18th Century books and essays on etiquette, behavior, and good manners

The School of Manners, or Rules for Childrens Behaviour (4th ed., 1701)

Rules of Good Deportment, or of Good Breeding (1720)

Rules of Good Deportment for Church-Officers; or, friendly advices to them (1730)

The Rudiments of Genteel Behavior (1737)

The Whole Duty of a Woman: Or, an infallible Guide to the Fair Sex containing Rules, Directions, and Observations, for their Conduct and Behavior through all Ages and Circumstances of Life, as Virgins, Wives, or Widows (1737)

A Present for an Apprentice: or, a Sure Guide To gain both Esteem and an Estate. With Rules for his Conduct to his Master, and in the World. (2nd ed., 1740)

A Little Pretty Pocket-Book (1744)

George Washington’s Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company & Conversation, before 1748, copied as a school exercise from Francis Hawkins’s Youths Behaviour, or Decency in Conversation Amongst Men – itself an English translation of Bienséance de la conversation entre les hommes. See also articles on this document at Mount Vernon and Washington Papers

The Lady’s Companion: or, an Infallible Guide to the Fair Sex (1743)

Jonathan Swift’s Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding

The Governess; Or, The Little Female Academy. Calculated for the Entertainment and Instruction of Young Ladies in their Education. (1749)

The ladies monitor: or, instructions for the fair sex (1758)

Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth”

Magazin des Enfans, ou Dialogues Entre un Sage Gouvernante, & plusieurs de ses Eleves de la premiere Distinction (1767)

The Young Gentleman and Lady’s Private Tutor by Matthew Towle (1770)

The Art of Pleasing in Conversation from The Town and Country Magazine (1779)

Samuel Johnson’s essay on The Art of Pleasing in Conversation

The Young Lady’s Parental Monitor: containing, I. Dr. Gregory’s “Father’s Legacy to his Daughters. II. Lady Pennington’s “Unfortunate Mother’s Advice to her Absent Daughters. III. Marchioness de Lambert’s “Advice of a Mother to her Daughter.” (1792)

Principles of politeness, and of knowing the world (2nd ed., 1798; see also Chesterfield’s letters to his son on the art of becoming a man of the world and a gentleman, 1746-1771)

The Young Misses Magazine: Containing Dialogues Between a Governess and Several Young Ladies of Quality, Her Scholars. (1800)

A Present for an Apprentice: or, a Sure Guide to Esteem and Wealth: with rules for his conduct to his master, and in the world. (3rd ed., 1807)

Additional Resources

Liberty, Manners, and Politeness in Early Eighteenth-Century England

Hegemony and Etiquette: An Exploration on the Transformation of Practice and Power in Eighteenth-Century England

Politeness and the Interpretation of the British Eighteenth Century

British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century: Challenging the Anglo-French Connection

Bowing to Necessities: A History of Manners in America, 1620-1860

An Archaeology of Manners: The Polite World of the Merchant Elite of Colonial Massachusetts

A Genealogy of Manners: Transformations of Social Relations in France and England from the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Century

The Best Behavior: the Course of Good Manners From Antiquity to the Present, as Seen Through Courtesy and Etiquette Books