Cast as a series of familiar letters to her nephews, Margaret C. Conkling’s guide instructs the nineteenth-century American gentleman in the arts of manners, dress, and social conduct. It covers etiquette at table and in company alongside guidance on appropriate attire, presenting good taste in clothing as inseparable from good breeding.
The book is a window onto antebellum ideas of gentility, where dress signaled character and class. Conkling’s advice ranges from the practical to the moral, sketching the ideal of the well-mannered, well-dressed young man. A charming artifact of nineteenth-century etiquette and fashion, it is available here as a free EPUB download.