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Rules of Civility

Rules of Civility

Historical FictionLiterary Fiction
Pages
415
Published
2011
Language
English

Synopsis

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is a richly textured historical novel set in 1937 New York City, following Katey Kontent through one transformative year. As her old life unravels and new ambitions take hold, she navigates the city's high society, its scandals, and several men who each represent a different path forward. Towles blends wit with genuine melancholy to create a story about hope, reinvention, and what it costs to pursue a better version of oneself.

Prose complexity
5/10

Vibe

NostalgicRomantic
Coming of AgeMultiple POVsLove TriangleSecret IdentityBetrayal

Genres

Historical Fiction Literary Fiction

About the author

A
Amor Towles

Amor Towles is an American novelist, born in 1964 and raised in the Boston area. He graduated from Yale and took an MA in English at Stanford, where his thesis, a short story cycle called "The Temptations of Pleasure", appeared in The Paris Review in 1989. He worked as an investment professional for more than twenty years before turning to writing full time, and lives in Manhattan. His first novel, Rules of Civility (2011), follows a young woman through one year of 1938 New York; its French tra...

Characters

Katey KontentProtagonist

A young woman in her early twenties who spends the final months of 1937 navigating romance, ambition, and social circles in New York City.

Tinker GreySupporting

A charming, well-connected young banker with royal-blue eyes whom Katey and her roommate Eve meet in a Greenwich Village jazz bar on New Year's Eve 1937; his poise draws both women in over the year that follows.

Eve RossSupporting

Katey's vivacious, reckless boardinghouse roommate, whose life takes a sharply different turn after an accident partway through the year the novel covers.

Wallace WolcottSupporting

A quietly wealthy, unpretentious friend of Tinker's who teaches Katey to shoot skeet and later leaves New York to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

Anne GrandynSupporting

A sharp, worldly older woman who moves in the same elite circles as Tinker and takes a keen, not entirely explained, interest in Katey.

All characters in Rules of Civility

Frequently asked questions

  • Where does the title Rules of Civility come from?

    The title comes from George Washington's "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation," a list of 110 maxims on conduct that he copied out as a schoolboy. Amor Towles reprints the full list as an appendix to the novel, and its ideas about self-improvement and social polish echo through Katey Kontent's own year of reinvention.

  • Is Rules of Civility part of a series?

    Rules of Civility is a complete, standalone novel. Amor Towles later revisited its supporting character Eve Ross in the novella "Eve in Hollywood," which is collected in his 2024 book Table for Two — a companion story rather than a numbered sequel.

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