History BeautyEqualsGoodness / Literature

* "Literature/PrinceCharming": This seems to be true of Vasilisa, though Prince Dmitriv and the other courtiers can hardly believe it. Only because they are cynical, though.

* All of the protagonists of ''Literature/TheLastDragonChronicles'' are described as - at the very least - good-looking at some point. Then, most bad guys are ugly as road kill. [[spoiler:AND THEN you have everyone who got infected by the Shadow - horribly deformed. But they're back to being pretty after it's gone.]]
* A noticeable trend throughout the ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' series, all the good guys are described as pretty or beautiful. Averted with Peter, who is a complete jerk, but is repeatedly described as being good-looking.

* Creator/CSLewis sometimes uses this in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia''. The most prominent instance: the ''Dawn Treader'' party meets the star's daughter [[spoiler: who became Caspian's wife]] and think, "When they looked at her they thought they had never before known what beauty meant." Another example, Swanwhite the (good) Queen who lived in one of the long periods of peace in-between the Chronicles, "was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards." Lewis certainly did not believe that external beauty ''equalled'' internal goodness [[BeautyIsBad as demonstrated elsewhere in the Chronicles]], but he did believe in internal goodness expressing itself, eventually, as visible beauty. This is beautifully and ultimately demonstrated in Literature/TheLastBattle, when Emeth describes Polly, Lucy, and Jill with "O Ladies, whose beauty illuminates the universe." Since he and everyone else still in the story is in [[{{Heaven}} a state where they both see and speak Truth]], it is the utterance of a truly reliable witness.
* While ''Literature/HarryPotter'' includes a number of aversions, the trope is overall played straight:
** The magic-hating and repressive Dursley family are all either fat, or, in the case of Harry's Aunt Petunia, horse-faced. The story very clearly draws parallels between the obesity of Harry's cousin Dudley and his materialistic gluttony, as well as between Aunt Petunia's long neck and her nosiness and propensity to spy on neighbors over fences. Her sister/Harry's mom, Lily, is described as having been quite pretty and was much nicer than her. In the final book, when Dudley has matured past being a thug and bully and has let go of his animosity towards Harry and the magical world, he is no longer fat but muscular and presumably quite attractive.
** The minor Death Eaters (who are the evil minions of Voldemort) are all introduced by informing the reader how ugly they are. Rockwood is a "pockmarked man with greasy hair." Dolohov has a "long, pale, twisted face." Amycus Carrow has a "pallid, doughy face and tiny eyes" with a "lopsided leer" and a "wheezy giggle." His sister Alecto Carrow is introduced as a cackling "broad, hunched woman with pointed teeth." And so on.
** With the notable exception of Harry's rival Malfoy, Slytherins at Hogwarts usually look brutal and thuggish. Malfoy's lackeys Crabbe and Goyle look like gorillas. Of the two Slytherin girls given any screentime, Pansy Parkinson is described as having a "pug-face" and Millicent Bulstrode is a "large and square" girl who "reminded Harry of a picture he'd seen in Holidays with Hags."
** Judging the attractiveness of ''good'' characters is much more difficult, since the narrative is much more conservative in describing characters as explicitly attractive or as having explicitly attractive features. That said, few of Harry's friends at Hogwarts are described as having unattractive features, leading to the assumption that they are at minimum not ugly. Harry himself is introduced in the first book as a short and small 10-year old child with knobby knees, but these descriptions are dropped as he enters puberty. In the second book, he's no longer described as having knobby knees, and the third book no longer describes him as short. As a young man, Harry is described as skinny, with brilliant green eyes and dark untidy hair. Hermione has bushy hair but attracts a fair amount of male attention over the course of the series.
** The general rule is that ugliness will not make you become evil, but evilness will make you become ugly. Voldemort's looks began to deteriorate when he started using large amounts of dark magic resulting in his inhuman appearance, while Bellatrix lost her beauty through insanity and her stay in Azkaban.
** It's also worth mentioning Gilderoy Lockheart. He's represented as very handsome and charming and has published several books about his various heroic deeds. It's then found out that he's been finding people who banish werewolves and such and modify their memory, then taking their credit. He claims that one reason he did this is that the people who did these things weren't very pretty.
