Facial Justice. Illustrated

In Facial Justice, L. P. Hartley paints a chilling dystopian vision of post‑war England, where society outlaws beauty, envy, and individuality, all in the name of a collectivist ideal. After the devastation of a Third World War, the survivors emerge to form the New State, governed by an unseen "Darling Dictator" whose ideals of “equality” and “uniformity” dictate every aspect of life. Citizens must wear sackcloth and ashes, suppress personality, and any trait that might provoke envy, including physical beauty, is systematically erased.

Facial Justice is Hartley’s provocative meditation on envy, identity, and the tension between social justice and personal liberty. It asks hard questions: at what cost do we pursue equality? And is the suppression of difference ever justified? This novel stands as a powerful, unsettling reminder that the human spirit resists being flattened.