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Review: W. Somerset Maugham - The Painted Veil (1925)
This was a nice little story. Not complicated, just the story of a woman finding her path in life. It reminded me a bit of Passage to India, though I've only watched the film adaptation of that. I'd recommend this book as a nice short novel.
Spoilers.
Story
Kitty Garstin was the elder of two daughters of the Garstin family. Her mother was obsessed with marrying her daughters off to well-to-do men. However, as Kitty grew older, she remained single. And at that time, the only men who proposed to her were men who were too young and/or were not well-established. On the other hand, her younger sister Doris, always considered to be the less desirable sister, had become engaged to a baron. In a panic of being upstaged by her younger sister, Kitty agreed to marry Walter Fane, a bacteriologist.
Walter had been courting Kitty for a while then, but they were not very compatible. Kitty sometimes wondered if he was even in love with her, so his proposal came as a surprise. But in fact, he was madly in love with her, only that she could never read his love. Kitty's agreement to the marriage was weak, but Walter promised that they could get married before Doris did, and then they would go to Hong Kong, where Kitty wouldn't have to live under the shadow of her sister.
In Hong Kong, Kitty continued to be bored by her husband. They simply weren't compatible. On the other hand, Kitty began an affair with Charlie Townsend. She was madly in love with him.
Walter found out about the affair and gave Kitty an ultimatum: either she would come with him to Meitan-fu where he was to oversee a cholera outbreak, or be subject to a humiliating divorce. The third option Walter would accept was if Dorothy Townsend (Charlie's wife) agreed to divorce Charlie so that Charlie could marry Kitty right away. Then, he would let Kitty initiate the divorce.
Kitty approached Charlie in tears. However, Charlie's priority was to keep the marriages intact and to hide the affair. This shocked Kitty as she believed they were madly in love. Earlier on, Charlie had told Kitty that women were always under the impression that men were more in love with them than they actually were. Charlie named himself as the exception at the time, but we could see now that he was just flirting with Kitty, that Kitty really overestimated his love. Kitty then agreed to go to Meitan-fu with Walter, planning to go to her death.
At Meitan-fu, Kitty was touched by the passion of the nuns in taking care of the patients as well as orphans and asked to help out. It was kind of th efirst time Kitty had ever wanted to do something to help out. Kitty did become friends with the nuns.
Kitty also struck up a friendship with Waddington. It was revealed that Waddington was living with a Manchurian lady of high birth. He had helped them out during the war and she had fallen in love with him. Despite rejecting her love several times, she always came back. Waddington slowly became moved by her passion and I guess that was how they got together.
Kitty found out she was pregnant. When Walter asked whose the baby was, Kitty found that she could not say. Of course, there was a chance that the baby could be Charlie's.
One night, Waddington came to Kitty's room and told her that Walter had contracted cholera and was dying. When Kitty arrived, Walter was close to death. She asked for his forgiveness, but Walter was already unintelligible at that time and died.
Kitty returned to Hong Kong, where Dorothy offered for Kitty to stay with her and Charlie. Kitty agreed after some immense pressuring from Dorothy. At the Townsend house, Charlie eventually seduced Kitty again. Kitty was disgusted with herself for it. She booked a trip back to England as soon as she could. Charlie came over to talk her out of it, but Kitty expressed the disgust she had at herself for sleeping with Charlie. There was a bit of smugness from Charlie when he found out Kitty was pregnant, as he knew that if the child was his, then Kitty would still be haunted by him forever.
On Kitty's journey back, she found out her mother died. She had been ill for the past year but refused to do anything about it.
Kitty wanted to stay with her father, but her father revealed that he had become Chief Justice in the Bahamas. He had planned for her to stay in London. Kitty realized that her father probably wanted to be rid of her. But Kitty begged to let her come with him, desperate to make amends and build relationships again. Mr. Garstin agreed to let Kitty come with him. At the end of the book, Kitty said that she hoped she would have a daughter, and she would teach her to be her own person and not wrap her identity around her desirability by men.
At the beginning of the book, I knew that we weren't supposed to like Kitty. She was superficial, and we saw that she was a product of her environment. But over the course of her mistakes and her experiences, she started to gain sympathy and joy and love and I really liked seeing that transformation in Kitty. By the end of the book, I did feel very hopeful for her, and that was why I enjoyed the book a lot.
Writing
I had read Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham before, but I think I preferred this book more. Maybe it was just that this story was a little smaller and more insulated, or that this character was slightly more tangible to me.
Anyway, I thought Maugham's language here was simple and easy to follow. And I think the simplicity helped with outlining Kitty's emotional journey.
Characters
Kitty Fane
Kitty was our main character who went through a major transformation during this book.
At the beginning, Kitty was superficial. She cared for partying and looking pretty. And that was because that was all she thought she was good for. Her mom was obsessed with marrying her and her sister off to good families, and once that was done, her job was over.
Kitty was always considered the prettier sister, so it was a bit of a surprise when Doris had become engaged to a high ranking man at only 18, while Kitty was still single at 25. At that point, Kitty was only receiving proposals from students and other men who clearly would not be able to support her. Kitty had been courted by Walter then, but she was very much bored by him. By all accounts, Walter came off as the typical quiet nerd. But he insisted that he was madly in love with Kitty, which surprised us, but only because Kitty was totally unable to read the love from Walter. Walter knew that Kitty wasn't the brightest but it didn't matter to him because he loved her so much. He knew her pride was hurt by Doris, and he took advantage of that to propose and that was how they became married.
In Hong Kong, Kitty's life wasn't any better, but at least she had Charlie Townsend. He was everything Walter wasn't. Tall, handsome, charming, etc. In a perfect world, Kitty would be married to Charlie.
