Summary of The Line of Beauty
Set in the 1980s, “The Line of Beauty” follows Nick Guest, a young gay Englishman from a modest background who comes to live as a lodger with the wealthy Fedden family in Notting Hill, West London. Nick is a recent Oxford graduate and has a secret crush on his friend Toby Fedden. In return for his accommodation, Nick is expected to help care for Toby’s sister, Catherine, who suffers from bipolar disorder. The novel traces Nick’s life across three key moments, describing how he becomes drawn into a world of privilege, political power, drugs, money and gay sexual freedom.
Reasons to read The Line of Beauty
“The Line of Beauty” deals with themes of homosexuality, the AIDS crisis, drugs, the nature of beauty, and the moral hypocrisy of Britain’s upper classes during the Thatcher years. The book won the 2004 Booker Prize and was included in The Guardian’s 2019 list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Alan Hollinghurst is a renowned English writer. He won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1989 for “The Swimming-Pool Library” and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1994 for “The Folding Star”.
Setting: London (England, UK)
Original title: The Line of Beauty
Year of publication: 2004
Nr of pages: 448
