Oscar Wilde once noted that the way to get into the best society is to amuse or shock. That theory may have worked in Victorian London, particularly for witty, shocking Oscar Wilde. But it never went over in New York. Afraid of jeopardizing their own social security, New York's finest followed the example of the Boston Brahmins, clung to the names in the Social Register and the rules in Emily Post as loyally as if they had made them up themselvesâwhich mostly they had. In recent years, however, New York has gone Wilde, and...
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