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On Beauty Zadie Smith visit Penguin at: www.penguin.co.uk e    Zadie Smith was born in north-west London in 1975 and con- tinues to live in the area. On Beauty is her third novel. Her first book, White Teeth (also available as an ePenguin ebook), was the winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ First Book Award. Published by the Penguin Group: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 90 Eglington Avenue Ear, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada MP4 2Y3 Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL First published by Hamish Hamilton, 2005 First Electronic edition, 2005 Copyright © Zadie Smith, 2002 Illustrations copyright © Roderick Mills, 2002 The moral right of the author has been asserted The publisher would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce the following copyright material: Faber and Faber Ltd for the extracts from ‘The Last Saturday in Ulster’, ‘Imperial’ and ‘On Beauty’ from the collection To a Fault by Nick Laird; Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd for the extract from On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry; the Random House Group Ltd for the extract from School of the Arts by Mark Doty, published by Jonathan Cape; Saja Music Co. and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd for the extract from ‘I Get Around’, words and music by Shirley Murdock/ Larry Troutman/Roger Troutman, copyright © 1993. Saja Music Co. and Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, and we apologize for any unintentional omission All rights reserved.The author would particularly like to acknowledge the importance of Leon Wiesetier’s wise and poetic memoir, Kaddish Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to civil and/or criminal liability, where applicable. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 0 7865 5981 0 in MS Reader format ISBN 0 7865 5982 9 in Adobe eReader format www.penguin.com FormydearLaird contents  kippsandbelsey   theanatomylesson   onbeautyandbeingwrong  author’snote  acknowledgements Mygratitudetomyfirstreaders,NickLaird,JessicaFrazier,Tamara Barnett-Herrin, Michal Shavit, David O’Rourke, Yvonne Bailey- Smith and Lee Klein. Their encouragement, criticism and good advicegotthethingstarted.ThankyoutoHarveyandYvonnefor their support and to my younger brothers, Doc Brown and Luc Skyz, who offer advice on all the things I am too old to know. Thankyoutomyex-studentJacobKramerfornotesoncollegelife and East Coast mores. Thank you to India Knight and Elisabeth Merriman for all the French. Thank you to Cassandra King and AlexAdamsonfordealingwithallextra-literarymatters. I thank Beatrice Monti for another stay at Santa Maddelena and the good work that came out of it. Thank you to my English and Americaneditors,SimonProsserandAnneGodoff,withoutwhom thisbookwouldbelongerandworse.ThankyoutoDonnaPoppy, thecleverestcopyeditoragirlcouldhopefor.ThankyoutoJuliette Mitchell at Penguin for all her hard work on my behalf. Without myagent,GeorgiaGarrett,Icouldn’tdothisjobatall.Thankyou, George.You’reabobbydazzler. Thank you to Simon Schama for his monumental Rembrandt’s Eyes, a book that helped me to see paintings properly for the first time. Thank you to Elaine Scarry for her wonderful essay ‘On Beauty and Being Just’, from which I borrowed a title, a chapter heading and a good deal of inspiration. It should be obvious from the first line that this is a novel inspired by a love of E. M. Forster, towhomallmyfictionisindebted,onewayortheother.Thistime Iwantedtorepaythedebtwithhommage. Most of all, I thank my husband, whose poetry I steal to make my prose look pretty. It’s Nick who knows that ‘time is how you spend your love’, and that’s why this book is dedicated to him, as ismylife. kipps and belsey