The Perfect Gentleman

Good manners become comic material when Ralph Bergengren examines the desire to pass for a perfect gentleman. His opening essay sets Emerson's ideal of personal integrity beside the polished poses recommended by an eighteenth-century pocket guide. Advice about elegant sitting, careful gestures and fashionable greetings gives him plenty to tease, while an imagined correspondence course turns social ambition into an advertisement. The distinction between looking respectable and behaving decently runs through the discussion.

The collection's subjects include clothing, shoe shining, calls, tailors, shaving and afternoon tea. A later passage wanders from crowded rooms and unnecessary furnishings to the pleasures of staying in bed and the unwelcome arrival of the alarm clock. Bergengren mixes quotations, everyday observations and deliberately fanciful speculation. Readers interested in humorous essays or changing ideas of courtesy will find a conversational treatment of ordinary habits and the effort people put into appearances.