The introduction of this book reads, "Beauty, like every other quality — courage, fear, ugliness, trust, truth, wisdom — is a part of us and apart from us, inside us and outside us, personal and impersonal. Beauty invites us to build bridges and make connections between the senses and the soul, between contemplation and expression, between ourselves and the world." In this wide-ranging and deeply felt book, artist and writer J. Ruth Gendler invites us to reclaim and celebrate the often misunderstood quality of beauty as one of the most profound and essential forces in our lives. Drawing upon observations from art and mythology, science and nature, contemporary culture and personal experience, the author looks at her subject in its most generous implications — not simply as a reflection of surface and image, but as a pathway to wholeness, integrity, coherence, and ultimately, to love. Written with curiosity, courage, a discerning eye and a lyrical sensibility, and illustrated with evocative line drawings by the author, Notes on the Need for Beauty displays the strong personal voice that has made her previous book, The Book of Qualities so beloved. It is a work to savor and to share.

珍·露丝·贞德莱尔（J. Ruth Gendler）多才多艺，是当今美国小有名气的人物，兼有艺术家、作家、教师三个头衔。用她自己的话说，她主要用画笔创作，极少用文字创作，因而她名下的文字作品仅有两部。她二十多年前出版的第一部著作《心灵国度》（Book of Qualities）至今已重印四十余次，本书是她的第二部著作。