I finally got around to one of the only W. Somerset Maugham books I had not read:

The Painted Veil (1925)

… Shallow and lost, Kitty marries the intellectual and passionate Walter Fane, a bacteriologist on leave from the Far East who is madly in love with her. She does this purely so that she can be married before her younger sister, Doris, and to get away from her mother. They move to Hong Kong where, bored by the stifling climate and social mores, Kitty quickly starts an affair with the “perfect” Charles Townsend, the handsome assistant colonial secretary.

When Walter finds out about their affair, he gives Kitty an ultimatum. She must either accompany him to the Chinese interior to deal with a cholera epidemic, risking death, or he will divorce her, causing a scandal, unless Townsend will agree to marry her. …

It’s masterful, as always with Maugham.

The guy may have been a jerk, but he could certainly work words.

As I followed the tale I visualized it as the perfect film for Merchant Ivory.

Surprised was I to find out it was made into a movie in 2006, The Painted Veil with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

… Norton considered The Painted Veil to be in the spirit of films like Out of Africa (1985) and The English Patient …

I’ve got to see that movie.