“An odd thing about beauty, however, is that its absence tends not to arouse sympathy as much as other forms of privation do. To the contrary, Edith Wharton might well be more congenial to us now if, alongside her other advantages, she’d looked like Grace Kelly or Jacqueline Kennedy; and nobody was more conscious of this capacity of beauty to override our resentment of privilege than Wharton herself.” -Jonathan Franzen on Edith Wharton
Let me just say that this passage perfectly explains my current feelings toward someone I know. I actually replaced Edith Wharton’s name with the person’s name when I went over the text a second time.
portraits, etc. 