Etiquette: In Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home - Tapa dura

Trendspotting Oh, Behave! From grandes dames of good behavior and modern advocates of fabulousness, manners make a comeback. "Emily Post is the literary It Girl of the moment, and she has Joan Didion to thank for it. Despite the fact that she's been dead for nearly fifty years, Post and her seminal guide to good manners, Etiquette, have come up in nearly every review of Didion's best-selling new memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking. Critics can't resist mentioning that in the dark days after her husband's death in late 2003, Didion found great solace in the "Funerals" chapter of Etiquette's first edition, published in 1922. Psychologists, poets, and philosophers could theorize all they wanted about the stages of grief and how to cope, but in Post, Didion found the reasoned voice that really offered relief. It was the relief of ritual -- of an established code of conduct that could safely transport her from one difficult moment to the next, without the burden of hand-wringing analysis."

This is it, the classic work of manners, mores, and morals, first published in 1922 and a standard reference for decades. Though some of its advice is a tad outdated for today-questions no longer abound about which maid should be serving the housekeeper, and whether she should be served in the kitchen or in her quarters-much of Emily Post's advice is timeless. You'll learn. . how to be an engaging conversationalist . the proper formats for all manner of invitations . how to greet family, friends, and new acquaintances . the most elegant way to host a former dinner, an afternoon tea, and a wedding . and much more. American author EMILY POST (1873-1960) contributed fiction and articles about such topics as architecture and interior design to magazines including Harper's and Scribner's; her published novels include Flight of the Moth (1904), Purple and Fine Linen (1906), The Title Market (1909), and others. But she is best remembered as an etiquette maven, founding The Emily Post Institute in 1946 and writing about manners in a l, ong-running syndicated newspaper column.