* The Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar setting generally embraces this as long as the beauty comes 'naturally'. Human heroes may be plain, but just as many are drop dead gorgeous, with special mention going to the endlessly self-sacrificing [[Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy Vanyel Ashkevron]] and his flamboyant descendent Firesong k'Treva, who are in for frequent rapturous statements about their good looks, though Firesong is also vain and so is flawed. The setting is also known for Companions, [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels in the shape of]] {{Cool Horse}}s, who are universally [[AngelicBeauty dazzlingly white and beautiful]], all the better to sway people into accepting their goodness. There are also gryphons, which were [[CreatingLifeIsAwesome designed by a mage with artistic sensibilities]] and ''know'' it, and are almost universally brave and heroic.
** There are some regular humans, and sometimes monsters, who are naturally both beautiful and evil, but they're exceptions. Anyone who ''makes'' themselves beautiful, from civillian women to powerful mages, is at best [[RealWomenDontWearDresses empty-headed and frivolous]], at worst monstrous for it - when Vanyel meets [[FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon Krebain]] he feels betrayed and horrified by the violation of BeautyEqualsGoodness until he rationalizes that Krebain's looks are [[MakeupIsEvil the result of artifice, like face-painting but moreso]].
* Literature/DanielX goes to varying extremes.
** Apparently, the most dangerous alien criminals hiding out on Earth are mostly shapeshifters, with their [[ShapeshifterDefaultForm Default Forms]] being ugly to the point of ToiletHumour. Like, half of their description is how much they love the idea of killing/eating Daniel and hate all that is good; and the other half is how gross they look, how deep and distorted their voices are, and the [[FirstPersonSmartass First Person Smartass's favorite:]] How they smell.
** How the good guys are pretty needs some breaking down. The titular hero is a RealityWarper, whose childhood friends were killed when his home planet suffered a genocide. Daniel resurrects them from memory whenever he gets lonely, making them disappear whenever it's most convenient for him. The most conventionally attractive is a blonde named Dana, frequently referred to by Daniel as his "dream girl" or "soulmate." The genocide in question happened when Daniel was three years old, so how Dana and the others aged is entirely up to Daniel's conjecture. Oh, and sometimes Daniel gets distracted by [[GirlOfTheWeek another, more human girl for a book or two]]. [[MonochromeCasting They're also all white.]]
* ''Literature/RascalDoesNotDreamOfBunnyGirlSenpai'': Female heroine Mai Sakurajima is considered very beautiful and attractive in-series and out. She's also an immensely kind-hearted, selfless and forgiving individual. Sakuta's little sister Kaede (who is fond of her just as Mai herself is fond of Kaede) says she wishes she could be just like her for her beauty and kindness.
** Shoko Makinohara counts as well. Just like the main characters she is a paragon of kindness and altruism, and her way of living, which she teaches to Sakuta to begin with, is to be a little bit kinder every day. And yes, she goes from a cute kid to a very beautiful teenage girl.
** Really, while there's quite the focus on Mai's inside-out beauty, pretty much all the characters in the series can be considered as reasonably attractive, and all in all they're very pleasant and kind-hearted individuals.
* ''Literature/SamTheCatDetective'': Sam is a firm believer that this trope is true for female humans and cats alike, dismissing gorgeous actress Mary-Beth [=DeSpain=] as a suspect the moment he sees her picture in ''The Big Catnap.'' While there are a few selfish and unpleasant attractive female cats in the series, none are villainous.
* ''Literature/TheWitchlands:''
** Merik is noted to be a fairly handsome man, and is a steadfast (if [[HairTriggerTemper irascible]]) ally to Safi and Iseult. He's at [[TerrorHero his darkest]] in ''Windwitch'', something reflected by his horribly scarred face (courtesy of a failed assassination attempt). His return to heroism is marked by him noting that the scars are starting to fade, revealing his true, beautiful face.
** Iseult has a hard time reconciling the fact that the monstrous Bloodwitch chasing her and Safi has [[WhatBeautifulEyes eyes of the palest blue]] and actually looks handsome when he isn't scowling. This, and the fact that [[AntiVillain Aeduan]] had saved her life earlier, prompt her to trust him when the wisest course of action would be to make a run for it. This trust eventually leads to Aeduan performing a HeelFaceTurn.

* Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: Played straight as an arrow! Check [[http://fernmichaels.com/series-characters-sisterhood-series/ this]] out for proof. The bad guys are mostly ugly as sin to start with or beautiful in a fake way but become ugly by the end. Of course, Lizzie Fox's marriage with Cosmo Cricket cheerfully goes into UglyGuyHotWife territory.

* Played with ''all over the damn place'' in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth''. The list of hot evil chicks and handsome evil dudes is about as long as their good counterparts. In fact, its implied that their good looks helped them on the road to be big enough bads to seriously break things.
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/TheMonsterMen'', how Virginia deduces Bulan's character
-->''At first she wondered if he could be a fugitive from justice--the perpetrator of some horrid crime, who dared not divulge his true name even in the remote fastness of a Bornean wilderness; but a glance at his frank and noble countenance drove every vestige of the traitorous thought from her mind. Her woman's intuition was sufficient guarantee of the nobility of his character.''
* Played straight and inverted in ''Literature/InheritanceCycle''. On the one hand, a lot of the protagonists are described as attractive, especially the elves. On the other hand, said elves can and do use magic to shape their own bodies. One character says something to the effect of every elf looking exactly like they want, and some are described as terrifying and animalistic. Not to mention that some of the elves, like Vanir, may be on the protagonist's side, but hardly embody "[[FantasticRacism good]]".
* In keeping with the interested study of good versus bad, competent versus incompetent, and the hilarious world of deadly political machinations, ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' has the important characters as beautiful more often than good or evil ''per se''. Some of the more attractive characters are important in part because of how they use their looks to get ahead, such as Berelain using her sexuality to help play the neighboring rulers off of each other.
* Every single one of Creator/{{Danielle Steel}}'s protagonists is stunningly gorgeous or handsome, without any extra effort or help needed, and if they're over forty, it's frequently mentioned that they look much younger than they are. The closest she's come to an unattractive heroine is the HollywoodPudgy title character of the novel "Big Girl". The beauty is just the tip of the iceberg, as most of them are intelligent and hard-working. Any "flaws" only serve to make them more endearing and appealing.
* In "Literature/PrinceCharming", this seems to be true of Vasilisa, though Prince Dmitriv and the other courtiers can hardly believe it. Only because they are cynical, though.

* In Jaqueline Carey's ''Literature/KushielsLegacy'', we are sympathetic (politically) towards the D'Angeline people, who are all beautiful. That is not to say that there aren't D'Angeline villains, and non-D'Angeline heroes, but for the most part, this fits into the trope. More often than not, Non-D'Angeline characters of importance are either attractive or 'skilled' enough for their heritage to not matter.
* ''Literature/{{Matilda}}'': Miss Honey. Not only is she rather outwardly pretty, but she's an extremely kind and loving woman who is adored by all of her students. Agatha Trunchbull, on the other hand, is the main villain of the book, and is a [[{{Gonk}} revoltingly ugly]] SadistTeacher whose presence terrifies everyone in the school.

* In ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'', all the protagonists are strikingly beautiful, while the villains' [[{{Anvilicious}} ugliness is often mentioned in connection with their]] [[StrawCharacter ridiculous beliefs]].
* In the ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series by Jean Auel, Ayla is this by Cro-Magnon standards (she's muscular, blonde, and blue-eyed), but she spends the first book, ''Clan of the Cave Bear'', adopted by a Neanderthal family with different standards of beauty, and so grows up thinking that she's ugly. It isn't until the second book, after she is exiled from her clan, that she runs into someone who looks like her and treats her as if she's beautiful.

