Edwardian Culture:

Fashion: http://www.victoriana.com/edwardianfashions/edwardiandresses.php

In comparison to now, the rules and expectations of clothing were much stricter. It is almost exceptible anywhere nowadays to wear blue jeans but back then clothing meant a lot. Women’s fashion gets a lot of attention but it is apparent in our novels that the men were expected to wear the right clothing all the time too. Psmith’s rants about Bistrow are a perfect example.

“I am hard pressed. The fight is beginning tro be too much for me. After a grim struggle, after days of unremitting toil, I succeeded yesterday in inducing the man Bristow to abandon that rainbow waistcoat of his. Today I enter the building, blithe and buoyant, worn, of course, from the long struggle, but seeing with aching eyes the dawn of another, better era, and there is Comrade Bistrow in a satin tie. It’s hard, Comrade Jackson, it’s hard, I tell you.” Page 145

Psmith’s reaction is quite dramatic but what is reflected throughout the novels is the sense that the visual is very important. Psmith’s apartment is also quite nice and well furnished compared to Mike’s whose is depressing. It is the extravagance of the clothing that is so important. Chesterton’s story “The Napoleon of Notting Hill” is of course set in the future but clothing was made a big deal by Quin Aberone—the selected King of England. When the King establishes the states he gives them all colours to wear. He also establishes different dress uniforms for different bureaucrats.

It is simple, people associated dressing with status and people wanted to look above their status/class. Today we are a society that can wear blue jeans everywhere to anything and no one cared…but back then it was a huge deal to be prim.

Table Manners: In Wodehouse’s “Psmith in the City” Chapter 17 is dedicated to a dinner that takes place at Mr. Waller’s House. I found a website that lists the proper rules to the dinner table. http://www.currensnet.com/ladies/tablemanners.HTM

It says its Victorian—but It also applies to the Edwardians.

Here are some that I did not know of:

Actually many of them I did not know….starting from number one:

“you leave the parlor for the dining room, pass out the door first, and allow the lady to follow you, holding your arm lightly. At the door of the dining room, the lady will drop your arm, you should then pass in and wait at one side of the entrance until she passes you. Having arrived at the table salute the lady, and she in turn, bows and takes her seat.

15) If a gentleman is seated by the side a lady or an elderly person, it is up to him to pour their drink and obtain whatever else they might want at the table.

“30) Ladies generally retain their seats at the table until the end of the feast, but if they should withdraw beforehand, all gentlemen will rise and remain standing until the ladies have left the room.”

There is a great formality to this all, it is interesting the lady gets escorted to the table and served as well. There is a certain reverence (that may be offensive) that was given to women at the time. It can be seen as sexist or reverence.

“2) Gloves are not worn at the dinner table.”

This goes back to the fashion thing---people wore gloves all the time as a part of dress code.

“19) Do not command, but ask a waiter if you need something. If you command, the tone of your voice will only make other people think that you were a servant at one time yourself.” 20) If a servant breaks something, do not turn around to notice what it is.

Once again this goes back to a class thing. The Nobility does not have insecurities—their staff’s performance does not reflect on their status. For someone to abuse their staff just shows this insecurity—and how dreadful that would be.

The site is terribly interesting and I recommend it to those who have five minutes.

Monarchy: The American Revolution was more than hundred years before the Edwardian era. Up rose a nation that defined itself as a republic (the significance that the declaration of independence has in almost everyday American life is still substantial). IN the early 1900’s Britain was losing colonial control yet the Edwardians still identified highly with a monarch. Francesco Crispi—an Italian—once said “The monarchy unites us; the republic would divide us.” There is that same feeling in Jerome K Jerome’s “Three Men in A Boat”. The local Pubs along the Thames River all used the royal visits as a way of advertisement and it worked.

The Era itself was named after King Edward. The history of England, especially after Queen Victoria, shows that a lot of powerful people did a lot of good and great things (corruption was not totally overlooked “Psmith in the City” has socialist overtones). Having a monarch is also what made Britain different from the rising USA.

Obviously there is a lot more to say, but these blatantly hit me from reading the novels. They are also incredibly different from the cultural rules we follow in Present day Canada.