Six Names of Beauty

Six Names of Beauty by Sartwell, Crispin. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780415979924.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but its also in the language we use and everywhere in the world around us. In this elegant, witty, and ultimately profound meditation on what is beautiful, Crispin Sartwell begins with six words from six different cultures - ancient Greeks to kalon, the Japanese idea of wabi-sabi, Hebrews yapha, the Navajo concept hozho, Sanskrit sundara, and our own English-language beauty. Each word becomes a door onto another way of thinking about, and looking at, what is beautiful in the world, and in our lives. In Sartwells hands these six names of beauty - and there could be thousands more - are revealed as simple and profound ideas about our world and our selves.