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's [[Literature/TheSilmarillion Middle]]-[[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings earth]] world, this trope shows up most prominently with the Elves and the Orcs. The Elves are especially fair while the Orcs are especially ugly. In their case, Elves are created to be especially fair among the children of [[{{God}} Ilúvatar]] - "elven-fair" is a descriptor indicating great beauty. The Orcs are ugly due to the malicious corruption of the first Dark Lord Morgoth - they came into being through his twisting and corrupting of Elves. For Men, heroes like Aragorn and Túrin follow this trope, their looks even being compared to those of Elves. Hobbits and Dwarves tend to be plain looking, if not ugly - but Frodo is fairer than most other hobbits.

* An example who was once a subversion: To the vast surprise of most people, Lancelot in ''[[Myth/ArthurianLegend Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' and other early Arthurian works is not the handsome "PrinceCharming" figure he tends to be portrayed as in modern media, but a stocky, barrel-chested walking meat wall who is notably plain in appearance. (He's also a mentally unstable berserker given to complete psychotic breakdowns at the drop of a hat. Naturally, since Creator/JohnCleese is an Arthurian scholar, ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' got him completely right.)
** T.H. White takes this even further in ''The Ill-Made Knight'', the third volume of ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing'', and makes his version of Lancelot extraordinarily ugly, so much so that he is said to resemble an ape.
*** Further subverted ''The Once and Future King'' series with Elaine. She starts off as being young and beautiful, but becomes plump and reclusive from society when Lancelot abandons her. The narrator even mentions that she did the "wrong thing", and ought to have turned "thin and interesting" as Guenevere would have done in that situation. Elaine is still portrayed very sympathetically (even if she does [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale trick Lancelot into sleeping with her]] ''again'')
** Creator/BernardCornwell's Literature/TheWarlordChronicles retained the good-looking "Prince Charming" Lancelot and then thoroughly subverted it, turning him into a cowardly, snivelling, petulant bastard with [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation no redeeming features whatsoever.]] He didn't even have the good grace to be {{magnificent|Bastard}} about it. One could argue in fact that Lancelot is the major villain of the series- he's certainly one of the least likable characters.
* ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' is especially notorious for this trope, seeing as Bella's narration does nothing but describe other characters' physical appearances and how wonderful or horrible it makes them as a being, depending on how they look. She primarily judges people based on their looks, so you can tell how important and "nice" a character's going to be based on how Bella finds them attractive. The only exception to this rule is Rosalie, who's depicted as [[DumbBlonde shallow and vain]], but that's just Meyer expressing her [[AuthorFilibuster blonde-female hate]].

