Dancing Through Time

<p> From Chaucer to Fitzgerald writers have used dancing as a vital if subtle element in plot and character development. The ballroom an important element of society in real life was a backdrop to grand passions or pivotal encounters--ideal ground for commentary on the social milieu.</p><p> This work presents 88 literary selections (from etiquette manuals diaries poems plays essays and novels) that together form a survey of social dance in England and America over a span of 500 years. They illustrate specific dances social dance behavior or the intimate reactions of participants. One finds for example the ultimate downfalls of Flaubert's Emma Bovary Hardy's Eustacia Vye and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina are all foretold in pivotal dance scenes. Fully indexed.</p>