Some historical facts about the face are well-known: that Peter the Great, for example, changed the appearance, if not the character, of Russia by insisting all men under his authority shave off their beards; or that, according to Pascal anyway, had Cleopatra's nose been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed.
Other titbits are less familiar: Nero's choice of make-up (chalk, kohl and red fucus); the universality of blushing (on black skins a deepening of tone which is hard to perceive); and the relative rarity of "Jewish" noses among Jews (only one in five, seemingly). That's the delight of this book, in which extensive scholarship about the face and its features is presented in the most entertaining manner.