Perfect Behavior: A Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in All Social Crises

A satirical etiquette manual that lampoons social customs by offering exaggerated rules and absurd advice for situations such as courtship, engagements and weddings, travel, concerts and opera, temperance campaigns, school life, games and sports, correspondence, and formal dining. Through mock instructions and comic vignettes it turns ordinary social interactions into farcical mishaps, proposes deliberately impractical remedies, and exposes pretension and awkwardness. Short chapters and illustrative anecdotes mimic the form of genuine conduct guides while using irony and hyperbole to ridicule rigid manners and social affectation.