Veil

Author: (British) W.S. Maugham
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-12-01
Features: Among Maugham's works, this book is both most popular among readers and criticized by critics. The novel ends with Kitty realizing that a woman's life cannot be solely about sleeping with a man and depending on him—"The only thing truly precious is love for responsibility. When love and responsibility are united, you will be noble, and you will enjoy inexpressible happiness."—However, viewed today, this ending is far from realistic and fair—no one should have to bear the cross of their mistakes forever! The beautiful and vain British woman, Kitty, to avoid becoming an old maid, accepts the proposal of the eccentric doctor Walter Fane. She leaves the extravagant and hollow social circle of 1920s London and travels to the mysterious Far East colony—Hong Kong—with Walter. Feeling dissatisfied and bored with marriage, Kitty begins an affair with the Hong Kong Assistant Magistrate, Charles Townsend, who has captured her heart. Upon discovering his wife's infidelity, Walter Fane goes all out and starts his strange and terrifying plan for revenge: Kitty must accompany him to the distant interior of China to quell an outbreak of the deadly cholera epidemic that is raging. In the beautiful yet perilous environment of a foreign land, they experience emotional turmoil that they could never have imagined or experienced in the comfortable life at home. The Razor's Edge has become a masterpiece of art with its compassionate emotional care, its sensitive analysis of moral conflicts, its sharp irony of human nature, and its accurate construction of the inner world of human desires, fears, and regrets...