The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down: An Informal History of Hospitality

Browner, Jesse

ISBN 10: 1582344434 / ISBN 13: 9781582344430

Published by Bloomsbury USA, 2004

About this Item

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Seller Inventory # S_459230719

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down: An Informal History of Hospitality
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1582344434
• ISBN 13: 9781582344430
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Partisan, witty, and laced with astonishing historical detail, The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down is dedicated to a new understanding of the art of hospitality. Jesse Browner leads the way back through Western civilization, from a present-day poker game where Browner's devastatingly delicious sandwiches leave the best players penniless, to the ancient Greeks, whose gods punished or exalted the mortals according to their excellence as hosts. On the way, we visit Hitler at his summer home, Gertrude Stein in Paris and Lady Ottoline Morrell in England, Audubon in nineteeth-century America, Louis XIV at Versailles, and the Roman emperors, for whom classic dinner-table entertainment was a good poisoning. As delightful and edifying as an evening in favored company, The Duchess Who Wouldn't Sit Down is a must-read for anyone who's ever accepted an invitation-or wonders why they keep sending them out.

About the Author

Jesse Browner was born and lives in New York City. He is the author of two novels, Conglomeros and Turnaway, and has translated works by Cocteau, Rilke, Eluard, and others.