Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium [Paperback]

Judith Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1990

With the wit, tact, and wisdom that have made Miss Manners a household name, America's foremost authority on civilized behavior takes you through every aspect of your personal, professional, and social life with ease and charm.

From somewhat classic queries:

* What do I wear to a job interview/felony trial/jacuzzi?

* Where does the soup spoon/seafood fork/butter knife go?

To comments on truly modern phenomena:

* Call waiting is like a child screaming for attention

* Leaky earphones are the equivalent of humming

To strictly personal do's and don'ts:

* Don't communicate everything in a marriage ("I had the wildest dream about a man at my office...")

* Do continue the ancient custom of mealtimes, that is, breakfast, lunch, and dinner

And professional guidelines:

* Don't start grabbing company property after being fired

* If a candy dish is on the visitor's side of a receptionist's desk, it is for visitors...

Miss Manners offers consistently sound, sage advice to her Gentle Readers.

With a tipping guide (including coat checks and pizza deliveries), sections devoted to both traditional and nontraditional households, details on protocol for ceremonies and celebrations, invitations and disinvitations, insights on courtship and romance, and much more, this is the comprehensive guide to a kinder, gentler, more civilized society.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Martin, aka syndicated columnist "Miss Manners," here covers everything one might need to know about proper behavior, not just for the coming millennium, but in everyday life in the present decade. In a Q & A format interspersed with short essays on manners, mores and her personal peeves, she deals with the gamut of social situations, from AIDS ("receiving an incurable disease because one does not want to risk offending someone with a question seems excessive") to nude weddings, telephone answering machines ("the modern equivalent of the butler"), the "spinach-on-the-tooth rule" ("draw something unfavorable to a person's attention only if it can easily be fixed") and the correct response to negative literary criticism ("the etiquette obligation in such cases is on the friends and supporters of the wounded author"). Miss Manners's remarkably sane advice and admonitions, written in the third person and addressed to "Gentle Reader," are entertaining as well as practical.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Publishers Weekly Miss Manners covers everything one might need to know about proper behaviour, not just for the coming millennium, but in everyday life in the present decade...entertaining as well as practical.

Kirkus Reviews How thoughtful of Miss Manners to provide us with this useful, almost encyclopedic guide to proper manners for the fin de siècle...Elegant, sensible, exquisitely funny, Miss Manners...leads us through the dark forest of social despair and into the sunny glade of correctness.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Fireside ed edition (November 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067172228X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671722289
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly delightful!, December 15, 2004

By 

Lucy the Bargain Hunter - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium (Paperback)

Incredibly entertaining. Judith Martin writes about serious topics with brilliant wit, charm, and humor. This book covers a wide variety of relevant topics, and even the ones that may not apply directly to you still are useful in conveying and emphacising the basic principles of manners. This book is helping me to gain clarity on what rudeness is, what politeness is, and on how to respond appropriately. This book is 700+ pages, so be prepared for a long-term relationship (if you intend to finish this book - which I do - at which point I will probably return to the beginning to start reading it over again). I can say this book is changing my life - and my children may at THIS time regret to say that it is changing theirs - but it is ultimately for the better (I intend to raise gentlemen and ladies)!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anything with Miss Manners' name on it is a keeper, February 26, 2001

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tmp "snippy reviewer" (Solar System, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium (Paperback)

No- one is better at answering the questions as to what is correct in a humourous (and enteraining) way as Judith Martin is. You can buy these guides as guides for life or as just fun and entertaining reads; take the advice, or just enjoy the ride- this may be the Sally Jesse Raphael for the genteel- and I mean that in the best way possible.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful, October 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium (Paperback)

I pick this book up every year or so, both for the vast wealth of knowledge and for the entertainment value. Material not covered in the question and answer format is cleary explained elsewhere in the chapter. I consider this book a necessary reference.