Talk:Debrett's

In William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel Vanity Fair (1847),
the elderly aristocrat Sir Pitt Crawley is described as "a selfish boor [...] unworthy of his title" despite his name being in Debrett's.


 * The above quote as far as I can tell is nowhere in Vanity Fair. It is not even a paraphrase -- it is more like a summation of what is said about Sir Pitt Crawley.  I would supply a link, but it seems impossible to supply a link to something that is not there.


 * It shows the influence of Wikipedia that the above sentence appears in unaltered form in a number of web sites.


 * Devin Bent
 * devin.bent@gmail.com


 * Here is a similar phrase: "That blood-red hand of Sir Pitt Crawley's would be in anybody's pocket except his own; and it is with grief and pain, that, as admirers of the British aristocracy, we find ourselves obliged to admit the existence of so many ill qualities in a person whose name is in Debrett." (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/599/599-h/599-h.htm). Norman21 (talk) 17:28, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Reference to Sherlock Holmes and Debrett's
To my knowledge, there are no Canonical references to Debrett's. I have done a Google search on "sherlock holmes debretts" and the only references are to the Wikipedia article. A search on "sherlock holmes debretts site:gutenberg.org" produces nothing Canonical. Holmes may have consulted Debrett's or Burke's Peerage.

I also did a search at http://mrmoon.com/moonfind/holmes/ with no results. I hope that a better Holmes scholar than myself can clarify the matter. Petkusj (talk) 21:20, 20 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I've searched all of the titles available here (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search.html/?default_prefix=all&sort_order=downloads&query=sherlock+holmes) and can find no text matching "Debrett". I suppose it is possible this was mentioned in one of the television programmes. Norman21 (talk) 17:52, 26 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Maybe it's a reference to this passage from The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor:

He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of reference beside the mantelpiece.

"Here he is," said he, sitting down and flattening it out upon his knee. "Lord Robert Walsingham de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral. Hum! Arms: Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on the distaff side..." Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in all this.
 * We might guess that the "red-covered volume" is Debrett's, but it could just as easily be Burke's Peerage or any number of similar volumes (including non-existant ones made up by Arthur Conan Doyle). I couldn't find Debrett's named anywhere explicitly either. I think the Holmes mention should be removed from the article Chuntuk (talk) 16:32, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

"Debrey" or "Debret"?
What's the pronunciation? French or English? Malick78 (talk) 10:41, 17 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Found it: /dəˈbrets/Macmillan Dictionary Malick78 (talk) 10:47, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Debrett's. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20081218111943/http://www.debretts.co.uk:80/book.php?id=5 to http://www.debretts.co.uk/book.php?id=5
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080804113925/http://www.debretts.co.uk:80/about.php?category=1 to http://www.debretts.co.uk/about.php?category=1

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 01:34, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Next edition?
The 150th edition was published in 2019 and was supposed to be the last edition in print, but it's not clear whether in future there will be future editions at all (e.g. ebooks) or if it will be purely encased within the website. Robin S. Taylor (talk) 14:38, 6 March 2024 (UTC)