Kitty is a young, pretty and a little stupid woman. Her mother and herself have only one aim, which is to marry her well. Years go by looking for the best man, but when her sister, younger and ugly, finds a husband, Kitty feels an urge to get married and chooses the man available, Walter. They leave for Tching-Yen, an imaginary Chinese colony, where Walter works as a biologist, not really the upper-class job. Kitty is seduced by the charming Charlie Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary. He says he is in love and promises wonders. When Walter discovers their affair, he wants to divorce. Kitty is sure that Townsend will look after her, but he does not want to put his position and marriage in peril. Kitty has to go back to Walter, and he decides to move to Mei-Tan-Fu, a place infested by cholera. There, she faces with the disease, dead people, the world of the nuns and her vanity. In the end, she discovers, that she is pregnant but doesn’t know from whom and Walter dies of cholera. She has to go back to Tching-Yen and then to her parents in England, her mother dying just before she arrives. Her last thoughts are about her child that she wishes to be a girl, so she can educate her differently, free and independent. Frankly, I only knew Somerset Maugham from the reference made by Souchon in his song where he cripples the name of the poor writer. I loved the writing, fluid, easy and the story, though maybe banal, really caught me. Nice discovery.
“I wonder. I wonder if it matters that what they have aimed at is illusion. Their lives are in themselves beautiful. I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.”