Our Deportment

Young, John H.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 534K words
Chapters: 54

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Our Deportment by John H. YoungAuthor: Young, John H.,Language: English, Class: BJ: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Ethics, Social usages, Etiquette, Religion, Release Date: Jan 25, 2006

Editor's review

This book is an early electronic edition of a nineteenth-century American etiquette guide, prepared and released by Project Gutenberg, and belongs to the public-domain literature of social etiquette. Its value lies not in offering standard answers for contemporary socializing but in presenting the social norms, behavioral expectations, and linguistic habits of an era, allowing readers to observe how etiquette was written, taught, and internalized. The book covers common scenarios such as daily conduct, meeting and conversation, and receiving and visiting guests; its entries are detailed and its tone formal, bearing clear marks of its era and a moralizing flavor. As historical material, it suits readers interested in Victorian American social culture, the history of customs, and the genre of etiquette texts; as reading material, it is better treated as a cultural specimen than an action manual, offering both historical knowledge and a mirror for today's changing social rules. The electronic edition is convenient for searching and excerpting, suitable for topical reading or writing reference.

Who it's for

A good fit for

History enthusiasts studying nineteenth-century American social customs and daily life
Cultural researchers interested in the evolution of etiquette texts and the history of social norms
Readers needing public-domain English texts for topical reading or writing citation
General readers interested in Victorian moralizing texts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking practical guidance on contemporary business or social etiquette
Casual readers expecting a coherent plot or narrative
Readers with significant difficulty reading English originals and no auxiliary tools

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to grasp the overall structure, then closely read chapters related to daily conduct and meeting and conversation.
Record the book's norms alongside today's social habits to form a cross-era etiquette observation notebook.
When citing in writing, note the version source and release information of the public-domain electronic text.
Read alongside sociocultural works of the same period for thematic comparison.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable as a modern etiquette guide?

Not really. The book reflects nineteenth-century American social etiquette and moral expectations, and many specific practices are no longer connected to contemporary social scenarios. It is better read as a historical text and cultural specimen, using it to understand the behavioral standards of the time rather than directly adopting it as today's code of conduct.

What English level is needed to read this book?

The language is nineteenth-century written English, with formal sentence patterns and rather formal wording, and some expressions differ from contemporary English. It is more suitable for readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who are willing to use dictionaries or annotations; those with weaker English foundations may first read related Chinese research materials as background.

What are the features of this edition?

This edition was prepared and released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain electronic text, convenient for free access, full-text search, and excerpting. It retains the original book's basic content and structure, suitable for topical reading, corpus search, and writing reference, but it does not include modern editorial annotations or an introduction.

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About the author

Young, John H. Author

John H. Young is an author whose biographical details are limited: his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly recorded, and the available public information is too sparse to outline a full life. What can be confirmed is that he wrote Our Deportment, the only work by him held in this collection. Judging from its title and subject matter, the book belongs to the genre of etiquette and conduct manuals, dealing with manners, courtesy, and everyday self-cultivation in social settings, and aimed at readers who wished to understand and follow the behavioral norms of the time. Such books were popular in the English-speaking world in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, offering practical guidance on conversation, dress, hospitality, and social intercourse, and serving both to instruct and to be consulted. Young's writing generally follows this tradition, relying on clear organization and a plain, instructive tone to give readers practical advice on conduct. Although details of the author's own life are difficult to trace, the work remains a useful source for observing the etiquette and social culture of its era.