The Painted Veil (1925) by W. Somerset Maugham tells the story of Kitty Fane, a beautiful but shallow Englishwoman who marries the quiet bacteriologist Walter Fane without love. After he discovers her affair with a charming colonial official in Hong Kong, Walter takes her to Mei-tan-fu, a cholera-ravaged town in interior China, as retribution. Amid epidemic and isolation, Kitty works at a convent and begins a profound transformation, discovering her husband's selflessness and her own capacity for inner strength. When Walter dies of cholera, Kitty returns to England, finally seeking spiritual freedom and redemption, lifting life's "painted veil" of illusion.
