Giovanni's Room
An American in Paris, engaged to one person and in love with another, in Baldwin's shortest novel.
Read our take
The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst
Desire, beauty, class, and conditional acceptance inside wealthy 1980s Britain.
- 2004
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeNick Guest enters the wealthy, political world of a British family and becomes both participant and outsider. His social welcome proves more conditional than it first appears.
What's inside
A young gay man pursues beauty and belonging inside an elite household during the political and social upheavals of 1980s Britain.
Why we recommend it
Conditional acceptance
Like Baldwin, Hollinghurst sees how respectability and desire can make someone feel invited and excluded at once.
What this book explores
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
Reader reviews
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Charles Bukowski
American poet and novelist of Los Angeles rooming houses, racetracks and the post office, who quit his job to write when a publisher offered him a hundred dollars a month. He came to Paris once, in September 1978, drank his way through a live television book programme and walked off the set — and French television has been replaying it ever since.
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Claude McKay
Jamaican-born poet and novelist, and one of the essential writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He arrived in Paris from Moscow in 1923 and stayed in France until 1928, writing Home to Harlem there — and forming a low opinion of the rich, white expatriate scene that dominates most accounts of the period. His Paris is the same years as Hemingway's and almost nothing like it.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Line of Beauty, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1The Line of Beauty — Open Library ISBN catalogue
Official recordOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forOpen Library ISBN catalogue used to verify the title, ISBN, and publication metadata.
2The Line of Beauty — Google Books edition record
Official recordGoogle BooksUsed forGoogle Books catalogue record used to cross-check the title and edition metadata.
3The Line of Beauty — Internet Archive ISBN catalogue
Official recordInternet ArchiveUsed forInternet Archive ISBN catalogue used to cross-check the edition and its availability in library holdings.
4The Line of Beauty — Library of Congress books catalogue
Official recordLibrary of CongressUsed forLibrary of Congress books catalogue used to cross-check the bibliographic record by ISBN.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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