The cult classic and New York Times Notable Book that solidified Margaret Visser’s standing as a preeminent observer and scholar of everyday life, The Rituals of Dinner is a sweeping history of table manners, from the civilizations of ancient Greece and medieval Europe to the way that technology has altered, and continues to alter, our behavior over dinner. She writes of everything from cultural idiosyncrasies around preparation and consumption, to the surprising origins of tableware—forks took eight centuries to become common utensils, the plate began as a four-day-old slice of bread. Replete with a new foreword by British food journalist Bee Wilson, and a new introduction by the author, The Rituals of Dinner blends folklore, history, and humor in this feast of fact and observation on one of our most primal rituals: the meal. This is the book on the way we eat.

Praise for The Rituals of Dinner:

“One of the most important books ever written about food . . . every time I turn to it I am struck by some fresh detail.”—Bee Wilson

“Learned, fascinating and wide-ranging . . . one of those rare books that transforms your world while you are reading it . . . There is something quotable, interesting or alarming on every page.”—Hilary Mantel

“The book progresses like a feast. Read it . . . you’ll never look at a table knife the same way again.”—New York Times

“Superlative analysis . . . The Rituals of Dinner is as learned as anything.”—Robert Winder, Independent

“A wide-ranging reference book, useful to addicts of quizzes and etiquette . . . you will be both informed and entertained.”—Sunday Express

“Another feast for trivia-blotters with a taste for class.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Crammed to overflowing with things that one would want to know . . . Half etiquette book, half ‘anatomy,’ as sheer voracious and triumphant encyclopedism this brimming book could hardly be bettered.”—London Review of Books

“This is no narrow treatise on manners but a cosmopolitan feast, full of customs bland, spicy, and memorably disgusting.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A smorgasbord of cross-cultural insights, delectably served . . . Marvelous.”—Publishers Weekly