I love to look through these old etiquette books, and not to find out which fork to use either (though that could come in handy some time). The often beautiful covers are a draw: I'll admit to being a sucker for a pretty book. But the real reason I pick these up whenever I find them at a reasonable (read: cheap) price is the glimpse they provide of the way life was lived, or at any rate, the way people thought life should be lived, in the past. True, there are histories and historical novels, but where else would you find what colors NOT to wear under gaslight? If, as L.P. Hartley says, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there," then here's your chance to visit. ( )

462 pages