The Language of the Face

A broad and riveting cultural history of physiognomy, exploring how the desire to divine deeper meaning from our looks has compelled humans for millennia.

How do you read a face? For thousands of years, artists, philosophers, and scientists have explored the question of what our outer appearance might reveal about our inner selves. In The Language of the Face, a marvelously comprehensive exploration of the pseudoscience of physiognomy, Frank Gonzalez-Crussi considers over a millennium’s worth of primary sources to paint a splendid portrait of the face’s cultural symbology.
 
Gonzalez-Crussi, an acclaimed pathologist and writer, transcends disciplines with a singular balance of depth and levity. Blending literary analysis of both ancient and modern texts with the insights of medical anthropology, his narrative ranges from an investigation into “nasal semiotics”—a subject whose legacy persists most destructively in myths of racial typology—to equally astute analyses of the thrills of the erotic kiss, the diagnostic art of astrology, and the enlightening qualities of supposed ugliness. While our appearances may ultimately be no more than surface-level signifiers of identity, Gonzalez-Crussi’s work is anything but superficial in its treatment of the consummately human urge to find profound meaning amidst seemingly arbitrary attributes. As rigorously researched as it is wildly entertaining, The Language of the Face is a vibrant contribution to both the emerging field of medical humanities and the popular understanding of aesthetics and physiology at large.Introductory Note vii
1 Of Noses Comic, Dramatic, Lost and Recovered 1
2 Nasology: The Long and the Short of It 27
3 Of Eyes and Their Hidden Powers 51
4 The Thralldom of Darkness and some Escapes 77
5 The Lips 103
6 On Some of Physiognomy's Growing Pains 137
7 On Beauty's Uneven Lot 161
8 On Being Ugly 187
9 The Face of a Very Trivial Death: A Short Story by Way of Epilogue 211
Notes 217
Index 237“Gonzalez-Crussi employs a full expression of sources and draws from a range of disciplines . . . all of it expressed with verve, wit, and a contagious enthusiasm and curiosity.”
– Boston Globe“This wide ranging, beautifully written book traces the fascinating and often absurd history of physiognomy, a pseudo-science in which features of the face are thought to reveal inner character. Droll, erudite, and full of bizarre detail, Gonzalez-Crussi’s latest is a captivating and idiosyncratic take on a perennially fascinating topic.”
—Joanna Ebenstein, Founder and Creative Director, Morbid Anatomy
 
“Feature by feature, F. Gonzalez-Crussi  delineates our complex historic relationship with our face in a research adventure through his exotic library of facial sources. This fascinating book unmasks prejudice, illuminates the obscure and reconciles our inner person with our  outer appearance.”
—Eleanor Crook, Anatomical Sculptor and Artist in Residence, Gordon Museum of Pathology, Kings College London; Morbid Anatomy European AttachéFrank Gonzalez-Crussi is Professor Emeritus of Pathology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where he specialized in pediatric pathology. He is the author of 22 books in both English and Spanish, including The Body Fantastic (MIT Press).