The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility

Book excerpt: Etiquette manuals are an important source for information on issues relating to the study of nineteenth-century social dance. Thornwell discusses the complexion, appropriate dress, introductions, behavior at parties, rules "on polite, easy, and graceful deportment," hints for conversation including "words, and sayings to be avoided," and concludes with chapters on needle-work and dress-making. Although much of Thornwell's manual was extracted from E.C. de Calabrella's 1844 publication The Ladies' science of etiquette, the manual was popular enough to be reissued ten times between 1857 and 1890.