The Painted Veil

By: W. Somerset Maugham

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic.

Stripped of the British society of her youth and overwhelmed by the desolation around her, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life. She takes up work with children at a convent, but when her husband dies, she is forced to return to England to her father, her one remaining relative, to raise her unborn child. Though too late for her marriage, she has learned humility, independence, and how to love.

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©1925 W. Somerset Maugham (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Finalist, Classic, 2007

"[Maugham is] the modern writer who has influenced me the most." (George Orwell)
"An expert craftsman....His style is sharp, quick, subdued, casual."(New York Times)
"The Painted Veil, with its sadness, its moral tension, its irony and compassion, its building evocations of lust and terror and remorse, is a work of art." (Spectator)

An often overlooked classic

Excellent narration! Artful character development. Descriptive scenery brings it alive. I had forgotten how skillfully Maughm creates insight and fleshes out his characters.

Excellent narration

The narrator has a beautiful voice and perfect French accent (which is hard to do!)

Magnificent

This may just be the best book I've ever listened to. The story is captivating and the narration excellent.

The Movie Had More Depth

I wanted to read this novel because of the emotionally devastating 2006 movie of the same name. Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, and Toby Jones absolutely brought these characters to life. Screenplay by Ron Nyswane made some notable changes and additions to this novel which I completely agree with. This was an amazing movie. I loved it. Now for the book,

Ok I have to pause and say that it was written by a man in 1925. So I have to "forgive" the racism, sexism, and how he apparently felt about both women and people of non-European races, specifically the Chinese which were characters in this story. I usually do not make those kind of observations unless it severely stuck out to me. So much so that I had to stop and look up what year this had been written...ok....then some of the actions of the main character, Kitty, and other women seemed unusual and odd for a woman of any era I had to research if the W. was for a male name and I was right, a male's take on how a woman would react to situations and love. With this deeper knowledge I continued with the story with those things in mind.

Now on with my review of the work. Notwithstanding what I alluded to above the story was actually very good. This is a story as old as time and will repeat itself as long as humans are on this earth and beyond. It is a story about loving the wrong person. Kitty loved a man who did not love her in the same passionate way. I have seen this in life where we seem to gravitate towards something we cannot have, that's the passion, the excitement. We don't yearn for the dull and suitable mate who adores us and would do anything for us. In fact it is usually a spinning circle of "I love him" but "He loves her" and "She loves someone else" and so on.

The author does a good job of making you feel what the characters are going through and luckily for me I had seen the movie so I could imagine them easily in my head even though they did seem different in his novel. I enjoyed it. It is a very well told story and I felt for each character. However the movie was better. It added much needed depth to the characters especially to Kitty's husband Walter. The movie does him justice that the book did not. The movie also cut out parts that literally made no sense. The ending in the book was silly and ridiculous and the movie thankfully deleted those scenes entirely!!

I thought the narrator, Kate Reading, did a very good job and was perfect for this story. I recommend it if you enjoy dark romance.

Absolute classic

First of all, I want to say the reader is absolute perfection.
I saw the movie several times before I listened to the book. It is in my digital library and a favorite.

I have read the hard cover book;I have listened to the book at least twice.

There are a few things I like better about the book. More details are written about Kitty and her relationship with her mother and her personality in general. The book I would say, is darker than the movie. The movie is somewhat more to our taste for happier endings, although the movie doesn’t have a totally happy ending. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but Kitty and Walters relationship
is darker in the book. I believe also the book ends abruptly. There are still a lot of unanswered
questions.

I do say I prefer the movie. Sometimes I think if you watch the movie first and you’ve watched it several times, and are very fond of it, you may sometimes like the movie better.

I do recommend very much this classic. You don’t want to miss it! If you haven’t read the book or watched the movie, I would read the book 1st and then watch the movie. But this is an absolute classic and you don’t want to miss .It is never boring, very interesting and beautiful.

One hundred years later we are still reading it, sometimes reading with our ears instead of our eyes. (People have done this for thousands of years for various reasons!)

Timeless

So well written it stands the test of time. The characters and setting are vivid and heart wrenching.

So glad I took the chance on this book. Fantastic

Any additional comments?

First off the narrator Kate Reading was phenomenal, the best I've heard in a great while. She is truly a master of narration. The story is set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and overwhelmed by the desolation around her, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life. She takes up work with children at a convent, but when her husband dies, she is forced to return to England to her father, her one remaining relative, to raise her unborn child. Though too late for her marriage, she has learned humility, independence, and how to love.

Superb reading!

The story is a riveting slice of life captured in the most minute details through the keen observations and impeccable writing of Maugham.
It is the reader's performance that enlivened the story. Having listened to audiobooks for over 40 years, I have listened to many good readers. The reader of this book, however, is a great reader with perfectly timed inflections, appropriate accents, modulation, and cadence. The reader is one of the top three or four readers I have had the great delight of listening to for over 7 hours. I will find more books read by her.

Well paced, universal insights, narration smooth.

The book was well paced with universal insights. The narration was smooth allowing the listener to focus on the story without being distracted by the voice.

A GREAT BOOK TO READ, SEE MOVIE & BOOK TO LISTEN

Would you consider the audio edition of The Painted Veil to be better than the print version?

YES I DO. SO MANY TIMES THE READER IS ABLE TO TRANSPORT YOU THE THE LOCATION OF THE BOOK AND THIS READER CERTAINLY DID.

What other book might you compare The Painted Veil to and why?

????

What about Kate Reading’s performance did you like?

GREAT READER

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

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