Manners and Morals of Victorian America


Book Description

Manners & Morals of Victorian America is your gateway to the fashionable world of Victorian America. It draws from the wealth of late 19th and early twentieth etiquette books. With over 400 historic engravings and illustrations, the book details virtually every aspect of Victorian life, including the proper conduct for courtship and wooing, duties of husbands and wives, how to deal with a rejected suitor and even carriage and motoring manners. 7x10, 180 pages.




The Essential Handbook of Victorian Etiquette


Book Description

Essential for understanding Victorian way of life, this is a very interesting book on the code of manners of Victorian behavior. This book is about life in the Victorian World when the British Empire never slept or the sun never set on it. America in the Victorian World was still a colony and indeed wanting to become it's own in identity. The book plays an important role in explaining that the rules and manner system of America was very similar to the British at least in the old families of Boston and Philadelphia. This highly entertaining little book is great for those just starting to learn about the Victorian culture.




The Benevolence of Manners


Book Description

We can go home again, and not just to the hearthbut to the art of love and the art of civilized living. . . Imagine a time when common courtesy was a standard for all, when a genuine moral authority reigned supreme and when relations between the sexes were marked by mutual respect and honor. These were the hallmarks of the Victorian era. In The Benevolence of Manners, sociologist Linda S. Lichter guides us on a wonderful journey back to the complex world of our Victorian ancestors, illuminating their most precious concepts and presenting a wealth of invaluable advice for our troubled times: the fine and elusive art of living. Although the Victorian era is often misunderstood as a time of sexual repression, it was in fact a time of sexual flowering--when love and romance were unshackled by chronic infidelity and exploitation. In Victorian families, the greatest gift a parent could give their child was not complete indulgence, but a strong sense of self-reliance and restraint. Victorian parents successfully instilled confidence and character in their children by holding them to the same high standard of civility as adults. Whereas we often seek to be "good enough," the Victorians strove for consistent perfection. The Victorians achieved more, and received more, because they expected the very best from themselves and others. These Victorian values, as Lichter eloquently explains, are not simply outdated relics, but priceless tools for mending the many problems of our modern world. If we have the courage to follow the path the Victorians have left behind, we can regain the joy of gracious living. Slowly but surely, Victorian wisdom can again become our own.




The Essential Handbook of Victorian Entertaining


Book Description

An illustrated collection of amusing, authentic Victorian manners. Pick up the correct fork and dig into this delicious collection of Victorian society's weird, crazy and strange rules concerning dinner parties, teas, luncheons, social calls, overnight visits and more! Copiously illustrated with authentic line drawings by noted artists from the Victorian period.




Rudeness and Civility


Book Description

With keen insight and subtle humor, John F. Kasson explores the history and politics of etiquette from America's colonial times through the nineteenth century. He describes the transformation of our notion of "gentility," once considered a birthright to some, and the development of etiquette as a middle-class response to the new urban and industrial economy and to the excesses of democratic society.




Victorian Etiquette, Manners, and Customs


Book Description

Victorian Etiquette, Manners, and Customs contains material written in 1899 by a Victorian lady, so the information contained is absolutely authentic. This book includes formal introductions, invitations, visiting customs, weddings, funerals and mourning, street etiquette, dealing with servants and children, parties, traveling, samples of business correspondence, and virtually every aspect of Victorian life. This book is perfect for those who are interested in writing historically accurate fiction or are simply curious about the Victorian era and life in the late 1800's.




How to Observe


Book Description




Domestic Manners of the Americans


Book Description

Domestic Manners of the Americans is an entertaining, witty, and often scathing account of Trollope's travels in America between 1827 and 1832 and her criticisms of American manners, from vulgarity to the treatment of slaves. One of the most influential travel books of the century, it also speaks to political debates on equality in England.




The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness


Book Description

In preparing a book of etiquette for ladies, I would lay down as the first rule, "Do unto others as you would others should do to you." You can never be rude if you bear the rule always in mind, for what lady likes to be treated rudely? True Christian politeness will always be the result of an unselfish regard for the feelings of others, and though you may err in the ceremonious points of etiquette, you will never be impolite. Politeness, founded upon such a rule, becomes the expression, in graceful manner, of social virtues. The spirit of politeness consists in a certain attention to forms and ceremonies, which are meant both to please others and ourselves, and to make others pleased with us; a still clearer definition may be given by saying that politeness is goodness of heart put into daily practice; there can be no _true_ politeness without kindness, purity, singleness of heart, and sensibility.




Ladies and Gentlemen of the Civil Service


Book Description

Drawing from workers' applications, testimonies, and other primary documents, this book examines the changing roles of federal civil servants during the crucial period between 1860 and 1900 as they formed part of the first white-collar bureaucracy in the United States.




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