* In Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' the first thing characters note about one another is how physically attractive a person is. Considering the original title of the book was First Impressions...
** Jane Bennet, who is considered to be the most beautiful women in the neighborhood, has a 'good' personality, such as being sweet, kind, patient, and understanding and always sees the best in people.
* This turns out to be the case with [[DefrostingIceQueen Astrid]] in ''Literature/EightDaysOfLuke'', who's described as "quite pretty" from the outset even while she's being lumped in with protagonist David's other uncaring relatives. As the plot unfolds, Astrid comes to realize how poorly she's treated David, and she eventually becomes his loving guardian and friend, while their unattractive relatives are revealed to be outright evil.
* ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. The adaptations have various takes on Erik's deformity. He still is evil, though. Though it's made explicitly clear that he became evil and insane because people shunned him for his appearance, instead of appreciating him for his considerable genius. Erik originally became evil because, with his deformity, people '''assumed''' this trope, and...well, it's very hard to turn out ''good'' [[ThenLetMeBeEvil if everybody insists you're evil from the moment you're born.]]
* This trope is believed by the fairies in ''Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'', and the person he's specifically applying it to is indeed good. But otherwise the trope isn't particularly in play.
* Partly lampshaded, partly averted in ''Literature/TheManOfFeeling'' by Henry Mackenzie, where many times, instead of giving the reader a physical description of characters, Mackenzie simply has the main character Harley employ his knowledge of "physiognomy" (the science of determining personality by someone's appearance), and goes straight for the moral judgement.
* With the possible exception of ''Literature/TheLostSymbol'', most Creator/DanBrown novels have a female lead who's an expert in her chosen academic field and is impossibly attractive to boot. Of course, the [[AuthorAvatar vaguely handsome nerd]] [[WishFulfillment ALWAYS gets the girl at the end]].
* ''Literature/TheHouseOfNight'':
** When Stevie Rae [[spoiler:died and then un-died]], she was repulsive and smelt really bad. When the ritual [[spoiler:to give her and the other Red Fledglings their humanity back]] was complete, they were all pretty again.
** Also, the [[spoiler:Bull of Light, which is black]] is described as "deep, mysterious and beautiful to behold," compared to the [[spoiler:Bull of Darkness, which is white]] and is described as "a nightmare come alive."
** Elliot is probably the only fledgling in the entire series who is not super gorgeous, being described as fat, pasty, freckled with nappy carrot red hair. He's also supposedly annoying, lazy, and stupid, and in his first appearance a teacher berates him for not being special and unique like every other male vampire, and this is never shown as a problem. [[spoiler:When he starts coughing in class, a sign that everyone knows to mean death is imminent for a fledgling, all Zoey can think of is how he's being annoying and should ugh, just get a cough drop already! When he finally does die, all Zoey can say about him is that it's not sad that he died, it's sad that no one liked him. In his subsequent appearances as a Red Fledgling, Zoey doesn't even refer to him as a person like she does the others, instead referring to him as "That horrid Elliot creature."]]
** Any old person of significance that is on the side of good, like Grandma Redbird or Mary Angela, are strangely bereft of wrinkles for people their age.
** Kalona is stated to be a serial rapist demon god who will supposedly destroy the world, but Zoey thinks he can change. Why? Because he's the most beautiful guy ever. In Destined, [[spoiler:Kalona pulls a HeelFaceTurn.]]
** The Raven Mockers are half human, half raven monstrosities, but [[spoiler:Rephaim, when he falls in love with Stevie Rae and becomes good, it's revealed he can become an extremely hot human if he wants.]]
** The cats aren't even immune. Of course Zoey's cat Nala is cute and Likable, while Aphrodite's cat is horrible and mean, and the only cat described as being ugly in the books. She's named [[WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty Maleficent]] if it isn't obvious already that she's horrible.
** Zoey's stepdad, a Straw Fundamentalist religious fanatic is described as having thinning hair, Chicken legs and horrible fashion sense. He's portrayed as a cartoonishly closed minded bigot who berates anyone for the smallest of differences, cheats on his wife, and drinks beer even though he says he doesn't. Other women in the Peoples of Faith, the stereotypical religious fanatic group he's an elder for, are described as fat, balding and beady eyed with pedophile husbands.

* ''Literature/CountAndCountess'' seems especially fond of averting and subverting this. Vlad Tepes and Sultan Mehmed are given physical descriptions that sound very attractive, but the former is an utterly repulsive human being while the latter flip-flops between MagnificentBastard and ChaoticNeutral. Elizabeth Bathory, the most sympathetic character in the book (though that's not saying much), sounds plain by her own description, or even ugly. Vlad is in love with her, though, so he only sees her as beautiful.

* Voltaire famously penned a rather scathing poem, "Marquise", dedicated to a vain aristocrat who had spurned his advances because he was too old for her, despite being one of the smartest, wittiest guys of his time. The gist of the poem is "[[TakeThat So I'm old and wrinkled. You will be too, sooner than you think]]". In a double subversion, Tristan Bernard later wrote a last stanza to the poem, his imagined answer from the Marquess : "But until then old man, I'm 26, and fuck you too". In those terms, because French poetry is hardcore.

* In "[[Literature/TheSilmarillion The Silmarillion]]" the Elf Prince (later Elf King) Fëanor is described as being quite good-looking, fitting in with his quality as TheAce among elves. However he is very arrogant, hot-blooded and obsessive, and comes across as a jerk, his actions, such as the kinslaying of the Teleri, leading to the Noldor being cursed for centuries.