title: Sorry!: The English and Their Manners
author:  Henry Hitchings 
description: Although most people have some idea of what good (or bad) manners are, its less likely they know where they come from. Hitchings addresses that through a comprehensive historical review, with some fun tidbits along the way. He brings the perspectives of the past to bear on customs of the present, using examples from writers such as Samuel Pepys, Lord Chesterfield, and Fanny Trollope. This rambling examination is concerned only with English manners, not those of other British countries. Hitchings is affectionate toward typically English mannerisms such as tactfully saying one thing, when meaning anotherwhen told, We really must have lunch sometime, does anyone believe itll actually happen? The book contains some illuminating examples of how manners are a social construct and can vary widely across cultures. The tour of manners encompasses living conditions, language, social structures, innovations, and philosophy throughout centuries. This is not a book of etiquette instruction, but deconstruction. For those who wish to dig deeper into the myriad forces at work behind polite customs, large and small, the book is sure to please. --Bridget Thoreson
zlib_text: A Lady Compromised
  
    
    
    
  
  _**Chapter One**_
  
    
  
   _Just Outside London 1811_
  
    
  
  MASON BROADSTONE, FOURTH MARQUESS OF DURHAM, cursed loudly at the sound of a
  grinding crunch. Subsequent accompanying shrieks emanated from the carriage
  that he turned around to see, perched at a precarious angle on the edge of the
  roadway. He swung a muscled and fashionably dressed leg over his chestnut
  stallion and led the horse back fifteen yards to where the footmen were
  already bent over the wheel. His sapphire-blue cape swirled around his broad
  shoulders and he gave the reins of his own stallion to the driver of the coach
  to examine the broken carriage wheel. Acknowledging the footmen’s insistences
  that they had inspected the coach prior to departure with a nod, he frowned as
  he bent closer. Running a gloved finger along the twisted wood, his closer
  inspection suggested that the wheel had been tampered with; the wooden spokes
  bore the unmistakable marks of a file. The Marquess swore again, this 