Novel of manners

The novel of manners is a work of fiction that re-creates a social world, conveying with detailed observation the complex of customs, values, and mores of a stratified society.

Notable English-language novelists of manners include Henry James, Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, and John Marquand.

[1] To realise upward social mobility in their societies, men and women learned etiquette in order to know how to get along with the people from whom they sought favour; an example of such instructions is the book Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774), by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.

In consideration of being liked by the people with whom he keeps company, Chesterfield instructs his bastard son to engage with society by being a man of pleasing manner and demeanour and by avoiding controversial subjects, by speaking in a measured tone and by having a poised personal posture.

Many novels of manners, including Evelina: Or the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (1779) by Frances Burney, take a sociological interest in the complex systems of etiquette and social hierarchy employed by the upper classes, especially those of Europe and North America.