英语学习网站威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆（William Somerset Maugham，1874年1月25日—1965年12月16日），英国小说家、剧作家。代表作有戏剧《圈子》，长篇小说《人生的枷锁》、《月亮和六便士》，短篇小说集《叶的震颤》、《阿金》等。
《面纱》是英国作家威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆创作的一部长篇小说，首次出版于1925年。
小说的故事发生在香港和一个叫“湄潭府”的地方。女主人公凯蒂·费恩因为和香港助理布政司查理通奸，被丈夫瓦尔特（细菌学家）发现后胁迫她去了霍乱横行的湄潭府，最终瓦尔特不幸染病死去，凯蒂回到香港，重投查理怀抱后羞愧不已，最终回到英国和父亲和解，并和父亲同往巴哈马群岛生活。
从《面纱》一书中，读者能看到一个表面漠然中立的叙事者背后的模糊性和矛盾性：作为帝国叙事的一分子，作者的面纱之下隐藏着东方主义的政治文化观；作为一个关注人性的个体作家，他的面纱之下隐藏着他对爱的怀疑和渴求、对人性的嘲讽和宽容。
From the ceiling hung a large paraffin lamp, so that Kitty was able to see better what sort of a man Waddington was. His baldness had deceived her into thinking him no longer young, but she saw now that he must be well under forty. His face, small under a high rounded forehead, was unlined and fresh-coloured; it was ugly like a monkeys, but with an ugliness that was not without charm; it was an amusing face. His features, his nose and his mouth, were hardly larger than a child’s, and he had small, very bright blue eyes. His eyebrows were fair and scanty. He looked like a funny little old boy. He helped himself constantly to liquor and as dinner proceeded it became evident that he was far from sober. But if he was drunk it was without offensiveness, gaily, as a satyr might be who had stolen a wine-skin from a sleeping shepherd.
天花板上吊着一盏石蜡灯。就着灯光，凯蒂更加清晰地看清了维丁顿的相貌。他头顶光秃，看上去岁数很大，可是现在她却发现，他的年纪还不到四十。他的额头又大又圆，额头下是一张小脸，脸上没有皱纹，脸色红润。这张脸生得丑陋，很像猴脸。不过，这张丑脸也并非一无是处，看上去能让人忍俊不禁。他的脸，包括鼻子和嘴，比孩子的脸大不了多少。他长着一双炯炯发光的小眼睛，眉毛清秀疏朗。从容貌上看，他活像个有趣的大男孩。他不停地自斟自饮，晚餐尚未结束，就能清楚地看出他的醉意越发浓重了。不过，就算他喝得酩酊大醉，他也不会招人厌烦。他那得意洋洋的神态，犹如森林之神萨梯从熟睡的牧羊人那儿偷到了酒囊。
Walter looked at his guest with a cold and ironic gaze, but he was evidently not a little amused by him, and he made an effort to show a civil interest in topics of which Kitty was well aware he knew nothing. A faint smile lingered on his lips. But Kitty, she knew not why, was filled with awe. In the house of that dead missionary, over against the stricken city, they seemed immeasurably apart from all the world. Three solitary creatures and strangers to each other.
瓦尔特用冷淡、嘲讽的目光注视着他的客人。显然，他对维丁顿所谈的话题毫无兴趣，但却尽力装出津津有味、兴趣盎然的样子来。凯蒂对这些话题倒是耳熟能详，可瓦尔特却一无所知。他的嘴角掠过一丝微笑，但凯蒂却心生恐惧，但不知道为什么。置身这幢已故传教士的宅子里，面对这座瘟疫肆虐的城市，他们似乎完全与世隔绝了，仿佛成了三个离群索居的孤独者，三个素昧平生的陌路人。
The bungalow stood half way down a steep hill and from her window she saw the narrow river below her and opposite, the city. The dawn had just broken and from the river rose a white mist shrouding the junks that lay moored close to one another like peas in a pod. There were hundreds of them, and they were silent, mysterious in that ghostly light, and you had a feeling that their crews lay under an enchantment, for it seemed that it was not sleep but something strange and terrible, that held them so still and mute.
平房矗立在半山坡上。凭窗眺望，她能看见山脚下那条狭窄的小河，还有河对面的城市。天色刚刚破晓，河面上升起一层白色的雾霭。帆船鳞次栉比，停泊在雾霭笼罩的河湾中，犹如豆荚中的一粒粒豌豆。帆船有数百艘之多，悄无声息，在幽灵般光影的衬托下，显得神秘莫测。你在恍惚间觉得，船员们俨然被施了魔法。他们似乎并不是进入梦乡，而是中了某种怪异可怕的符咒，由此变得哑然失言，寂静无声。
The tears ran down Kitty’s face and she gazed, her hands clasped to her breast and her mouth, for she was breathless, open a little. She had never felt so light of heart and it seemed to her as though her body were a shell that lay at her feet and she pure spirit. Here was Beauty. She took it as the believer takes in his mouth the wafer which is God.
激动的泪水从凯蒂的脸上汩汩流下。她凝神注视着这眼前的奇景，双手紧紧攥在胸前，嘴巴微微张开，几乎屏住了呼吸。她的心情从来没有如此轻松过。她觉得，她的肉身只是一具躯壳，支撑在双脚上，而灵魂却得到了净化，变得无比纯洁。眼前的景象就是美的化身！她如醉如痴地欣赏着，犹如虔诚的教徒口含着上帝化身的圣餐一般。
He was full of fads and oddities. His frankness was refreshing. He seemed to look upon life in a spirit of banter, and his ridicule of the Colony at Hong Kong was acid; but he laughed also at the Chinese officials in Mei-Tan-Fu and at the cholera which decimated the city. He could not tell a tragic story or one of heroism without making it faintly absurd. He had many anecdotes of his adventures during twenty years in China, and you concluded from them that the earth was a very grotesque, bizarre and ludicrous place.
他满口时尚，却又刁钻古怪；他说话坦诚率直，常常令人耳目一新；他笑对人生，显得玩世不恭；他讥讽殖民地香港，尖酸刻薄；他对湄潭府的中国官僚以及肆虐这座城市的霍乱也嗤之以鼻。无论是讲悲剧故事，还是讲英雄传奇，他都能讲出荒唐可笑的意味来。他在中国生活了二十年，阅历丰富，积累了大量奇闻轶事。听了他的各种故事，不免让人觉得，地球真是个怪诞、奇诡与荒唐之地。
