  Observations with the Wide-Field Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope are
presented for a representative sample of 20 intrinsically luminous quasars with
redshifts smaller than 0.30. These observations show that luminous quasars
occur in diverse environments that include ellipticals as bright as the
brightest cluster galaxies (2), apparently normal ellipticals (10), apparently
normal spirals with H II regions (3), complex systems of gravitationally
interacting components (3), and faint surrounding nebulosity (2). The quasar
host galaxies are centered on the quasar to the accuracy of our measurements,
0.4 kpc. There are more radio quiet quasars in galaxies that appear to be
ellipticals (7) than in spiral hosts (3), contrary to expectations. The average
luminosity of the hosts is 2.2 magnitudes brighter than expected for a field
galaxy luminosity function. We detect eight companion galaxies within projected
distances of 10 kpc from quasar nuclei. Best figs. at
http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jnb/Html/preprints.html
