Etiquette; Or, A Guide to the Usages of Society with a Glance at Bad Habits; To which is Added the True Theory of the Rhenish or Spanish Waltz, and of the German Waltz a Deux Temps. . . . Waltzing is the Art of a Gentleman,and was never yet Taught or Undnerstood by a Dancing Master

New York: Wilson and Company. Brother Jonathan Monthly Library, 1843. First Edition. Wraps. Very Good. 8vo. 21.5 by 14.5 cm. 64 pp. Frontis portrait of Count D'Orsay, and the profile is of the actual Count, although supposedly he wasn't the actual author. Day was. The crediting of d'Orsay would seem a calculated effort to provide an aristocratic gloss to the subject, one which "to the manor born" then, and probably still, carries weight. A French answer to Beau Brummel, he was close to, and/or entangled with, many of the glitterati of London society, including Lord Byron and Benjamin Disraeli, who wrote a novel that whose central character was based (truncated) on d'Orsay. But besides his eventful life with its ups and downs, d'Orsay was an accomplished amateur artist, and perhaps this was a tie with Day, who also wrote about miniature painting, among other topics such as his five years in the West Indies -- topics unrelated to etiquette. Or it could just be that Day was a hack ghost writer. In any case, this work of etiquette was meant to instruct Americans on how things were done by polite society in England, which was the real Count's milieu for much of his adult life. From the preface, one would think it was an American printing of a tract previously published in England, but we believe the American publication was the one and only at the time The work is typical in its rules-based thrust of do's and don'ts, many on topics that have no pertinence in the modern world, such as calling on someone or snuff. The writing is faultlessly lucid. A fine example are the opening words of the text proper: "Etiquette is the barrier which society draws around itself as a protection against offences the 'law' can not touch." Not to be slighted are the dozen pages at the end about the waltz, then of course the rage of Europe. Its inclusion here signifies that the dance that had scandalized society in the 1820s because it was about one on one between the sexes had now become accepted. The section has several tables to explicate the intricacies of the steps. Wraps have some grubbiness. Some of the sooty film can be erased, but not all. Edges show some wear, with minor dog-earring and a roll to the paper. Closed tear along lower front joint fold. Dampstains affects the lower portion of the interior leaves, most distinctly in the front and the back, and in both cases fading as one proceeds towards the center. Light foxing appears occasionally throughout. (Inventory #: 008147)