Werefusetobeeachother. H.J.Blackham  OnemayaswellbeginwithJerome’se-mailstohisfather: To:[email protected] From:[email protected] Date:5November Subject: Hey,Dad–basicallyI’mjustgoingtokeeponkeepingonwiththese mails–I’mnolongerexpectingyoutoreply,butI’mstillhopingyou will,ifthatmakessense. Well,I’mreallyenjoyingeverything.IworkinMontyKipps’sown office(didyouknowthathe’sactuallySirMonty??),whichisinthe GreenParkarea.It’smeandaCornishgirlcalledEmily.She’scool. There’realsothreemoreyankinternsdownstairs(onefromBoston!), soIfeelprettymuchathome.I’makindofaninternwiththeduties ofaPA –organizinglunches,filing,talkingtopeopleonthephone, thatsortofthing.Monty’sworkismuchmorethanjusttheacademic stuff:he’sinvolvedwiththeRaceCommission,andhehasChurch charitiesinBarbados,Jamaica,Haiti,etc.–hekeepsmereallybusy. Becauseit’ssuchasmallset-up,Igettoworkcloselywithhim– andofcourseI’mlivingwiththefamilynow,whichislikebeing completelyintegratedintosomethingnew.Ah,thefamily.Youdidn’t respond,soI’mimaginingyourreaction(nottoohardtoimagine...). Thetruthis,itwasreallyjustthemostconvenientoptionatthetime. Andtheyweretotallykindtooffer–Iwasbeingevictedfromthe ‘bedsit’placeinMarylebone.TheKippsesaren’tunderanyobligation tome,buttheyaskedandIaccepted–gratefully.I’vebeenintheir placeaweeknow,andstillnomentionofanyrent,whichshouldtell yousomething.Iknowyouwantmetotellyouit’sanightmare,but Ican’t–Ilovelivinghere.It’sadifferentuniverse.Thehouseisjust wow–earlyVictorian,a‘terrace’–unassuming-lookingoutsidebut  OnBeauty massiveinside–butthere’sstillakindofhumilitythatreallyappeals tome–almosteverythingwhite,andalotofhandmadethings, andquiltsanddarkwoodshelvesandcornicesandthisfour-storey staircase–andinthewholeplacethere’sonlyonetelevision,which isinthebasementanyway,justsoMontycankeepabreastofnews stuff,andsomeofthethingshedoesonthetelevision–butthat’sit. Ithinkofitasthenegativizedimageofourhousesometimes...It’s inthisbitofNorthLondoncalled‘Kilburn’,whichsoundsbucolic,but boyohboyisnotbucolicintheleast,exceptforthisstreetweliveon offthe‘highroad’,andit’ssuddenlylikeyoucan’thearathingand youcanjustsitintheyardintheshadowofthishugetree–eighty feettallandivy-edallupthetrunk...readingandfeelinglikeyou’re inanovel...Fall’sdifferenthere–muchlessintenseandtreesbalder earlier–everythingmoremelancholysomehow. Thefamilyareanotherthingagain–theydeservemorespaceand timethanIhaverightnow(I’mwritingthisonmylunchhour).But,in brief:oneboy,Michael,nice,sporty.Alittledull,Iguess.You’dthink hewas,anyway.He’sabusinessguy–exactlywhatbusinessIhaven’t beenabletofigureout.Andhe’shuge!He’sgottwoinchesonyou, atleast.They’reallbiginthatathletic,Caribbeanway.Hemustbe 6(cid:1)5(cid:2).There’salsoaverytallandbeautifuldaughter,Victoria,whoI’ve seenonlyinphotos(she’sinter-railinginEurope),butshe’scoming backforawhileonFriday,Ithink.Monty’swife,Carlene–perfect. She’snotfromTrinidad,though–it’sasmallisland,Stsomething orother–I’mnotsure.Ididn’thearitverywellthefirsttimeshe mentionedit,andnowit’slikeit’stoolatetoask.She’salwaystrying tofattenmeup–shefeedsmeconstantly.Therestofthefamilytalk aboutsportsandGodandpolitics,andCarlenefloatsaboveitalllike akindofangel–andshe’shelpingmewithprayer.Shereallyknows howtopray–andit’sverycooltobeabletopraywithoutsomeone inyourfamilycomingintotheroomand(a)passingwind(b)shouting (c)analysingthe‘phoneymetaphysics’ofprayer(d)singingloudly (e)laughing. Sothat’sCarleneKipps.TellMomthatshebakes.Justtellherthat andthenwalkawaychuckling... Now,listentothisnextbitcarefully:inthemorningthe whole kipps 

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Howard Belsey, a Rembrandt scholar who doesn't like Rembrandt, is an Englishman abroad and a long-suffering professor at Wellington, a liberal New England arts college. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman who no longer resembles the sexy activist she once was. Their three