Introduction: the middle way: cultural skirmishes -- Contesting cultural authority: the code of honor and its critics -- "That wild decision of the private sword" -- Against "nature, religion and good manners": debating suicide -- "The chief topics of conversation": adultery and divorce in the Bon Ton -- Deserving "most the cognizance of the magistrate and the censor": combating gaming -- Vice in an age of respectability -- Conclusion: an end to aristocratic vice?
Summary
This title examines the outrage against -- and attempts to end -- the four vices associated with the artistocracy in 18th century in England: duelling, suicide, adultery, and gambling. All four it was commonly believed, owed their origin to pride
