The Line of Beauty

by Alan Hollinghurst

Toby himself had never perhaps known why he and Nick were friends, but had amiably accepted the evidence that they were.

found himself in fact at one of those unforeseen moments of inner transition, when an old prejudice dissolves into a new desire.

The heavy gilding of the spines, seen through the fine gilt grilles of the carved and gilded bookcases, created a mood of minatory opulence. They seemed to be books in some quite different sense from those that Nick used and handled every day.

Sabre Dance by Khachaturian.

My Lord

already sentimental about their little routines here, and his esoteric success, being deep in France, in a lovely old house, with his two beautiful boys.

Mutato nomine fabula de te narratur

He felt warmed and saddened by his drug secrets and his sex secrets, like an adulterous parent playing with an unsuspecting child.

Why then

“It all sounds rather pathetic, somehow,” said Catherine.

That's for damn sure

“Anyway, it’s very nice,” said Penny, for whom being the daughter of Norman Kent had worked as a perfect inoculation against art.

she noticed nothing, and yet she remembered everything.