Beau Brummell (George Bryan) [ Fashion ]
… families, he came from a well-to-do background. His father being private secretary to Lord North, George grew up playing with children of neighbouring aristocratic families, was sent to Eton, and spent nearly a year at Oxford in … its often very elaborate formal rules. By questioning hierarchies while assuming a position of power, Brummell was playing a paradox game. Despite his brash comments, his biographer Jesse credits him with the ‘art of pleasing’ (I: 119); … unforeseen replies often comically point at a lack of style, comportment, or judgement. Brummell simultaneously played with and inverted the rules of polite conversation: he implicitly demanded verbal precision, brevity, and style, …
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