W. Somerset Maugham 
The Painted Veil 

The Painted Veil is the powerful novel of transgression and redemption by popular and prolific British author W. Somerset Maugham. The book tells the story of the lovely and superficial Kitty Garstin and her unhappy marriage to Walter Fane, a quiet and honorable man. Kitty agrees to marry Walter not because she loves him, but because she fears being upstaged by her younger sister. Kitty travels to Tching-Yen with her new husband, where he is posted as a government scientist, and Kitty soon falls in love with her husband’s colleague, the handsome and charming Charlie Townsend. Walter is not as clueless about her behavior as Kitty would like to believe, and eventually rejected by her selfish lover, he has her travel with him to mainland China to help during a dangerous cholera epidemic. The experience utterly transforms Kitty and she begins to take responsibility for her mistakes and understand her shortcomings. Beautiful and deeply affecting, ’The Painted Veil’ is a thought-provoking study of the ability of people to change, grow, and learn how to love deeply.