They mark the sad end point of a genteel tradition that began with the Virginia gentry and the Boston Brahmins.
Together, they mounted a direct challenge to the genteel tradition and cleared the ground for a freer literary flowering of the 1920's.
As a literary critic he was already beginning an effective assault on the genteel tradition in American literature.
Even in the genteel traditions of such hearings, today was exceptionally considerate.
Cricket has a genteel tradition and decorum.
All these things are essential for understanding what the genteel tradition is and why it is a tragedy.
The characters in "The Last Puritan" embody elements of the genteel tradition.
Mario is an example of what life without the genteel tradition is like.
Oliver, on the other hand, most exemplifies the tragedy of the genteel tradition through his Puritanism developed fully to its tragic, self-destructive end.
Edmund Wilson wrote that Mencken "put his foot through the genteel tradition."