On Beauty

447 Pages·2005·1.22 MB·English

by  Zadie Smith

On Beauty
Zadie Smith
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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.
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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

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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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