In the days leading up to Walter's ultimatum, Kitty was very afraid. I think it was probably because divorce was still quite taboo back then. Kitty was raised to believe she was only as good as her marriage, so that was a huge scare for her. But we as the audience saw that Charlie was not as paranoid as Kitty was. He simply did not care.
The confrontation with Walter was not too climactic, as Walter knew the details. However, Kitty was surprised at the terms, and that was why she she ran crying to Charlie. Only to be completely disappointed by Charlie. Charlie had not ever considered divorcing his wife. And in a moment of clarity, Kitty understood what Walter had done, that he had never intended to divorce Kitty, only that he knew Charlie would never divorce Dorothy so he knew there was no chance of the divorce actually happening.
Kitty left for Meitan-fu pretty down. She mentioned that she intended to go to her death. But of course, she retained her manners when she arrived. Her only friend there was Waddington. And at Meitan-fu, Kitty began to grasp the less beautiful things in life. One of the first things she saw was a dead person.
Kitty later visited the nuns and she was touched by their devotion. She noted that she found that kids yucky and she was surprised that the nuns had so much love in them to love those yucky little things. I think she admired the nuns and that was why she decided she wanted to help out. She was put to supervising the older girls and teaching them sewing, learning some Chinese while at it. She sometimes played with the younger kids too.
The nuns had also talked about how Walter was so kind to the patients, and he loved the babies too. It struck Kitty, probably because she had never really been able to see what his love was like. His love was not very tangible to her. She liked flirting and affection and grand declarations of love. On the other hand, Walter's love was very indirect. His love was in how he spent time with the patients, how he played with the babies, how he'd spent all that time with Kitty while courting her.
Kitty learned about Waddington's companion and wanted to meet her. Their conversation was limited as Kitty and the Manchurian lady could not communicate, but I think Kitty learned something from seeing Waddington and the lady together. It seemed that Waddington really didn't like the lady at first. But he mentioned that he couldn't help but be moved by her devotion, and by the time they were living together, Kitty could tell that they liked each other. I think Kitty was fascinated with the fact that Waddington had come to love someone he previously had no feelings for.
The pregnancy was only very shortly covered and I don't think Kitty had too much time to process it, as soon we got to Walter's death. Of course it came as a surprise. On his deathbed, Kitty wanted Walter's forgiveness for the fact that she had mistreated him all this time. She realized that he had loved her so much, only that she couldn't see it, and she had thrown it all away. While one could say Kitty's mindset at Walter's deathbed was a bit self-centered, as she was making his death about her, I think that was really all she could do. Her relationship with Walter was that she was his beloved for a period of time. Her asking for Walter's forgiveness was her acknowledging his love and wishing that she had been able to love him better. Kitty only realized the meaning of Walter's last words later, which I will talk about below in Walter's section.
Kitty didn't want to go back home. It was there in Meitan-fu that she had learned what it was to be human. But customs dictated that she would probably have to go home as a widow.
Kitty first returned to Hong Kong. She had not wanted to see Charlie ever again, and it was a surprise that Dorothy had shown up to collect her. Waddington had previously told Kitty that Dorothy felt all of the women that Charlie grew close with were second-rate. So it was a surprise that Dorothy would want to be her friend. She pressured Kitty into staying with the Townsends.
At first, Charlie and Kitty barely interacted. When they finally did, Charlie seduced Kitty again. Kitty was in grief still and yet she was weak to Charlie's affection. But after they did the deed, Kitty was very ashamed, and that was what prompted her to leave immediately.
Only when Charlie come to visit her at her own house could she say in words what she'd wanted to say to Charlie. She was disgusted with the version of herself that gave in to Charlie. But Charlie didn't think much of it. He didn't care if Kitty thought Walter was ten times the man that he was. And she realized that he was smug about the fact that the baby in her could be his. She would never be free of him if that was the case.
On the way back home, Kitty's mother died suddenly. She went home as soon as she could. She found that she didn't have tears for her mother. She said that there was too much bitterness towards her mother, and we can see why. It was Mrs. Garstin who led Kitty to believe from a young age that her entire worth was wrapped around her marriage.
Kitty had intended to stay with her father, and it bummed her out a bit when she realized that her dad wanted to be free of the family. There was never that much affection between them and it went both ways. Kitty had never loved her father too much so he did not love her that much in return. But now Kitty had learned what it meant to love, what it meant to have compassion, and she wanted to make it up to her father. She wanted him to give her a chance to love him properly as a daughter should. And Mr. Garstin agreed.
Kitty at the end of the book had a renewed sense of purpose. She wanted her daughter to be a confident woman who could learn to do things on her own and not feel that her self-worth was based on her marriage.
So at the beginning of the book, Kitty was a vain woman with a very limited idea of the good things in life. She only thought of riches and class and frivolity and pretty words. On her trip to Meitan-fu, Kitty learned about love, love that the Sisters had for the poor orphans, the love between Waddington and his companion, the love that Walter had within him. She realized that love was expressed in so many different ways, and that love could be ugly, but it was more beautiful because of it. The Mother Superior had told Kitty that she won hearts by becoming the kind of person she admired, and so Kitty was now going to work towards being the kind of person she wanted to be, one who loved truly and not superficially.
Walter Fane
As mentioned, Walter was kind of your typical nerd. He was shy and didn't flirt with Kitty a lot, to the point that she didn't realize he was in love with her and his proposal came as a surprise. But for introverts like me, I think we could sense his love for Kitty expressed as quality time. Just him spending time with her, listening to her despite having so little in common with her, was a sign of love when it would probably be difficult.
Walter knew Kitty's priorities and he took advantage of her wounded pride to marry her. Walter knew what she was like and that she was not compatible with him, but he said he didn't care because he loved her so much.
