The Painted Veil is the powerful novel of transgression and redemption by popular and prolific British author W. Somerset Maugham. The book tells the story of the lovely and superficial Kitty Garstin and her unhappy marriage to Walter Fane, a quiet and honorable man. Kitty agrees to marry Walter not because she loves him, but because she fears being upstaged by her younger sister. Kitty travels to Tching-Yen with her new husband, where he is posted as a government scientist, and Kitty soon falls in love with her husbands colleague, the handsome and charming Charlie Townsend. Walter is not as clueless about her behavior as Kitty would like to believe, and eventually rejected by her selfish lover, he has her travel with him to mainland China to help during a dangerous cholera epidemic. The experience utterly transforms Kitty and she begins to take responsibility for her mistakes and understand her shortcomings. Beautiful and deeply affecting, "The Painted Veil" is a thought-provoking study of the ability of people to change, grow, and learn how to love deeply.
Avui, com ahir ens situa a la Italia dels Borja, al segle XVI, i ens relata tres mesos de la vida de Niccolo Maquiavel, escriptor, filosof i diplomat. Niccolo, acompanyat pel seu nebot Piero, sera enviat a Imola per negociar amb Cesar Borja i defensar Florencia, la seva ciutat natal. Tots dos personatges intercanviaran dialegs enginyosos sobre etica, moralitat, politica i la seva manera d'entendre la vida. Borja sera el personatge en que mes tard Maquiavel es basara per escriure El Princep. Paral·lelament a les intrigues politiques, Maquiavel intenta seduir la dona del seu amfitrio a Imola, una trama basada en la seva obra teatral comica La mandragora.
