MixedThe Washington Post... [a] gossipy social history...a dizzying tour of aristocracy and its discontents ... Richardson has an eye for the strange and fascinating details of historical courtship ... Richardson writes sharply and with greatest wit and enthusiasm of the debutante ritual’s importance in the society page ... But for all the colorful descriptions, Richardson falls short when it comes to articulating precisely why debutantes matter and what we should take away from piecemeal anecdotes of their experiences. Part of the problem is a lack of focus. Though it is loosely chronological, the book lacks the central organizing mechanism of a distinct argument. Meanwhile, Richardson’s frequent autobiographical detours account for some of the book’s uneven texture and preoccupation with frivolity ... The debutante ritual \'is long dead but will never die,\' Richardson writes, yet her book struggles to explain the source of its longevity. Readers are left instead with vague truisms about American social mobility.