In Hong Kong, they carried on as they always had. I do think Walter was probably hurt a bit when he found out about the affair. That was why he set up the ultimatum. Well, first he would need Kitty to see the truth, and he took advantage of Charlie's vain nature to pull the rug out from under Kitty.
At Meitan-fu, we saw little of Walter because he was so busy. But the nuns only had good things to say about him. They said he was good to the patients, he loved the babies. This all came as a surprise to Kitty because he was not what she would call an affectionate man. But she had never taken the time to know Walter's interests. His interests really bored her. So how would she ever have found herself in the presence of Walter and his passions? His passions in science and such.
Walter later admitted that when he had threatened to take Kitty with him, he had intended to bring her to her death. While at Meitan-fu, I think Walter backed off from Kitty because he was still mad at her. Waddington had mentioned that they were awkward with each other. But I think over time, Walter learned to soften up to Kitty again. Kitty had wanted them to at least be friends, and I think that was the beginning of them maybe mending their relationship.
Again, the pregnancy story line was very short. Walter asked if the baby was his and Kitty couldn't say for sure. It was a lot to take in, and Walter was probably really busy every day with his work too.
When Walter was on his deathbed and Kitty asked for his forgiveness, he only recited a word that didn't seem to make much sense. Kitty later realized it was a line from a poem by Oliver Goldsmith called An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog. In the story, a dog had gone mad and bit everyone. But the dog died. And it was meant to be a reference to the fact that Walter had wanted to punish Kitty by bringing her to her death at Meitan-fu, but it was Walter who died. And I guess he regretted that they didn't have more time.
I was honestly surprised when Walter died, as I thought this was going to be a story about Kitty and Walter mending their relationship. But I think Walter's death hurt Kitty the hardest. She learned what it was to truly lose love. She only began to feel love and Walter's love at Meitan-fu. Even if the love wasn't directed at her, she started to understand all of what Walter had done for her before that was out of love. Kitty cried for Walter, but she did not cry for her mother, because she realized that Walter had only ever acted out of love, even if it was out of anger.
Charlie Townsend
I had recently finished reading the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, so adultery in fiction is still a sore spot for me. But Charlie was exactly what I would expect in a scumbag character. He always played up his love for Kitty. Liars like him are the reason why I can't really ever trust what people say lol. Charlie even warned Kitty against believing men too much, and yet Kitty fell for it.
It was a huge blow to Kitty when she realized that Charlie had never considered divorcing his wife. That he like his wife too much to divorce her, and that he had never intended on marrying Kitty. He just wanted to keep the status quo, Kitty was only just entertainment to him.
In Meitan-fu, Kitty decided she never wanted to see Charlie again. But as circumstance would have it, she did.
I think the reason why Kitty responded to Charlie's seduction was that she did enjoy words of affirmation and affection, and Charlie knew that she loved love like that. But this time, Kitty was aware that Charlie's so-called love was insincere.
While living with the Townsends, Kitty noticed how Charlie acted lovingly towards Dorothy. She noted how Charlie would kiss Dorothy's hand, when other men would find it embarrassing to do so. But when Kitty asked him about his affairs, he implied that it wouldn't hurt Dorothy if she didn't know. Of course, that was disgusting to Kitty.
When Kitty told Charlie that she was disgusted with herself for having slept with Charlie, he didn't absorb any of it. All that was important was that she did sleep with him, and he would hold that over her head forever.
Charlie Townsend, a scumbag.
Dorothy Townsend
I don't remember the exact wording, but Kitty had been under the impression that Charlie didn't love Dorothy, when in reality, he just wasn't madly in love with her. However, he was fond of her and respected her, and that was something he did not have for his affairs.
Before Meitan-fu, all we really knew about Dorothy was that she was kind of dull, but that was because Kitty barely knew Dorothy and she of course saw Dorothy as a rival for Charlie's love.
In Meitan-fu, Waddington told Kitty that Dorothy looked down on the women that her husband attracted, and that made Kitty feel a little more ashamed for her behaviour. If I remember correctly, the way Waddington worded it was that Dorothy would have liked to befriend the women that her husband liked if she didn't find them so low brow.
It was all very surprising when Dorothy greeted her so warmly when Kitty returned to Hong Kong. It was a huge surprise that Dorothy would go so far as to invite Kitty over.
As mentioned, Dorothy really did seem to be Charlie's love. Charlie seemed to imply that Dorothy knew nothing of his affairs. We don't know if that was true, or if she only turned a blind eye. Like any woman, she had a lot to lose by divorcing a rich man.
Mrs. Garstin
Mrs. Garstinw as Kitty and Doris' mother. All their lives, Mrs. Garstin had been obsessed with her daughters finding good matches. She had banked everything on Kitty as Doris was considered the less desirable sister. So it came as a big surprise when Doris was engaged to such a high class man.
We didn't really see much of Mrs. Garstin. However, the effects of her upbringing on Kitty were obvious. Kitty had grown up believing that her worth was in how pretty and how desirable she was to men.
So when Mrs. Garstin died, Kitty had mixed feelings because while Mrs. Garstin was her mother, she raised Kitty to not know her own self-worth.
It appeared Mrs. Garstin had also always wished for her husband to be more politically ambitious, only she didn't know about his promotion before she died.
Bernard Garstin
Mr. Garstin was Kitty and Doris' dad. As mentioned, he did not have a close relationship with the rest of his family. He was just the breadwinner. But Kitty realized that it was not entirely her father's fault and that she had never appreciated what he had done for her as well.
When he told Kitty of his plans, he had not expected Kitty to come. Kitty said that he was tired of her, but I think the truth was more like he didn't want Kitty to be around if their relationship was just going to be what it was like before, like simple cohabitants.
