Friday, July 2, 2010

Barbara Cartland's Book of Etiquette


Barbara Cartland's Book of Etiquette, published by Arrow in 1972, is a fascinating book of manners. It's a picture of a distant, graceful age and time, which I feel is no more.

Francis Marshall's cover of a wedding is fantastic! We see the bride and groom, 3 bridesmaids in pink, and the parents. What's even better is that Marshall has ink drawings throughout this book. I don't think I can do them justice from a photo, but it's worth seeing them to purchase this book. He does a drawing for each chapter and some of them are titled: "the family," "a kiss is a two-way activity," "the setting of the dinner table," "people who stay for hours," etc.

A lot of Cartland's advice is appropriate for nowadays, but some has changed due to the current culture. I doubt most people dress for dinner, but it's still polite to write "thank you"notes.

It's also great to see more of Francis Marshall's work, especially with the ink drawings. He's such a gifted artist and I'm so glad to be able to memorialize some of his work!

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