Emily Post

[colleency]

In doing some research, I found Emily Post's 1922 edition of "Guide to Etiquette" online at http://www.bartleby.com/95/subject_frames.html

I thought maybe some of you might be interested, as this edition was hard for me to find in person. The only hardbound library editions in the Los Angeles/Orange/San Bernardino areas are in private university libraries.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

A fun read. Some of it seems almost tongue-in-cheek today.

If Miss Post were alive, I'd take her by the shoulders, give her a backrub and say over and over, "Relax, sweetheart ... relax ..."

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[scotrace]

Then again

"I always thought Emily played it a little fast and loose."


Edith Wharton

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Edith Wharton RULES! lol

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[shindeco]

I've always found that Emily Post had a real sense of humour in her writing. My copy is the 1956 Edition and the introduction to the wedding chapter is VERY funny. There's no way she couldn't have meant it to be that way either. Her successors (daughter-in-law and granddaughter successively) have not matched her in the wry comments.

For example, the following; from the section on dinner table conversation:

"At dinner once, Mrs. Toplofty, finding herself next to a man she quite openly despised, said to him with apparent placidity, "I shall not talk to you -- because I don't care to. But for the sake of my hostess I shall say my multiplication tables. Twice one are two, twice two are four--" and she continued on through the tables, making him alternate them with her. As soon as she politely could, she turned again to her other companion."

Post, Emily (1956) "The New Emily Post's Etiquette", New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, p. 360.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha. How very droll. Pass me the finger sandwiches, please."