The Line of Beauty: A Novel
by Alan Hollinghurst
Alan Hollinghurst’s biting satire of uppercrust English society during the 1980s offers sexual awakening, social-climbing and political ambition set against the cultural upheaval and unrest of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. A modern classic that remains as vivid and compelling today as it was on first publication.
Recommendations from our site
“This book was his smash hit. It tells the story of a young man and his sexual awakening. It’s a love story and it’s super sexy. At the time, it was considered pretty wild. I don’t think there’d been a state-of-the-nation novel quite like it. It was a real commentary on Thatcher’s Britain and the sexual revolution that the young man was going through. Hollinghurst writes it beautifully. It’s a very complete novel. He’s got a novelistic way of writing. You’re really in there, in the story with this young man. The Line of Beauty is the novel to go to if you want sexy, illicit Thatcher’s Britain writ large.” Read more...
The Best Historical Novels Set in the 1980s
Eleanor Anstruther, Novelist
