No power on earth, however, can abolish the merciless class distinction between those who are physically desirable and the lonely, pallid, spotted, silent, unfancied majority.

Attractiveness, Mortimer says, sorts people into a hard hierarchy that nothing can undo. Those left outside it are the lonely, pale, spotted and quiet majority. It's a rueful, bitterly funny view of who gets noticed and who doesn't.

Context reviewed 28 September 2026