The Line of Beauty

For the concept in art, see line of beauty.

The Line of Beauty

First edition cover
Author	Alan Hollinghurst
Language	English
Genre	Gay, historical novel
Publisher	Picador Books
Publication date	2004
Publication place	UK
Media type	Print (Paperback and Hardback)
Pages	400 pp (hardcover edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-330-48321-8 (hardcover edition)
OCLC	263634123

The Line of Beauty is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.

Plot introduction

Set in Britain in the early to mid-1980s, the story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest, who has come down from Oxford with a first in English and is to begin graduate studies at University College London.

The novel begins in the summer of 1983, shortly after Thatcher's landslide victory in the Parliamentary election of that year. Nick moves into the luxurious London home of the wealthy Fedden family. The son of the house, Toby, is his Oxford University classmate and friend, and Nick's stay is meant to last for a short time while Toby and his parents - Rachel, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family, and Gerald, a successful businessman and just-elected Tory MP - are on holiday in France. Left at home with Nick is the Feddens' daughter, Cat, who is bipolar and whom the Feddens are reluctant to leave on her own. Nick helps Cat through a minor crisis, and when her parents return they suggest he stay on indefinitely, since Cat has become attached to him and Toby is getting a place of his own.

As a permanent member of the Feddens' household, Nick experiences for the first time the world of the British upper class, observing them from his own middle-class background. Nick remains a guest in the Fedden home until he is expelled at the end of the novel. Nick has his first romance with a black council worker, Leo, but a later relationship with Wani, the son of a rich Lebanese businessman, illuminates the materialism and ruthlessness of 1980s Thatcherite Britain.

The book explores the tension between Nick's intimate relationship with the Feddens, in whose parties and holidays he participates, and the realities of his sexuality and gay life, which the Feddens accept only to the extent of never mentioning it. It explores themes of hypocrisy, homosexuality, madness and wealth, with the emerging AIDS crisis forming a backdrop to the book's conclusion.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title of the book refers to the double ‘S' of the ogee shape, a shape which 'swings both ways', described by William Hogarth in his The Analysis of Beauty as the model of beauty, which protagonist Nick Guest uses to describe his lover’s body. For some characters, lines of cocaine are 'beautiful'. Another underlying theme is the difference between spiritual and material beauty.

Characters in "The Line of Beauty"

• Nick Guest. A white gay postgraduate student at University College, London writing a thesis on Henry James and staying at the Feddens'.
• Don and Dot Guest. Nick's parents, of comparatively humble origins.
• Tobias 'Toby' Fedden. Nick's handsome, straight friend from Oxford University.
• Catherine Fedden. Tobias's sister, an outspoken woman who has bi-polar disorder and engages in self-harming.
• Gerald Fedden. Tobias's father, a Conservative MP.
• Rachel Fedden. Tobias's mother.
• Elena. The Feddens' housekeeper.
• Lord Lionel Kessler. Rachel's brother, Jewish, politically left-wing and possibly gay.
• Lady Partridge. Gerald's mother, and Catherine and Tobias's grandmother. Her first husband was Gerald's father, Jack Fedden, a lawyer; her second husband was Jack Partridge, a builder of motorways. She has outlived them both.
• Leo Charles. Nick's black lover, whom he meets through a singles page. Leo dies from AIDS, as does his ex-boyfriend, Pete. Leo's homosexuality is not accepted by his mother, who is a devout Christian.
• Rosemary Charles. Leo's sister. She and her girlfriend, Gemma, visit Nick to inform him of Leo's death.
• Antoine Wani Ouradi. A friend of Nick and Tobias's from Oxford. He has a secret sexual relationship with Nick and later develops AIDS.
• Bertrand Ouradi. Antoine's father, a rich Lebanese businessman, and a large donor to the Conservative Party.
• Monique Ouradi. Wani's mother. She is French.
• Uncle Emile. Wani's uncle. His son is named Antoine.
• Martine. Antoine's 'fiancée', who is paid an allowance by his mother to continue the appearance of dating him.
• Russell. One of Catherine's boyfriends, a photographer.
• Jasper. One of Catherine's boyfriends, an estate agent.
• Brentford. One of Catherine's boyfriends, a taxi-driver.
• Norman Kent. Rachel's former boyfriend. A left-wing artist, he has painted several portraits of the Feddens family.
• Penny Kent. Norman's daughter. She becomes Gerald's secretary and the two have an affair.
• Pat Grayson. Catherine's gay godfather, an actor who dies of AIDS.
• Barry Groom. A Conservative politician who never says hello. His wife is named Jenny.
• John Timms. A minister in the Home Office. His wife is named Greta.
• Morden Lipscomb. An American, often referred to as 'the mordant analyst'.
• Sir Maurice Tipper. A rich and greedy businessman engaged in unethical business practices. He is also a homophobe. His wife is named Sally.
• Sophie Tipper. The Tippers' daughter, who nearly marries Tobias.
• George Titchfield, a minor Conservative politician and one of the Feddens' neighbors.
• Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister and MP for Finchley, she makes an appearance at the Feddens' house party, and Nick asks her to dance.
• Polly Tompkins. One of Nick's former classmates. He is gay and works in the government. He eventually marries and is elected to Parliament as a Conservative.
• Sam Zeman. A banker and former classmate of Nick's. He helps Nick invest money given to him by Wani.
• Simon Jones and Howard Wasserstein. Two gay men who work at Wani's office.
• Treat Rush and Brad Craft. Two American 'queens' interested in financing Nick and Wani's film adaptation of The Spoils of Poynton.
• Ricky. A man Nick and Wani pick up at the pool.
• Tristão. A Madeiran waiter, gay.

