Etiquette

What should one say when introduced to a stranger, how should a dinner be served, who pays for a wedding, how long should mourning last, and how should a letter of condolence be written? Emily Post answers these and hundreds of other questions about manners in society, business and the home, from formal balls and country house visits to travel and conversation, insisting that the heart of good manners is not rules but consideration for others.

Post (1872–1960), a novelist from New York society, published the book in 1922, and it became the standard American guide to etiquette, revised through many editions. It is also a vivid portrait of social life in the 1920s. Compare the eighteenth-century advice of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Son.