, his eyes staring at the wall. When she called him 'darling' for the first time, tears ran down his wasted cheeks. She pleaded with him to forgive her, saying she had no chance now to show her repentance.
Finally, Walter spoke. His words were clear but cryptic: 'The dog it was that died.' Kitty did not understand what he meant. Shortly after, Walter died. Kitty was left bewildered by his final words, which seemed to carry some bitter irony she could not grasp. A military officer who had been devoted to Walter stood by with tears in his eyes.
Grief and farewell to the convent
Walter was buried the next day in a small plot near the missionary's grave. Waddington read the burial service. Kitty stood by the grave with a strange mixture of emotions—grief, guilt, and a sense of liberation. She had not loved Walter, yet his death moved her deeply. She felt she had failed him and that his death was somehow her fault.
The Mother Superior told Kitty she must leave Mei-tan-fu and return to Hong Kong for the sake of her unborn child. Kitty was reluctant to go, having found purpose and peace in her work at the convent, but she knew the Mother Superior was right. She said goodbye to the nuns and the children, feeling that she was leaving behind something precious.
Part 5. Return to Hong Kong and new beginning
Journey back and arrival in Hong Kong
On the journey back to Hong Kong, Kitty reflected on all that had happened. She felt changed, as if she had lived through a lifetime in those few months. The affair with her former lover seemed like something that had happened to another person. She no longer felt the same shame and humiliation, only a sense of having learned something important about herself and life.
Staying with the Townsends
When Kitty arrived in Hong Kong, the wife of her former lover met her at the dock and insisted she stay with them. She was kind and sympathetic, having heard of Kitty's courage in going to Mei-tan-fu. She admired Kitty and wanted to make amends for having misjudged her. Kitty accepted the invitation, though she dreaded seeing the man again.
Final encounter with Charlie Townsend
Her former lover was charming and solicitous, treating Kitty as an honored guest. One afternoon, he found her alone and tried to resume their intimacy. Despite her contempt for him and her determination to resist, Kitty found herself yielding to his embrace. Afterward, she was filled with shame and self-loathing. She told him she despised both him and herself, and that she was leaving Hong Kong as soon as possible.
Reconciliation with her father and plans for the future
Kitty received news that her mother had died. She returned to England and found her father preparing to take up a position as Chief Justice in the Bahamas. He had been unhappy in his marriage and was looking forward to a new life. Kitty asked if she could accompany him, and after initial hesitation, he agreed. They formed a new bond, based on mutual understanding and affection.
Kitty looked forward to the future with hope and courage, determined to raise her daughter to be independent and free.
I'm going to bring up my daughter so that she’s free and can stand on her own feet... I want her to take life like a free man and make a better job of it than I have.