Major themes

The book touches upon the emergence of HIV/AIDS, as well as the relationship between politics and homosexuality, its acceptance within the 1980s Conservative Party and mainstream society. The book also considers heterosexual hypocrisy regarding homosexual promiscuity. Finally, an underlying theme is the nature of beauty. Nick is attracted to physical beauty in art and in men. However, he pays a price for his choices: his beautiful lover Wani is a self-hating homosexual, and the Feddens' home (in which Nick Guest remains a guest) is filled with both exquisite art and vile hypocrisy.

Allusions to other works

• The novel is dedicated to journalist and short-story writer Francis Wyndham.
• An excerpt from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is quoted before the first section. Nick is said to like Alexander Pope more than William Wordsworth. Lord Kessler praises Anthony Trollope after Nick picks up his copy of The Way We Live Now. Nick goes on to say he prefers the style of Henry James, Joseph Conrad and George Meredith. Later, Jenny Groom says she has read Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary. Wani is said to have books by William Shakespeare, George Eliot's Middlemarch and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones in his bedroom. In the Feddens's house in France, there are copies of books by Frederick Forsyth. Later Nick has a book of verse by John Berryman.
• Sophie is to play Lady Agatha in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan. At the end, Nick compares the Feddens to William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
• The Feddens have a painting by Francesco Guardi in their house. Leo's mother has a replica of William Holman Hunt's The Shadow of Death in her house. She also mentions his The Light of the World. Lord Kessler has a painting by Paul Cézanne and Rembrandt, and is said to have a Kandinsky. Later in the narrative Howard Hodgkin is mentioned. Lord Kessler gives them a painting by Paul Gauguin.
• Leo and Nick go to the cinema to see Scarface. Together, they have seen Rumble Fish and Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On. Later at the pool, a man asks Wani if he has seen A Room with a View. Later, Merchant Ivory Productions is mentioned, along with Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.
• Leo plays some Mozart at the piano, which is said to sound like Bach; Liszt is also mentioned with regard to Toby. Moreover, Nick says he doesn't like Richard Strauss and prefers Richard Wagner. The Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra is mentioned. In Wani's parents's bedroom, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons can be heard when the curtains are being closed. Later, Nina plays Chopin, Schubert, Beethoven, Busoni and Khachaturian. Kiri Te Kanawa is mentioned. Nick is said to like Anton Bruckner. At the end, Catherine plays Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and dances like Natalia Makarova.
• Nick quotes phrases from Henry James's The Outcry and The High Bid. Later, he says he is working on a film adaptation of The Spoils of Poynton with Wani – he mentions Ezra Pound, who said it was a book about furniture. In France, he reads A Small Boy and Others. Later, the film adaptation of The Bostonians is mentioned. The Portrait of a Lady is also mentioned at the end.
• André Charles Boulle is mentioned with regard to Pete.
• Architects Aston Webb, along with Christopher Wren and Francesco Borromini are alluded to. Nick is also said to have read books by Nikolaus Pevsner.
• Nick suspects Lord Kessler's wedding anniversary present to the Feddens is by Paul de Lamerie.
• Catherine plays The Clash. Nick and Margaret Thatcher later dance to Get off of My Cloud by The Rolling Stones.
• Morgan le Fay is mentioned.

Allusions to actual history

• Lord Kessler mentions Madame de Pompadour.
• At the dinner party at the Feddens, the guests talk about the Falklands War, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the Battle of Trafalgar.
• At the recital, Giscard d'Estaing is mentioned. Later, Nick sees a picture of Gerald and Ronald Reagan. There is also a picture of Catherine and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Literary significance and criticism

Hollinghurst wrote part of the novel in Yaddo.

The book won the 2004 Booker Prize.

Hollinghurst has received praise for his portrayal of life among the privileged governing classes during the early to middle 1980s.

The novel has been compared to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, with special regard to Powell's character Nicholas Jenkins. The protagonist has also been likened to Nick Carraway in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

Margaret Thatcher's appearance has been compared to that of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; Sir Maurice Tipper and his wife have been compared to Evelyn Waugh characters.

TV adaptation

The novel was adapted for television by Andrew Davies as a three-part mini-series for BBC Two, broadcast from 17 May 2006. It stars Dan Stevens as Nick Guest, with Hayley Atwell, Tim McInnerny, Alice Krige, Alex Wyndham, Oliver Coleman, Joseph Morgan, Lydia Leonard, Elize du Toit, Don Gilét, Kenneth Cranham and Barbara Flynn. It was directed by Saul Dibb.

External links

• The BBC Line of Beauty website
• Video of an interview on The Line of Beauty with Alan Hollinghurst, top right hand corner
• Review from The Guardian
• Review from The Telegraph
• Review from the New York Times
• Review from the Washington Post
• Review from the San Francisco Chronicle
• Review from the Boston Globe
• Review from the Seattle Times
• Review from the Christian Science Monitor
• Review from The Age
• 'All the Glitters', review in the Oxonian Review
• The Line of Beauty (miniseries) at IMDb