"The dog it was that died."

 

 

This film is arguably the most beautiful adaptation of any of W. Somerset Maugham's many stories. It is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple, Walter, a middle-class doctor, and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along.

 

Read the book online at www.archive.org

 

I usually get a bit prickly when I see a book cover depicting a scene from the film which quite obviously was made after the book, but in this case I take issue with the film which does not include the three most important lines in the book, namely, when Walter on his deathbed quite clearly speaks the words, "The dog it was that died" [page 165], and when Kitty, after his death, asks Waddington, "Tell me, is 'the dog it was that died, a quotation?" [171] and again ""What did he mean by saying: the dog it was that died? What is it?" [page 172], to which Waddington, knowing the implied meaning but hiding it from her, finally and non-commitally, replies, "It is the last line of Goldsmith's 'Elegy'." [page 172].

 

An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith Good people all, of every sort, Give ear unto my song; And if you find it wondrous short, It cannot hold you long. In Islington there was a man Of whom the world might say, That still a godly race he ran— Whene'er he went to pray. A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad— When he put on his clothes. And in that town a dog was found, As many dogs there be, Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound, And curs of low degree. This dog and man at first were friends; But when a pique began, The dog, to gain some private ends, Went mad, and bit the man. Around from all the neighbouring streets The wond'ring neighbours ran, And swore the dog had lost its wits To bite so good a man. The wound it seemed both sore and sad To every Christian eye; And while they swore the dog was mad, They swore the man would die. But soon a wonder came to light That showed the rogues they lied,— The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died!

 

The mad dog is, of course, Walter who, embittered by his wife's infidelity, takes her to cholera-stricken China in the hope that she will take ill and die. When he catches cholera instead, he dies with the quotation "The dog it was that died" on his lips. That was the punchline of Maugham's story and the film missed it completely - or perhaps it didn't want to overload its audience with anything too literary.

If you love Maugham’s work and you haven’t read this one, you should. If you have never read a W. Somerset Maugham book and want to dip a toe in the water, "The Painted Veil" may be a good book to start with.

 

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