Manners elevated to a high art

No society has ever thought about itself more intensely, or spent more time considering how best to present itself, than the ancien régime in France for the 150 years or so which led up to the revolution. As Benedetta Craveri demonstrates in her excellent and extremely readable The Art of Conversation, this ideal of living well, with elegance, courtesy and exquisite manners, giving pleasure to others and to oneself, became not only an art but an end in itself. And where this complex web of influence, etiquette and enjoyment reached its peak was not at the court of Versailles, but in the salons of Paris.

The start of the French salon appears to date from around 1615, when Richelieu was trying to make French the lingua franca of Europe and Mme de Rambouillet opened her house in rue Saint-Thomas du Louvre as a refuge for friends from the rough, grubby, smelly chaos of the Parisian streets. The house itself, and in particular its famous Blue Room, played an important part, in that it was charming, intimate and conducive to conversation that embraced gallantry but not love, morals but not religion, philosophy, literature, art and the sciences but neither domestic matters (too boring) nor politics (too dangerous). There were no quarrels, for that would have been to breach the etiquette of courtesy. From that moment, until it came to a natural end in 1789, the most distinctive characteristics of salon life were self-awareness and amiability.

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Habitués debated moral dilemmas, composed maxims and satirical verses and discussed free will. Later, as the Enlightenment brought philosophers into their midst, they read aloud to each other from projected works before taking them to the printers. To please was obligatory. Flattery was tolerated, provided it didn’t turn into adulation; teasing was permitted, but not malicious mockery, for that too would have transgressed against courtesy.