You can file this under totally random and “what the hell is this Benebell.” A while back I told you all about my hard drive mishap. What proceeded was some top level desperate attempts to recover as much as we could.

One of those things recovered was this. For reasons now unbeknownst to me, one day a younger version of me decided to check out a stack of 19th and early 20th century books on etiquette and manners. And I took notes. And I consolidated those notes into a Word document.

Fast forward more than a decade seventeen years (!!!) and among the things recovered from my erased hard drive was this document. I spruced it up a bit, made it pretty, and now it’s a free downloadable PDF for you. Why? No reason.

No, seriously. No reason. It’s just that it’s here and I was like, what can I possibly do with this now. I suppose I could share it. So I’m sharing it.

And just so we are clear, a lot of the language and tone in the guidebook are pretty much copied from the original 130+ year old sources. It’s not me talking!! (You’ll know why I’m going out of my way to say that when you read it. Ex. “This is vulgar…” or “…is extremely rude” and “women should never…”)

Do with it what you will or do nothing at all. At the very least you might find it amusing–the document itself as amusing and the fact I bothered at some point in my life to create it is, I think, equally amusing.

DOWNLOAD PDF

Guidebook of 19th Century Etiquette