With exemplary clarity Elaine Scarry argues that admiring the beautiful isnothing to be ashamed of that on the contrary beauty fosters the spirit ofjustice. A b... » 

With exemplary clarity Elaine Scarry argues that admiring the beautiful isnothing to be ashamed of that on the contrary beauty fosters the spirit ofjustice. A brave and timely book.J.M.CoetzeeHere is a writer almost magically summoning up the world through words andideas in a new way and so guiding the reader lovingly to receive thetreasures and accept the pleasures of this book as naturally as breathing. Hereis a book so measured in words and yet so exciting in ideas a book thatexplains the world even as it is explaining itself. This writer ElaineScarry always leading us to consider justice has given us a book that isbeautiful and inspiring to such a degree that after truly reading it thereader cannot help but be changed.Jamaica KincaidAmong a restorers solvents imagine one so marvelous that what it repairedwhat it returned to sparkling freshness was not some beautiful object but ourdamaged perception of Beauty itself. Elaine Scarrys imagination works justthis wonder potent enough to dissolve our every grimy resentment yet sodelicate that in Beautys renewed radiance we discern long invisible thesubtle outline of an ethics.D. A. Miller Columbia University «