But I think Mr. Garstin saw that Kitty wanted to have a proper father-daughter relationship with him, and that was why he allowed her to come. He joked about Kitty already deciding that she was going to have a daughter, and Kitty felt comfortable telling him about her own thoughts.
Doris Dennison
Doris was Kitty's sister, who was married to a baron at age 18, effectively becoming the superior sister in Mrs. Garstin's eyes.
She didn't appear much. She did write one letter to Kitty when Kitty was on her way back to England. She began the letter "Kitty Darling," as was her practice. And when Kitty finally went to see her mother, Doris had come in crying. Kitty had noted that Doris had always been the more dramatic one.
Waddington
Waddington was the Deputy Commisioner at Meitan-fu. He had become one of Kitty's friends at Meitan-fu, getting to know her and Walter on a personal level. Being able to share a language helped.
Waddington noted how there was tension between Walter and Kitty and that helped us as the audience outline what the relationship was like between Walter and Kitty from an outside perspective.
Waddington also introduced another lens on love to Kitty. He was moved by the love of the Manchurian woman towards him. And though he initially had no love for her, he grew to love her back. I think he chose to respect and return the devotion that the woman had for him, because it amazed him so much. And I think that taught Kitty that choosing to love was not so bad either.
Colonel Yu
Colonel Yu was a man we saw very little of. He accompanied Walter often in Meitan-fu, but we barely saw Walter in Meitan-fu, and by extension, Colonel Yu. The first time we saw him was on Walter's deathbed. Clearly, Colonel Yu respected Walter a lot to want to be with him as he died.
Mother Superior
Kitty befriended the Mother Superior at Meitan-fu. The Mother Superior had come from a prominent French family and had given up a lot when she decided to devote herself to religion. Her cousins joked about sharing her belongings and such at the time, showing that the Mother Superior was leaving behind frivolity and superficiality.
Kitty had been amazed at how the Mother Superior had grown to love all of the patients and children, that that had happened because the Mother Superior had an idea of the kind of person she looked up to, and tried to emulate that person. And I guess that showed Kitty that one can strive to be the best version of yourself.
Themes
Love
Love was a bit part of this book. Not in the sense of a romantic plot, but Kitty learning to see the love around her in more ways than just superficial.
I noticed that Kitty tended to only notice love after she'd lost them. Of course, she had not appreciated Walter's love when he loved her unconditionally. While at Meitan-fu he still loved her, though that love was mixed with resentment too. Another example of love lost was that of the "idiot child." There was one child that Kitty found kind of disgusting because they were an "idiot." The child kept wanting Kitty's affection and she found it hard to. Nonetheless, Mother Superior encouraged Kitty to. And after Kitty reached out to the child with affection, she found that the child didn't really come to her ever again. It is a weird phenomenon, but I also wonder if this made Kitty realize that she wanted to be the kind of person whose love would be welcome. Maybe the "idiot child" not wanting Kitty's love anymore was a symbol of Kitty's love not being pure or good.
Unrequited love was another theme. Of course, Walter held unrequited love for Kitty. Even towards the end, I don't think Kitty could say that she was "in love" with Walter, though she respected Walter and was fond of him. Waddington also did not return the affections of the Manchurian woman at first, but he started with accepting and acknowledging it, and by the time that Kitty met the Manchurian woman, I think she felt that Waddington loved the woman. And from Waddington, maybe one can infer that choosing to love can learn to a true affection.
Purpose
Kitty was definitely very aimless in her early life, again a side effect of her mother's upbringing. Once her daughters were married off, Mrs. Garstin basically saw that her job was done. Kitty herself had no purpose as Walter's wife.
At Meitan-fu, Kitty found purpose. First, she wanted to help at the convent. The sisters didn't see it appropriate for Kitty to help with the patients or to do manual labour. So they put her in charge of looking after the older kids, and Kitty worked hard at that. She also played with the younger kids, and the sisters would mention that it was good for her to hang around the younger kids because she was pretty and that it made people happy to look at pretty things. So at Meitan-fu, Kitty started to realize there can be joy in helping others.
Kitty had the conversation with the Mother Superior about striving to be a better version of yourself, and I think Kitty realized that that was something that she could do too. And it was what she decided to do in the end. She wanted to be a good mother who would raise her daughter to be free and capable.
Disgust
Kitty spent a lot of her life only surrounding herself with beauty. She was remarked to be the prettier daughter and was supposed to marry into high class. In Hong Kong, she like Charlie because he was more handsome and he said pretty words.
In Meitan-fu, Kitty came across things that disgusted her. One of the first things she happend upon was a dead body. She remarked how the body almost seemed like it was never alive.
Kitty also felt disgust at the orphans. There was racism at play here too, as Kitty remarked that the facial features and such were not pretty. But I think in her journey, Kitty also tried to choose to love the orphans as the sisters did.
When she returned to Hong Kong, Kitty noticed that Charlie looked different from how she had envisioned him in her head. He was still kind of handsome, but he wasn't perfect. And maybe Charlie's flaws were beginning to be more apparent to her because she now saw his flaws that weren't visible, including his manipulative and dismissive behaviour.
Orientalism and racism
Since I mentioned a Passage to India, you knew I had to bring this up. Despite this book taking place in China, all of our main characters were European.
The Chinese folks in Hong Kong only ever spoke with broken English, implying that they were uneducated and not important. They were only ever servants.
When Kitty went to Meitan-fu and was surrounded by Chinese people all the time. She even noted that she found the Chinese orphans kind of yucky. And it was an active effort on her part to learn to see them as human.
Maybe once could say there was a bit of a saviour complex at play here too, as most of the people in charge of the work effort in Meitan-fu were European. The only Chinese people to show up here were Colonel Yu and Waddington's companion, both who had very minor roles.
