Movie Book vs. Book

I just finished reading a book called The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.

The book I got from the library had the cover on the left with the line at the top "Now a Major Motion Picture." The picture on the cover features the actors in the movie from what I can only guess is a scene in the movie. Natch, I was under the silly impression that the cover might actually have something to do with what I would read.

I thought the story would be about a woman who fell out of love with her husband and who through learning to be a little selfless and focusing on the less fortunate, she would eventually see what a wonderful man her husband was and fall back in love with him and they would cuddle up to each other on a boat on a Chinese lake.

Instead, what happened was the woman never fell back in love with her husband. He died of cholera and she had to go back to Hong Kong, and then London in shame because of some decisions she'd made. And when she finally gets back to London she finds that her mother has died and her father is getting ready to leave for the Bahamas and she will be all alone. Oh, did I mention she was pregnant too? The end!

No boat, no cuddling, no Chinese lake.

I don't think I would have been nearly as disappointed with the outcome of this story if it weren't for the misleading cover.

It's not surprising that the movie based on this book would stray from the story line. Movies often stray from the books on which they are based.

But now the book is straying from the book.

It's like buying a can of Pepsi, taking a drink and finding out there's tomato sauce inside.

It's just wrong.