This extraordinary collection of essays reveals the ways in which the intersections of gender, cultural notions of beauty and wholeness, and physical difference articulate how people in the West respond to human faces. By explicating the relationship between facial difference and notions of moral soundness, disease, and anxiety-and its apparent continuity throughout the whole of European history-the editors and contributors challenge readers and researchers to re-evaluate modern-day assumptions about beauty and difference based upon their presentation of the past.

Linda E. Mitchell, Professor of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA

This engaging multi-disciplinary study encourages us to 'look' at the face and its multiple facets from a variety of points of view. It is a much-needed first step in gaining a better, more holistic understanding of the face and its perceptions throughout time.

Marjorie Gehrhardt, Lecturer in French History, University of Reading, UK