Overall
Overall, despite the Orientalism, I still liked this book. It was simple and to the point. Kitty was imperfect but I liked her journey in discovering herself and appreciating the world around her.
Spoilers.
Story
Kitty Garstin was the elder of two daughters of the Garstin family. Her mother was obsessed with marrying her daughters off to well-to-do men. However, as Kitty grew older, she remained single. And at that time, the only men who proposed to her were men who were too young and/or were not well-established. On the other hand, her younger sister Doris, always considered to be the less desirable sister, had become engaged to a baron. In a panic of being upstaged by her younger sister, Kitty agreed to marry Walter Fane, a bacteriologist.
Walter had been courting Kitty for a while then, but they were not very compatible. Kitty sometimes wondered if he was even in love with her, so his proposal came as a surprise. But in fact, he was madly in love with her, only that she could never read his love. Kitty's agreement to the marriage was weak, but Walter promised that they could get married before Doris did, and then they would go to Hong Kong, where Kitty wouldn't have to live under the shadow of her sister.
In Hong Kong, Kitty continued to be bored by her husband. They simply weren't compatible. On the other hand, Kitty began an affair with Charlie Townsend. She was madly in love with him.
Walter found out about the affair and gave Kitty an ultimatum: either she would come with him to Meitan-fu where he was to oversee a cholera outbreak, or be subject to a humiliating divorce. The third option Walter would accept was if Dorothy Townsend (Charlie's wife) agreed to divorce Charlie so that Charlie could marry Kitty right away. Then, he would let Kitty initiate the divorce.
Kitty approached Charlie in tears. However, Charlie's priority was to keep the marriages intact and to hide the affair. This shocked Kitty as she believed they were madly in love. Earlier on, Charlie had told Kitty that women were always under the impression that men were more in love with them than they actually were. Charlie named himself as the exception at the time, but we could see now that he was just flirting with Kitty, that Kitty really overestimated his love. Kitty then agreed to go to Meitan-fu with Walter, planning to go to her death.
At Meitan-fu, Kitty was touched by the passion of the nuns in taking care of the patients as well as orphans and asked to help out. It was kind of th efirst time Kitty had ever wanted to do something to help out. Kitty did become friends with the nuns.
Kitty also struck up a friendship with Waddington. It was revealed that Waddington was living with a Manchurian lady of high birth. He had helped them out during the war and she had fallen in love with him. Despite rejecting her love several times, she always came back. Waddington slowly became moved by her passion and I guess that was how they got together.
Kitty found out she was pregnant. When Walter asked whose the baby was, Kitty found that she could not say. Of course, there was a chance that the baby could be Charlie's.
One night, Waddington came to Kitty's room and told her that Walter had contracted cholera and was dying. When Kitty arrived, Walter was close to death. She asked for his forgiveness, but Walter was already unintelligible at that time and died.
Kitty returned to Hong Kong, where Dorothy offered for Kitty to stay with her and Charlie. Kitty agreed after some immense pressuring from Dorothy. At the Townsend house, Charlie eventually seduced Kitty again. Kitty was disgusted with herself for it. She booked a trip back to England as soon as she could. Charlie came over to talk her out of it, but Kitty expressed the disgust she had at herself for sleeping with Charlie. There was a bit of smugness from Charlie when he found out Kitty was pregnant, as he knew that if the child was his, then Kitty would still be haunted by him forever.
On Kitty's journey back, she found out her mother died. She had been ill for the past year but refused to do anything about it.
Kitty wanted to stay with her father, but her father revealed that he had become Chief Justice in the Bahamas. He had planned for her to stay in London. Kitty realized that her father probably wanted to be rid of her. But Kitty begged to let her come with him, desperate to make amends and build relationships again. Mr. Garstin agreed to let Kitty come with him. At the end of the book, Kitty said that she hoped she would have a daughter, and she would teach her to be her own person and not wrap her identity around her desirability by men.
At the beginning of the book, I knew that we weren't supposed to like Kitty. She was superficial, and we saw that she was a product of her environment. But over the course of her mistakes and her experiences, she started to gain sympathy and joy and love and I really liked seeing that transformation in Kitty. By the end of the book, I did feel very hopeful for her, and that was why I enjoyed the book a lot.
Writing
I had read Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham before, but I think I preferred this book more. Maybe it was just that this story was a little smaller and more insulated, or that this character was slightly more tangible to me.
Anyway, I thought Maugham's language here was simple and easy to follow. And I think the simplicity helped with outlining Kitty's emotional journey.
Characters
Kitty Fane
Kitty was our main character who went through a major transformation during this book.
At the beginning, Kitty was superficial. She cared for partying and looking pretty. And that was because that was all she thought she was good for. Her mom was obsessed with marrying her and her sister off to good families, and once that was done, her job was over.
Kitty was always considered the prettier sister, so it was a bit of a surprise when Doris had become engaged to a high ranking man at only 18, while Kitty was still single at 25. At that point, Kitty was only receiving proposals from students and other men who clearly would not be able to support her. Kitty had been courted by Walter then, but she was very much bored by him. By all accounts, Walter came off as the typical quiet nerd. But he insisted that he was madly in love with Kitty, which surprised us, but only because Kitty was totally unable to read the love from Walter. Walter knew that Kitty wasn't the brightest but it didn't matter to him because he loved her so much. He knew her pride was hurt by Doris, and he took advantage of that to propose and that was how they became married.
In Hong Kong, Kitty's life wasn't any better, but at least she had Charlie Townsend. He was everything Walter wasn't. Tall, handsome, charming, etc. In a perfect world, Kitty would be married to Charlie.
In the days leading up to Walter's ultimatum, Kitty was very afraid. I think it was probably because divorce was still quite taboo back then. Kitty was raised to believe she was only as good as her marriage, so that was a huge scare for her. But we as the audience saw that Charlie was not as paranoid as Kitty was. He simply did not care.
