The Painted Veil
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Narrated by:
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Sophie Ward
About this listen
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Critic reviews
"An expert craftsman....His style is sharp, quick, subdued, casual."( The New York Times)
" The Painted Veil, with its sadness, its moral tension, its irony and compassion, its building evocations of lust and terror and remorse, is a work of art." ( Spectator)
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A young, shy, sickly priest is assigned to his first parish, a sleepy village in Northern France. Though his faith is devout, he finds nothing but indifference and mockery. The children laugh at his teachings, his parishioners are consumed by boredom, rumours are spread about him and he is tormented by stomach pains. Even his attempts to clarify his thoughts in a diary fail to deliver him from worldly concerns. Yet somehow, despite his suffering, he tries to find love for his fellow humans and even a state of grace.
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A "Bucket List" Book to Read
- By S. Cremona on 05-11-22
By: Georges Bernanos
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Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 25 hrs and 58 mins
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Set in the industrialising England of the Napoleonic wars, a period of bad harvests, Luddite riots, and economic unrest, Shirley is the story of two contrasting heroines and the men they love. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory, whose life represents the plight of single women in the 19th century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.
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"As Romantic As Monday Morning"
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Silent in the Grave
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Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
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Happily surprised
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The Voyage Out
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The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's haunting tale about a naïve young woman's sea voyage from London to a small resort on the South American coast. In symbolic, lyrical, and intoxicating prose, her outward journey begins to mirror her internal voyage into adulthood as she searches for her personal identity, grapples with love, and learns how to face life intellectually and emotionally. Its wit and exquisiteness, and its profound depth and insight into humanity, will capture the imagination of the listener.
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Lovely
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The Spoils of Poynton
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- Unabridged
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Mrs Gereth, a wealthy widow, is dreading the day that her son, Owen, gets married. She hopes that he will marry a woman who will appreciate their home and all of its treasures as she does. So she enlists the help of Fleda Vetch to try to corrupt the impending marriage of her son and Mona Brigstock - a philistine who is determined to marry Owen in order to inherit Mrs Gereth’s valuable possessions and home by any means. Meanwhile, Fleda hides her real feelings towards Owen. Even when he ends up feeling the same way, Fleda cannot bring herself to marry him as this would force him to break his engagement to Mona, and thus betray all of her own ideals.
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Outstanding
- By LCantoni on 07-31-10
By: Henry James
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The Setting Sun
- New Directions Book
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: June Angela
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Set in the early postwar years, it probes the destructive effects of war and the transition from a feudal Japan to an industrial society. Ozamu Dazai died, a suicide, in 1948. But the influence of his book has made "people of the setting sun" a permanent part of the Japanese language, and his heroine, Kazuko, a young aristocrat who deliberately abandons her class, a symbol of the anomie which pervades so much of the modern world.
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MORE OSAMU DAZAI TRANSLATIONS PLEASE!!!!!
- By Lucky on 10-19-22
By: Osamu Dazai
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North and South
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
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Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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Delightful
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Cashelmara
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When Edward de Salis travels to America after the death of his first wife, he is astonished to find himself falling in love with Marguerite, a young woman many years his junior. Full of hope for the future, he returns to his Irish estate, Cashelmara, but in 19th-century Ireland - a country racked by poverty and famine - his family eventually becomes trapped in a sinister spiral of violence that Edward could never have foreseen.
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Wonderful Story
- By Ann Marie Taylor on 07-04-20
By: Susan Howatch
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What listeners say about The Painted Veil
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JSP
- 11-22-22
A shallow woman's discovery of her shallowness
Wonderful writing as usual for Maugham, but a rather simple tale of a shallow, cloying woman's discovery of her own shallowness..
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- Kane Lee
- 05-15-18
A beautiful story read by a beautiful voice
It’s a great story. I read this book while I am listening to this. Sophie has done a great job.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Yuen May
- 02-29-20
Quite a Turner
You turn opinions on the characters. The story has your head turning in surprise. And even you yourself might turn something over at the end of it.
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Overall
- Karen
- 02-22-09
Better than the movie
I was very taken with the movie of "The Painted Veil." While I still think the film very fine, this novella proves itself better precisely in those places where the film-makers altered the story. Kitty never becomes perfect, and the ending is hopeful, not triumphant. The reading, too, is very well done. Good male voices, as well as the female.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Colin
- 11-29-12
Great reader -- OK story
It was the reader that drew me in. I listened to the ten minute sample and I was hooked. The story is not gripping all the way through. Some of the characters stay frustratingly distant, but Kitty grows and deepens with every page, and watching her navigate her world is fascinating.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Judy K. Hecht
- 03-22-15
Kitty becomes human
Judy
This book is truly about the transformation of a spirit- or the discovery of one. I don't want to be a spoiler so I'll only say- read it- bear with it. It is a worthwhile journey.
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Overall
- RtooDtoo
- 02-28-10
Amazing story
This story really took me by surprise. I thought it might be a dated and quaint journey into another time. While parts of it are quaint, its substance is timeless. It has all the major ingredients of a great story: lust, love, betrayal, adventure, pathos, and an anti-hero(ine) central character who transforms in a plausible way. The woman reading it is a little wooden, but her posh accent is actually quite enjoyable and works well with the story.
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10 people found this helpful
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- DurangoS
- 04-16-24
written so long ago, timeless
loved it, very easy to listen to. enjoyed all of the characters. couldn't put the book down!
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- Ellenaeddy
- 05-18-12
Early Imperialism and the flapper
I can't tell you why I love this glimpse into the twenties and early 20th century china. The romance belies romance and kicks the gooey love stuff to the curb. But I came to love the doctor in this book, even if his wife was too shallow to manage that herself. And she in her own way learns to be kind. It's a very interesting book about imperfect lives.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Krista
- 11-08-12
Fools in China
Would you listen to The Painted Veil again? Why?
I would listen again; the reader was impeccable. Natural, believable, soothing. The narration was probably the best I have ever listened to.
What did you like best about this story?
I most enjoyed that the characters are all so irreparably flawed and damaged. It was human. It was clear that their issues were a product of both the times and just the sheer fact of being honestly alive. Yes, some of their concerns were trivial. Yes, some of their reactions were overly dramatic. Yes, it was like listening to a train wreck as it happens. Isn't life really like that?
Which character – as performed by Sophie Ward – was your favorite?
Kitty Fane. Of course, that was the main character and her perspective throughout the book, but she just did it SO WELL.
Who was the most memorable character of The Painted Veil and why?
For me, the most memorable characters were all of them—I know, that's a cheater's way out, but none of the lives and situations are really cleared up or explained, so I was left wondering about nearly everyone, even if they had died. What were their real motivations? What would they or should they or could they have done differently? Did they ever find out that (fill in secret or lesson here)? Did anyone else eventually become a victim of the Cholera? I will never know the answers, and will likely think about those loose ends for a long time to come.
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2 people found this helpful