Society as I Have Found It
The self-appointed arbiter of New York high society, Ward McAllister—who coined the phrase ‘the Four Hundred’ for the city’s social elite—recounts a lifetime among the wealthy, the fashionable, and the ambitious in the Gilded Age. Full of anecdote, snobbery, and unintentional comedy, his memoir offers an insider’s tour of grand balls, exclusive dinners, and the elaborate rituals by which old money and new jostled for status. A revealing and entertaining document of Gilded Age America, it captures the glamour and absurdity of a vanished social world. Society as I Have Found It is a fascinating window onto the manners and vanities of nineteenth-century high society.
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Listen to Society as I Have Found It by Ward McAllister free online. The full audiobook (6 hr 15 min, 28 chapters, read by John Greenman) streams free on this page.
Society as I Have Found It (1890) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and Author's Note | 1:31 | |
| 2 | CHAPTER I. - Society as I have Found It. - MY FAMILY. | 8:33 | |
| 3 | CHAPTER II. - LAW AND HOUSEKEEPING. | 19:32 | |
| 4 | CHAPTER III. - INTRODUCTION TO LONDON SPORTS. | 8:00 | |
| 5 | CHAPTER IV. - A WINTER IN ITALY. | 12:42 | |
| 6 | CHAPTER V. - GERMANY AND THE ALPS. | 9:27 | |
| 7 | CHAPTER VI. - WINTER IN PAU. | 11:55 | |
| 8 | CHAPTER VII. - HOME AGAIN. | 10:22 | |
| 9 | CHAPTER VIII. - MERRYMAKING IN THE SOUTH. | 17:41 | |
| 10 | CHAPTER IX. - LIFE AT NEWPORT. | 15:54 | |
| 11 | CHAPTER X. - SOCIETY’S LEADERS. | 16:58 | |
| 12 | CHAPTER XI. - DELIGHTS OF COUNTRY LIFE. | 15:34 | |
| 13 | CHAPTER XII. - FASHIONABLE PEOPLE. | 9:36 | |
| 14 | CHAPTER XIII. - COTILLIONS IN DOORS AND OUT. | 15:17 | |
| 15 | CHAPTER XIV. - AN ERA OF GREAT EXTRAVAGANCE. | 10:08 | |
| 16 | CHAPTER XV. - ON THE BOX SEAT AT NEWPORT. | 15:09 | |
| 17 | CHAPTER XVI. - SOCIAL UNITY. | 13:26 | |
| 18 | CHAPTER XVII. - A GOLDEN AGE OF FEASTING. | 19:48 | |
| 19 | CHAPTER XVIII. - ENTERING SOCIETY. | 17:39 | |
| 20 | CHAPTER XIX. - ENTERTAINING. | 13:10 | |
| 21 | CHAPTER XX. - MADEIRAS. | 10:40 | |
| 22 | CHAPTER XXI. - CHAMPAGNES AND OTHER WINES. | 12:27 | |
| 23 | CHAPTER XXII. - DINNERS. | 13:49 | |
| 24 | CHAPTER XXIII. - COOKS AND CATERING. | 17:57 | |
| 25 | CHAPTER XXIV. - BALLS. | 11:38 | |
| 26 | CHAPTER XXV. - FAMOUS NEWPORT BALLS. | 11:35 | |
| 27 | CHAPTER XXVI. - AN ERA OF EXTRAVAGANCE. | 16:41 | |
| 28 | CHAPTER XXVII. - WASHINGTON DINNERS AND NEW YORK BALLS. | 17:25 |
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