The confrontation with Walter was not too climactic, as Walter knew the details. However, Kitty was surprised at the terms, and that was why she she ran crying to Charlie. Only to be completely disappointed by Charlie. Charlie had not ever considered divorcing his wife. And in a moment of clarity, Kitty understood what Walter had done, that he had never intended to divorce Kitty, only that he knew Charlie would never divorce Dorothy so he knew there was no chance of the divorce actually happening.
Kitty left for Meitan-fu pretty down. She mentioned that she intended to go to her death. But of course, she retained her manners when she arrived. Her only friend there was Waddington. And at Meitan-fu, Kitty began to grasp the less beautiful things in life. One of the first things she saw was a dead person.
Kitty later visited the nuns and she was touched by their devotion. She noted that she found that kids yucky and she was surprised that the nuns had so much love in them to love those yucky little things. I think she admired the nuns and that was why she decided she wanted to help out. She was put to supervising the older girls and teaching them sewing, learning some Chinese while at it. She sometimes played with the younger kids too.
The nuns had also talked about how Walter was so kind to the patients, and he loved the babies too. It struck Kitty, probably because she had never really been able to see what his love was like. His love was not very tangible to her. She liked flirting and affection and grand declarations of love. On the other hand, Walter's love was very indirect. His love was in how he spent time with the patients, how he played with the babies, how he'd spent all that time with Kitty while courting her.
Kitty learned about Waddington's companion and wanted to meet her. Their conversation was limited as Kitty and the Manchurian lady could not communicate, but I think Kitty learned something from seeing Waddington and the lady together. It seemed that Waddington really didn't like the lady at first. But he mentioned that he couldn't help but be moved by her devotion, and by the time they were living together, Kitty could tell that they liked each other. I think Kitty was fascinated with the fact that Waddington had come to love someone he previously had no feelings for.
The pregnancy was only very shortly covered and I don't think Kitty had too much time to process it, as soon we got to Walter's death. Of course it came as a surprise. On his deathbed, Kitty wanted Walter's forgiveness for the fact that she had mistreated him all this time. She realized that he had loved her so much, only that she couldn't see it, and she had thrown it all away. While one could say Kitty's mindset at Walter's deathbed was a bit self-centered, as she was making his death about her, I think that was really all she could do. Her relationship with Walter was that she was his beloved for a period of time. Her asking for Walter's forgiveness was her acknowledging his love and wishing that she had been able to love him better. Kitty only realized the meaning of Walter's last words later, which I will talk about below in Walter's section.
Kitty didn't want to go back home. It was there in Meitan-fu that she had learned what it was to be human. But customs dictated that she would probably have to go home as a widow.
Kitty first returned to Hong Kong. She had not wanted to see Charlie ever again, and it was a surprise that Dorothy had shown up to collect her. Waddington had previously told Kitty that Dorothy felt all of the women that Charlie grew close with were second-rate. So it was a surprise that Dorothy would want to be her friend. She pressured Kitty into staying with the Townsends.
At first, Charlie and Kitty barely interacted. When they finally did, Charlie seduced Kitty again. Kitty was in grief still and yet she was weak to Charlie's affection. But after they did the deed, Kitty was very ashamed, and that was what prompted her to leave immediately.
Only when Charlie come to visit her at her own house could she say in words what she'd wanted to say to Charlie. She was disgusted with the version of herself that gave in to Charlie. But Charlie didn't think much of it. He didn't care if Kitty thought Walter was ten times the man that he was. And she realized that he was smug about the fact that the baby in her could be his. She would never be free of him if that was the case.
On the way back home, Kitty's mother died suddenly. She went home as soon as she could. She found that she didn't have tears for her mother. She said that there was too much bitterness towards her mother, and we can see why. It was Mrs. Garstin who led Kitty to believe from a young age that her entire worth was wrapped around her marriage.
Kitty had intended to stay with her father, and it bummed her out a bit when she realized that her dad wanted to be free of the family. There was never that much affection between them and it went both ways. Kitty had never loved her father too much so he did not love her that much in return. But now Kitty had learned what it meant to love, what it meant to have compassion, and she wanted to make it up to her father. She wanted him to give her a chance to love him properly as a daughter should. And Mr. Garstin agreed.
Kitty at the end of the book had a renewed sense of purpose. She wanted her daughter to be a confident woman who could learn to do things on her own and not feel that her self-worth was based on her marriage.
So at the beginning of the book, Kitty was a vain woman with a very limited idea of the good things in life. She only thought of riches and class and frivolity and pretty words. On her trip to Meitan-fu, Kitty learned about love, love that the Sisters had for the poor orphans, the love between Waddington and his companion, the love that Walter had within him. She realized that love was expressed in so many different ways, and that love could be ugly, but it was more beautiful because of it. The Mother Superior had told Kitty that she won hearts by becoming the kind of person she admired, and so Kitty was now going to work towards being the kind of person she wanted to be, one who loved truly and not superficially.
Walter Fane
As mentioned, Walter was kind of your typical nerd. He was shy and didn't flirt with Kitty a lot, to the point that she didn't realize he was in love with her and his proposal came as a surprise. But for introverts like me, I think we could sense his love for Kitty expressed as quality time. Just him spending time with her, listening to her despite having so little in common with her, was a sign of love when it would probably be difficult.
Walter knew Kitty's priorities and he took advantage of her wounded pride to marry her. Walter knew what she was like and that she was not compatible with him, but he said he didn't care because he loved her so much.
In Hong Kong, they carried on as they always had. I do think Walter was probably hurt a bit when he found out about the affair. That was why he set up the ultimatum. Well, first he would need Kitty to see the truth, and he took advantage of Charlie's vain nature to pull the rug out from under Kitty.
