Literature & Fiction
![Alan Hollinghurst - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B000AP9K10.jpg)
The Line of Beauty
Winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the NBCC award. From Alan Hollinghurst, the acclaimed author of The Sparsholt Affair, The Line of Beauty is a sweeping novel about class, sex, and money during four extraordinary years of change and tragedy.
In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby―whom Nick had idolized at Oxford―and Catherine, who is highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.
As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this is a major work by one of our finest writers.
In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby―whom Nick had idolized at Oxford―and Catherine, who is highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.
As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this is a major work by one of our finest writers.
Editorial Reviews
"A magnificent comedy of manners. Hollinghurst's alertness to the tiniest social and tonal shifts never slackens, and positively luxuriates in a number of unimprovably droll set pieces.[an] outstanding novel."
"Hollinghurst has placed his gay protagonist within a larger social context, and the result is his most tender and powerful novel to date, a sprawling and haunting elegy to the 1980s. A"
"Line for line, Hollinghurst's novel about London during the 1980s is the most exquisitely written book I've read in years. Witty observations about politics, society, and family open like little revelations on every page."
"Mr. Hollinghurst's great gift as a novelist is for social satire as sharp and transparent as glass, catching his quarry from an angle just an inch to the left of the view they themselves would catch in the mantelpiece mirror.The Line of Beauty is unlikely to be surpassed."
"One can't get enough of Hollinghurst's sentences.If you value style, wit, and social satire in your reading, don't miss this elegant and passionate novel."
"Almost perfectly written...this novel has the air of a classic."
"Almost perfectly written.this novel has the air of a classic."
"Hollinghurst has placed his gay protagonist within a larger social context, and the result is his most tender and powerful novel to date, a sprawling and haunting elegy to the 1980s. A"
"Line for line, Hollinghurst's novel about London during the 1980s is the most exquisitely written book I've read in years. Witty observations about politics, society, and family open like little revelations on every page."
"Mr. Hollinghurst's great gift as a novelist is for social satire as sharp and transparent as glass, catching his quarry from an angle just an inch to the left of the view they themselves would catch in the mantelpiece mirror.The Line of Beauty is unlikely to be surpassed."
"One can't get enough of Hollinghurst's sentences.If you value style, wit, and social satire in your reading, don't miss this elegant and passionate novel."
"Almost perfectly written...this novel has the air of a classic."
"Almost perfectly written.this novel has the air of a classic."
Readers Top Reviews
M. Fermormalatrait
At the time of writing this, this Kindle version of the Booker Prize winning 'The Line of Beauty' was a paltry 89p. I would say this is a fantastic bargain for a thoroughly entertaining story that I would retrospectively have paid full price for anyway! The story follows Nick Guest, a gay graduate from Oxford University who has found himself adopted by the family of Gerald Fedden. Fedden is the father of Nick's friend from university, Toby. Gerald Fedden is a fairly prominent Conservative politician whose political career provides a constant background to the explorations of friendship, sexuality and drugs that the story engages with. The most pleasing aspect about the novel is the way that it deploys Nick's viewpoint to flit in and out of the broader political context which avoids it becoming a staid political critique of Thatcher's Britain. Readers therefore avoid being manipulated towards a simplistic conclusion about Tory Britain in the '80s even if the activities of this particular household are personally fairly damning. Viewed from the perspective of austerity Britain, the presentation of the economically booming Britain of the '80s is arguably even more compelling. The casual attitude to both drugs and wealth certainly gives food for thought and provides a significant reminder to the reader about the social legacy that underpins the political machinations of 21st century politicians, a significant number of whom would have partied with the best of them at the kind of parties detailed within the fabric of this novel. There are few characters that are very likable in this novel and it is perhaps a telling fact that one of the most endearing characters is Catherine, Toby's 'mad' sister, who, more than anyone, sees the society that she frequents for what it really is. I only really had one criticism of the novel. In my opinion, and this wasn't shared by my friend who I discussed the book with the other day, Hollinghurst's prose struck me as being a little pretentious at times; particularly with regard to his lexical choices, which reflected to me a slightly contrived attempt to puff up the intellectual clout of the narrative. Overall, I would thoroughly recommend 'The Line of Beauty'. It immerses the reader in a fascinating period of history for the UK, giving an intense flavour of a Tory-led society that publicly struggled to keep a lid on the private cocktail of sex, drugs and sexuality that bubbled underneath, threatening to shatter the foundations of the family-centric idyll of Conservatism.
This was the first novel by Alan Hollinghurst I read, and so far my favourite! He is able to write paragraphs of description where not much happens but I'm still enthralled. The storyline is fairly basic, it's more a bunch of characters going through a few years together, but it works. This is more about the characters, the tongue in cheek humour and themes than it is about the story. It doesn't come down on any sides really, politically or otherwise, it's more an explanation of the people and how they see the world. As a Londoner I enjoyed the setting and it was interesting to see how gay people navigated the world ten years before I was born. Since this I've only read 'The Swimming Pool Library' by Hollinghurst. I did enjoy that, but not as much as 'The Line of Beauty.'
Molewife
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Brought back so many memories of the 80s. Wonderfully well written. So much, ‘I wish I’d said that’. I felt for Nick. Although he’d benefited so much initially from the casual generosity of the Feddens, he paid for it in the end. It dovetails with recent TV programme ‘It’s a Sin’ and there’s a hint of ‘Brideshead Revisited’. I hope we’ve moved forwards a bit since then. Brilliant read.
PaulMSusan K. NoelCu
In full disclosure, I only made it through about 150 pages so there's a chance it could have gotten better, but I doubt it. While the prose was rich and descriptive, nothing much happened, the characters were pompous and there was absolutely no engaging storyline. I just couldn't read another word.
David C. GiffordGhos
This book of course is well written but the characters are just despicable. I hated Nick the gay character the most. He never once stood up for himself. Books should be better than this. Seems to be just another sad gay novel a la “Boys in the Band”.
