Beauty

Camille Paglia talks about pagan perfection, Sophia Loren gives the girls a few tips on vanity, Edmund Burke waxes philosophical about the qualities of beauty, Toni Morrison has a couple of things to say about Ernest Hemingway’s idea of good looks, and Helen Gurley Brown cautions us never to apply lipliner with a dull pencil. Theoretical writings on bosom size, ugliness, and hair loss; odes and poetic rhapsodies in the name of beauty; two bewitching versions of “Beauty and the Beast”; and a foreword by Diane Ackerman make Beauty alluring to every beholder.