At Meitan-fu, we saw little of Walter because he was so busy. But the nuns only had good things to say about him. They said he was good to the patients, he loved the babies. This all came as a surprise to Kitty because he was not what she would call an affectionate man. But she had never taken the time to know Walter's interests. His interests really bored her. So how would she ever have found herself in the presence of Walter and his passions? His passions in science and such.
Walter later admitted that when he had threatened to take Kitty with him, he had intended to bring her to her death. While at Meitan-fu, I think Walter backed off from Kitty because he was still mad at her. Waddington had mentioned that they were awkward with each other. But I think over time, Walter learned to soften up to Kitty again. Kitty had wanted them to at least be friends, and I think that was the beginning of them maybe mending their relationship.
Again, the pregnancy story line was very short. Walter asked if the baby was his and Kitty couldn't say for sure. It was a lot to take in, and Walter was probably really busy every day with his work too.
When Walter was on his deathbed and Kitty asked for his forgiveness, he only recited a word that didn't seem to make much sense. Kitty later realized it was a line from a poem by Oliver Goldsmith called An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog. In the story, a dog had gone mad and bit everyone. But the dog died. And it was meant to be a reference to the fact that Walter had wanted to punish Kitty by bringing her to her death at Meitan-fu, but it was Walter who died. And I guess he regretted that they didn't have more time.
I was honestly surprised when Walter died, as I thought this was going to be a story about Kitty and Walter mending their relationship. But I think Walter's death hurt Kitty the hardest. She learned what it was to truly lose love. She only began to feel love and Walter's love at Meitan-fu. Even if the love wasn't directed at her, she started to understand all of what Walter had done for her before that was out of love. Kitty cried for Walter, but she did not cry for her mother, because she realized that Walter had only ever acted out of love, even if it was out of anger.
Charlie Townsend
I had recently finished reading the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante, so adultery in fiction is still a sore spot for me. But Charlie was exactly what I would expect in a scumbag character. He always played up his love for Kitty. Liars like him are the reason why I can't really ever trust what people say lol. Charlie even warned Kitty against believing men too much, and yet Kitty fell for it.
It was a huge blow to Kitty when she realized that Charlie had never considered divorcing his wife. That he like his wife too much to divorce her, and that he had never intended on marrying Kitty. He just wanted to keep the status quo, Kitty was only just entertainment to him.
In Meitan-fu, Kitty decided she never wanted to see Charlie again. But as circumstance would have it, she did.
I think the reason why Kitty responded to Charlie's seduction was that she did enjoy words of affirmation and affection, and Charlie knew that she loved love like that. But this time, Kitty was aware that Charlie's so-called love was insincere.
While living with the Townsends, Kitty noticed how Charlie acted lovingly towards Dorothy. She noted how Charlie would kiss Dorothy's hand, when other men would find it embarrassing to do so. But when Kitty asked him about his affairs, he implied that it wouldn't hurt Dorothy if she didn't know. Of course, that was disgusting to Kitty.
When Kitty told Charlie that she was disgusted with herself for having slept with Charlie, he didn't absorb any of it. All that was important was that she did sleep with him, and he would hold that over her head forever.
Charlie Townsend, a scumbag.
Dorothy Townsend
I don't remember the exact wording, but Kitty had been under the impression that Charlie didn't love Dorothy, when in reality, he just wasn't madly in love with her. However, he was fond of her and respected her, and that was something he did not have for his affairs.
Before Meitan-fu, all we really knew about Dorothy was that she was kind of dull, but that was because Kitty barely knew Dorothy and she of course saw Dorothy as a rival for Charlie's love.
In Meitan-fu, Waddington told Kitty that Dorothy looked down on the women that her husband attracted, and that made Kitty feel a little more ashamed for her behaviour. If I remember correctly, the way Waddington worded it was that Dorothy would have liked to befriend the women that her husband liked if she didn't find them so low brow.
It was all very surprising when Dorothy greeted her so warmly when Kitty returned to Hong Kong. It was a huge surprise that Dorothy would go so far as to invite Kitty over.
As mentioned, Dorothy really did seem to be Charlie's love. Charlie seemed to imply that Dorothy knew nothing of his affairs. We don't know if that was true, or if she only turned a blind eye. Like any woman, she had a lot to lose by divorcing a rich man.
Mrs. Garstin
Mrs. Garstinw as Kitty and Doris' mother. All their lives, Mrs. Garstin had been obsessed with her daughters finding good matches. She had banked everything on Kitty as Doris was considered the less desirable sister. So it came as a big surprise when Doris was engaged to such a high class man.
We didn't really see much of Mrs. Garstin. However, the effects of her upbringing on Kitty were obvious. Kitty had grown up believing that her worth was in how pretty and how desirable she was to men.
So when Mrs. Garstin died, Kitty had mixed feelings because while Mrs. Garstin was her mother, she raised Kitty to not know her own self-worth.
It appeared Mrs. Garstin had also always wished for her husband to be more politically ambitious, only she didn't know about his promotion before she died.
Bernard Garstin
Mr. Garstin was Kitty and Doris' dad. As mentioned, he did not have a close relationship with the rest of his family. He was just the breadwinner. But Kitty realized that it was not entirely her father's fault and that she had never appreciated what he had done for her as well.
When he told Kitty of his plans, he had not expected Kitty to come. Kitty said that he was tired of her, but I think the truth was more like he didn't want Kitty to be around if their relationship was just going to be what it was like before, like simple cohabitants.
But I think Mr. Garstin saw that Kitty wanted to have a proper father-daughter relationship with him, and that was why he allowed her to come. He joked about Kitty already deciding that she was going to have a daughter, and Kitty felt comfortable telling him about her own thoughts.
