On Beauty and Being Just

by Elaine Scarry

Taking up the case for the much-maligned--or, worse, ignored--subject of beauty, Scarry argues not only for its inherent value, and the value of paying attention to it, but suggests that cultivating an understanding or an appreciation of beauty can lead to a desire for truth and a more persistent belief in a just society.

Editions of On Beauty and Being Just

	ISBN 9780691048758	Binding/Format Hardcover	Publisher Princeton Univ Pr	Date 1999	Price $25.00
	ISBN 9780691089591	Binding/Format Paperback	Publisher Princeton Univ Pr	Date 2001	Price $8.60	New

Media Reviews

"It is encouraging to have this utterly original blast for beauty now from the Harvard English department, where Scarry is a professor. It is not too late. Scarry, unlike her great 19th-century predecessors, does not preach, and in her short book does not even lecture. In a light and allusive and gentle and unpolemical style, she insinuates that we might learn to look and to listen better and to attend more closely to shapes and forms in art and nature, and to protect any beautiful things that we haphazardly encounter as we stumble along under the growing weight of the dull and indifferent things, which are always supposed to support us and which we are to take seriously. Ms. Scarry makes a strong case for concentrating seriously on Matisse and colors...and ferns and feathers."

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