Talk:Ton (society)

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Comments[edit]

The changes I made were in the look of the page. There were some shortcuts that needed altering, however the content overall was well written. Seeing as I did not have the documents used, I could not fix the inline citations. -- unsigned comment by User talk:TAHARVEYCUTTER, 9 May 2009

This is mostly garbage[edit]

This article is a reference free zone full of dubious assertions. I'm a 66 year old Brit with a background in academic history, and I had never even heard of the concept until seeing it here. At first I thought the article was some sort of Bridgerton related tosh, but in fact it was created well over a decade ago. If somebody doesn't ref it up in the immediate future I'm going to request deletion. --Ef80 (talk) 15:33, 5 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Please delete[edit]

I think it's a bit harsh to say this is garbage, but I agree with the general tone: you won't find the term "ton" being used in Regency literature to mean high society. The phrase "bon ton" has a little more validity but even that is more unusual and usually jokey. Here's some detail, copied from https://painintheenglish.com/case/5084:

"In an article on Beau Brummel, Wikipedia says "His personal habits, such as a fastidious attention to cleaning his teeth, shaving, and daily bathing exerted an influence on the ton, upper echelons of polite society, who began to do likewise." Whether Brummel was ever accepted as a member of the ton, I don't know. I can find only one reference in Jane Austen - "A clergyman must not be high in state or fashion. He must not head mobs, or set the ton in dress" (it seems she didn't mean mob in the way we understand) There are three instances in Vanity Fair: "Every visit which this leader of ton paid to her family was more unlucky for her" "Scores of the great dandies of London squeezed and trod on each other on the little stairs, laughing to find themselves there; and many spotless and severe ladies of ton were seated in the little drawing-room" "She wants ton sadly," said Mrs. Hollyock. "My dear creature, you never will be able to form her." Doing a search for "bon ton" in Google Books gives quite interesting results: "Bon ton or: High Life above the Stairs" was the name of a play by David Garrick, published in 1781. A magazine called "Bon Ton" was published in 1818, although I don't know how long it lasted, and there was a novel published anonymously in 1820 - "Supreme Bon Ton: and Bon Ton by Profession". So it was obviously a well-known expression in regency times. https://www.google.pl/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=bon+ton&btnG= To return to Heyer, "Georgette Heyer's Regency England", by Teresa Chris, has 31 pages with references to "ton", but we are only allowed to see one: "prying eyes of the ton in London"."

In conclusion, this article is uninformed and should be removed. --Birnt Hardnut (talk) 10:16, 22 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your comments and research. What seems to have happened is that a relatively obscure and short lived concept in London Regency society has been picked up by writers of historical romance, particularly Heyer, and that has led to the creation of this article. I'm now inclining towards dramatic pruning of the article rather than deletion. Do other editors have a view on this? --Ef80 (talk) 15:59, 28 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Expansion / renaming / rewriting using sources[edit]

The "fashionable society", also known as fashionable set, beau monde, smart set, London society or simply "society", also was called "the ton" indeed, with the last name perhaps least known in this sense. See for example note 15 in [1] or introduction in a thesis that contains multiple references [2]. This articles needs a complete rewrite and perhaps a rename (I would prefer fashionable society, used by many modern scholars). The topic is much broader: beau monde is not a purely English fenomenon (France and US should be definitely considered, too). Pinging @Ef80:, @Birnt Hardnut: for comments. Викидим (talk) 01:55, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't disagree. The problem isn't the concept of the beau monde or smart rich people, which certainly existed in Regency London as well as at other times. It's that 'ton' is a relatively obscure term which has only come to prominence because of its use in a few recent romance novels set in a fictional Regency fantasy world. --Ef80 (talk) 15:13, 21 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]