Doris Dennison
Doris was Kitty's sister, who was married to a baron at age 18, effectively becoming the superior sister in Mrs. Garstin's eyes.
She didn't appear much. She did write one letter to Kitty when Kitty was on her way back to England. She began the letter "Kitty Darling," as was her practice. And when Kitty finally went to see her mother, Doris had come in crying. Kitty had noted that Doris had always been the more dramatic one.
Waddington
Waddington was the Deputy Commisioner at Meitan-fu. He had become one of Kitty's friends at Meitan-fu, getting to know her and Walter on a personal level. Being able to share a language helped.
Waddington noted how there was tension between Walter and Kitty and that helped us as the audience outline what the relationship was like between Walter and Kitty from an outside perspective.
Waddington also introduced another lens on love to Kitty. He was moved by the love of the Manchurian woman towards him. And though he initially had no love for her, he grew to love her back. I think he chose to respect and return the devotion that the woman had for him, because it amazed him so much. And I think that taught Kitty that choosing to love was not so bad either.
Colonel Yu
Colonel Yu was a man we saw very little of. He accompanied Walter often in Meitan-fu, but we barely saw Walter in Meitan-fu, and by extension, Colonel Yu. The first time we saw him was on Walter's deathbed. Clearly, Colonel Yu respected Walter a lot to want to be with him as he died.
Mother Superior
Kitty befriended the Mother Superior at Meitan-fu. The Mother Superior had come from a prominent French family and had given up a lot when she decided to devote herself to religion. Her cousins joked about sharing her belongings and such at the time, showing that the Mother Superior was leaving behind frivolity and superficiality.
Kitty had been amazed at how the Mother Superior had grown to love all of the patients and children, that that had happened because the Mother Superior had an idea of the kind of person she looked up to, and tried to emulate that person. And I guess that showed Kitty that one can strive to be the best version of yourself.
Themes
Love
Love was a bit part of this book. Not in the sense of a romantic plot, but Kitty learning to see the love around her in more ways than just superficial.
I noticed that Kitty tended to only notice love after she'd lost them. Of course, she had not appreciated Walter's love when he loved her unconditionally. While at Meitan-fu he still loved her, though that love was mixed with resentment too. Another example of love lost was that of the "idiot child." There was one child that Kitty found kind of disgusting because they were an "idiot." The child kept wanting Kitty's affection and she found it hard to. Nonetheless, Mother Superior encouraged Kitty to. And after Kitty reached out to the child with affection, she found that the child didn't really come to her ever again. It is a weird phenomenon, but I also wonder if this made Kitty realize that she wanted to be the kind of person whose love would be welcome. Maybe the "idiot child" not wanting Kitty's love anymore was a symbol of Kitty's love not being pure or good.
Unrequited love was another theme. Of course, Walter held unrequited love for Kitty. Even towards the end, I don't think Kitty could say that she was "in love" with Walter, though she respected Walter and was fond of him. Waddington also did not return the affections of the Manchurian woman at first, but he started with accepting and acknowledging it, and by the time that Kitty met the Manchurian woman, I think she felt that Waddington loved the woman. And from Waddington, maybe one can infer that choosing to love can learn to a true affection.
Purpose
Kitty was definitely very aimless in her early life, again a side effect of her mother's upbringing. Once her daughters were married off, Mrs. Garstin basically saw that her job was done. Kitty herself had no purpose as Walter's wife.
At Meitan-fu, Kitty found purpose. First, she wanted to help at the convent. The sisters didn't see it appropriate for Kitty to help with the patients or to do manual labour. So they put her in charge of looking after the older kids, and Kitty worked hard at that. She also played with the younger kids, and the sisters would mention that it was good for her to hang around the younger kids because she was pretty and that it made people happy to look at pretty things. So at Meitan-fu, Kitty started to realize there can be joy in helping others.
Kitty had the conversation with the Mother Superior about striving to be a better version of yourself, and I think Kitty realized that that was something that she could do too. And it was what she decided to do in the end. She wanted to be a good mother who would raise her daughter to be free and capable.
Disgust
Kitty spent a lot of her life only surrounding herself with beauty. She was remarked to be the prettier daughter and was supposed to marry into high class. In Hong Kong, she like Charlie because he was more handsome and he said pretty words.
In Meitan-fu, Kitty came across things that disgusted her. One of the first things she happend upon was a dead body. She remarked how the body almost seemed like it was never alive.
Kitty also felt disgust at the orphans. There was racism at play here too, as Kitty remarked that the facial features and such were not pretty. But I think in her journey, Kitty also tried to choose to love the orphans as the sisters did.
When she returned to Hong Kong, Kitty noticed that Charlie looked different from how she had envisioned him in her head. He was still kind of handsome, but he wasn't perfect. And maybe Charlie's flaws were beginning to be more apparent to her because she now saw his flaws that weren't visible, including his manipulative and dismissive behaviour.
Orientalism and racism
Since I mentioned a Passage to India, you knew I had to bring this up. Despite this book taking place in China, all of our main characters were European.
The Chinese folks in Hong Kong only ever spoke with broken English, implying that they were uneducated and not important. They were only ever servants.
When Kitty went to Meitan-fu and was surrounded by Chinese people all the time. She even noted that she found the Chinese orphans kind of yucky. And it was an active effort on her part to learn to see them as human.
Maybe once could say there was a bit of a saviour complex at play here too, as most of the people in charge of the work effort in Meitan-fu were European. The only Chinese people to show up here were Colonel Yu and Waddington's companion, both who had very minor roles.
Overall
Overall, despite the Orientalism, I still liked this book. It was simple and to the point. Kitty was imperfect but I liked her journey in discovering herself and appreciating the world around her.