The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion

Conkling, Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn), 1814-18Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
706K words
Chapters
71

Tags

English Originals CultureFashion Social EtiquetteSocial ConductLife WisdomGentlemanly ConductPractical GuideEtiquette Guide19th CenturyFashion Trend

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.The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion by Margaret C. ConklingAuthor: Conkling, Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn), 1814-1890,Language: English, Class: BJ: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Ethics, Social usages, Etiquette, Religion, Release Date: Feb 28, 2012

Editor's review

This etiquette guide by Margaret C. Conkling is a primary source for understanding nineteenth-century American gentlemanly culture. It does not stop at general pleasantries but places "politeness" and "fashion" side by side, discussing how a person should conduct himself properly in bearing, appearance, conversation, and social settings. For today's readers its value lies more in historical and cultural observation: one can see how society then imagined gender roles, class etiquette, and public image, and compare these with present-day changes in social norms. Many of the book's recommendations bear the clear stamp of their era, and readers should keep a sense of distance, distinguishing universal interpersonal respect from customs specific to a particular age. It is suitable as supplementary reading for cultural history, the history of etiquette, or English language study, and for readers who enjoy details of life in times past to dip into at leisure. Because the original is in English and was written long ago, it is best read with a comparative and critical eye, as a mirror for observing social change rather than a manual of behavior to be adopted wholesale.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents and choose the chapters that differ most from contemporary social practice for close comparison.
  2. Keep a pen ready to mark off advice shaped by period prejudice from generally applicable modern courtesy.
  3. Read alongside materials on nineteenth-century American social history to help understand the context.
  4. The English is old; when you meet unfamiliar expressions, do not struggle over every word—grasp the general meaning.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71

FAQ

Is this book suitable for use as a modern etiquette guide? Not really. Many of its norms are shaped by the specific context of nineteenth-century American society and involve ideas about gender roles and class, placing them at a clear distance from contemporary everyday etiquette. It is better suited as historical and cultural reading that helps readers understand the social imagination of the time, rather than as a code of conduct to be accepted wholesale.
Can readers with weak English read this book? It will be somewhat difficult. The original was published long ago, so its vocabulary and sentence patterns differ from modern English, and it contains detailed descriptions of etiquette situations. A basic foundation in English reading is recommended, or the use of a dictionary or translation to assist understanding; if you only want the gist, you can first read a related Chinese summary and then return to the original.
What is the core content of this book? Its core is the joint discussion of politeness and fashion, covering proper gentlemanly conduct in appearance, conversation, and social situations. It discusses interpersonal respect while also reflecting expectations of public image and social class at the time, so it has a dual character as both behavioral advice and cultural historical source material.

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About the author

Conkling, Margaret C. (Margaret Cockburn), 1814-18 Author · American · 1814

Margaret C. Conkling (1814–?) was an American writer active on the nineteenth-century American literary scene, where she wrote fiction and essays. Her surviving representative work is The American Gentleman's Guide to Politeness and Fashion, a title that indicates a concern with gentlemanly courtesy and the codes of fashion, placing the book within the nineteenth-century American tradition of conduct and etiquette writing. Her works addressed readers who valued social accomplishment and refinement. Because public information about her is limited, details of her life, education, and the full range of her writing cannot be described in depth; only one of her works is recorded in this database. Taken as a whole, she took part in contemporary American discussions of manners, cultivation, and respectable living, and her work offers a window onto nineteenth-century American etiquette culture.