Chap­ter 21 of “The Ways of Men” dis­cuss­es the trans­for­ma­tion of the French aris­toc­ra­cy’s social inter­ac­tions from his­tor­i­cal pres­tige to con­tem­po­rary sig­nif­i­cance, as seen through the lives of the “Sev­en Small Duchess­es.” The chap­ter delves into the decline of the French nobil­i­ty’s influ­ence on soci­ety, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the 19th cen­tu­ry, attribut­ing it to their aloof­ness and refusal to engage with the chang­ing polit­i­cal land­scape. Con­verse­ly, it high­lights a shift towards re-engage­ment led by the younger gen­er­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly a group of ducal women who invig­o­rate the tra­di­tion­al aris­toc­ra­cy with their mod­ern and live­ly approach to ful­fill­ing their roles.

These duchess­es, each hold­ing a sig­nif­i­cant title and resid­ing in his­tor­i­cal­ly rich châteaux, have become the trend­set­ters of French soci­ety. They exhib­it a blend of respect for tra­di­tion and a spir­it­ed engage­ment with con­tem­po­rary life, lead­ing social events from Paris to the Riv­iera. Despite for­eign and bour­geois influ­ences on French soci­ety over the years, these women main­tain a strict exclu­siv­i­ty, reflect­ing an endur­ing adher­ence to tra­di­tion­al val­ues of her­itage and pedi­gree.

Their choice of com­pan­ion­ship remains firm­ly with­in their caste, high­light­ing a unique French per­spec­tive on social sta­tus and inter­ac­tion that stark­ly con­trasts with per­cep­tions in coun­tries like Eng­land and Amer­i­ca. This exclu­siv­i­ty fur­ther extends to their cul­tur­al pur­suits, with each duchess notable for par­tic­u­lar skills in the arts, there­by enrich­ing their social cir­cle not only with sta­tus but with sub­stan­tive cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tions.

The chap­ter clos­es by reflect­ing on the irony of moder­ni­ty’s touch on the aris­toc­ra­cy — where titles once syn­ony­mous with bat­tle­field and court­ly grandeur now belong to spir­it­ed young women lead­ing their lives with a mix of tra­di­tion and con­tem­po­rary flair. Yet, despite a more vis­i­ble engage­ment with soci­ety, they keep a firm bound­ary against out­siders, pre­serv­ing their exclu­siv­i­ty and con­tin­u­ing the lega­cy of the French aris­toc­ra­cy’s dis­tinct social struc­ture.