<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" > the opening words: unveiling the magnificent veil that all sentient beings call life. </h1>
The whole story begins with a secret affair, but ends with repentance.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="50" >1</h1>
The heroine, Katie, and her lover Townsend are being secretly having an affair when they are discovered by her husband Walter, who suddenly returns home, and after a showdown that night, Katie breaks into her lover Townsend's office the next day, hoping that Townsend will divorce her wife and marry her. But after being ruthlessly rejected by her lover, she agreed to follow her husband out of Hong Kong to Guizhou inland to support the local epidemic in discouragement. Here, Katie fully witnessed the cruelty of the epidemic and accidentally found herself pregnant, because it was not possible to confirm whether it was the husband's, which led to the intensification of the marital conflict. One day he visited the local monastery and was greatly moved to decide to join the nuns to assist in her work. She was deeply touched by the selfless dedication of the nuns, and through the nuns she gradually learned about her husband's outstanding contribution. After re-acquainting her husband, she wanted to reconcile with him, but she did not expect that her husband was also infected with the epidemic, and finally died after seeing her. After Katie returned to Hong Kong, she became famous in Hong Kong's social circles for bravely going to the epidemic area as a woman, and was deeply treated by her mistress and taken to live in her mistress's home. Once again, she fell into the palm of her lover's hand, and was once again possessed by her lover when there was no one in the house one day. However, in the end, Katie gave up everything in Hong Kong and left Hong Kong to return to Britain. After the death of her mother and the transfer of her father to other regions, she finally decided to leave England with her father and start over in a new place.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" >2</h1>
Walter is a real licking dog, he was captured from the first sight of Katie, willing to pay for her. In the moment of seeing the adulterous affair, he completely collapsed, and he clearly saw Katie's wishful thinking. So he chose to make a bet with Katie to travel to the epidemic area with him if Townsend did not agree to be with her. Personally, I think there is a psychology of self-abandonment and revenge. On the one hand, facing the epidemic may be ready to sacrifice, engaging in her favorite bacteria research in the last part of her life, on the other hand, she wants Katie to recognize the true face of her lover and punish her. The pregnancy incident in Guizhou when Katie completely shattered him, and finally he was depressed, and did not wait for Katie to give him a final confession.
It's a very direct attack on human nature, and the most impactful description of the book is that Katie has never forgotten Townsend in essence, she still loves him, and when she returns to Hong Kong to see Townsend again, she understands that she still loves him. So whatever Walter did was pale and feeble. It's just that Katie finally gave up this love, because she sought a new realm, which will be specifically mentioned below.
There are many sayings about love, not to mention the tall, but it is often seen in the market because of falling in love with other better people who regret and hate to return to the person who is the best for her. In the veil Maugham depicts this psychology in great detail, no, she will still love the person who is infinitely attracted to her. Love is more like a passion, a fast consumable. Katie and Walter were inappropriate from the start, with inappropriate personalities, hobbies, and status. There is only one-sided so-called love, and the biggest possibility of this comes from his own lack, and he sees the side he wants to show but can't do on the side of being shaped as a spiritual goddess. From this point of view, love is a charge to find fresh stimuli to break their own vulgarity. For Katie, too, one side always has an advantage over the other. It is always tormented by love that the truth of life will emerge from the clouds.
The cover quote from the veil is "The veil in the name of love obscures the whole truth of life"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="48" >3</h1>
The hostess grew up in a hypocritical family, her father was an ordinary judge, and her mother counted on her and her sister to find a good husband and wife to shine in the court. Katie is indeed very good-looking, but because of her high vision, the older she gets, she has never been married. In the end, it turned out that the ordinary-looking sister found a good husband first. In a hurry, Katie marries walter, a bacteriologist, and chooses to follow her to live in Hong Kong. The bland married life, the mediocrity of her husband made her very dissatisfied. At a dance party, she meets Townsend, a young and promising successor to the future Governor of Hong Kong, and can't help but become her mistress. What happened to Guizhou was a turning point that changed her, where she was moved by the fact that the abbot of the original nobility gave up a life of pampering and pampering, came to a foreign country to spread the teachings, adopted a baby girl who abandoned a woman, a nun who died unfortunately after being infected by the epidemic, and a homesickness that was difficult to give up. In the process of participating in the care of abandoned babies, there has also been a huge change from abandonment to love.
For the first time in her life, she discovered another possibility and meaning of life, breaking the illusion behind the glitz and feeling the cuteness and warmth of human nature. All this is because there is a "harvest", the harvest is the satisfaction and enrichment of the soul, and a great sense of pleasure after being recognized by others. So, when she returned to England and saw the sad look of her father who had to take care of her because of the responsibility of her father because of the pressure of her strong mother, she chose to reconcile with her father and give her father a yearning for a beautiful family life with a tenderness that her father had never experienced. At the end of the story, her departure from England is actually a declaration of complete severance from her old life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" >4</h1>
As a foreign novel, the content is based on China, which is closely related to Maugham's rich resume. The depiction of the Chinese situation at that time gives a special perspective from the perspective of a foreigner.
On the one hand, Hong Kong's drunken gold fans, Katie's social circle of noble wives, all kinds of noble and extravagant British life, as well as racecourse, tennis courts, and dance parties, are all the epitome of the life of Hong Kong's upper class. On the other hand, the poverty of inland life, as soon as Katie arrived at her residence in Guizhou, she saw a beggar die outside the residence, and also saw the ironic Chastity Arch. Local warlord rule, Manchu wives in Weddington, British customs, dirty streets and so on. A pair of sentient beings slowly appear, including the moving scenery of the riverside of the small city in the middle and the end of the morning that heralds the hostess to start a new life, the magic of the morning light to describe the city shrouded by the epidemic becoming tall and shocking, and the magic of the squire sliding in the river are all wonderful descriptions.
In particular, the description of the nuns is really touching, and it feels like the extraordinary power of religion. The nuns lived almost ascetic life as a missionary in a foreign country and accepted abandoned babies, and the beauty of human nature in it was really touching. However, it can also be seen from this that the sadness of the colonized countries, foreign countries can set up customs offices, churches can be built at will, this point is profoundly reflected, including the epidemic treatment actually rely on foreign doctors to show the difficulties and chaos of the country at that time.
"The Veil" has Maugham's consistent style, delicate character psychological analysis, and interpretation of the dark side of human nature. The whole novel is like drinking a cup of strong coffee, the strong aroma at the beginning, to the mellowness of adapting to the aroma, and the final intention is still unfinished. It is very suitable for a free afternoon alone, and everyone can more or less see a familiar shadow in it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" >5</h1>
If you want to win the love of others, you can only clean yourself and be worthy of love from others.
A well-meaning man adopts a dog, and at first he gets along well with the dog, but one day the two have a vendetta, and the dog goes crazy and bites the person. People expected that the bitten person would die, but the person came back to life, and it was the dog that died.
Katie felt that all human beings were like a long river, and the individual was like a river droplet, clinging to each other, but each of them became one, converging into a torrent and rushing to the sea. Life is short, nothing is worth remembering--- if you are also good at small things, hurt yourself and hurt others, and provoke everyone to be unhappy, it is very sad.
If everyone didn't speak until they had something to say, humans would soon lose the ability to speak.
Whether at work or in play, in the world or in monasteries, one cannot find peace —peace exists only in the soul of man.
Beauty is also a gift from God, the rarest and most precious gift. If we are fortunate enough to have it, we should be grateful; If we don't have it and someone else has it, we should be grateful, because the beauty of others makes us feel good.