From Library Journal
In this compilation of excerpts from novels, poems, and plays of descriptions of parties, freelance editor Johnston uses numerous and wide-ranging sources, from Petronius to Robert Coover, that reflect the variation of possible scenarios in human social situations. The book is organized in sections: "Beginnings," "All Manner of Parties," "Revelry," and "Ending" (the final entry is a suitable short poem by Emily Dickinson, "This Quiet Dust Was Gentlemen and Ladies"). Commentary is provided only in the brief introduction, which points out that parties are not necessarily fun (see Lady Elizabeth Anson's advice on what to do when someone attempts suicide at your soiree). This is a handy reference on a festive subject, useful for quotations but nonessential.Janice E. Braun, Mills Coll., Oakland, Cal.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This fabulously entertaining collection gathers for the first time the wittiest, the most illuminating, the most entertaining - simply the best - writing about this most social of rituals, from over 200 writers, including Truman Capote, Martin Amis, Daphne DuMaurier, Horace, Noel Coward, Edith Wharton, Tom Wolfe, Shakespeare, Colette, Vladimir Nabokov, Muriel Spark, James Thurber, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Bible, Dorothy Parker, Dominick Dunne and many more.

FROM THE CRITICS

New York Post

...an amusing and entertaining compendium of party-scene snippets.

Town and Country

You might be tempted to skip tonight's soiree and stay home to read Parties: A Literary Companion.

Marie Claire

...cause for celebration, decoration, and conversation.

Library Journal