In the final quarter of the last century, Canada’s elite let down their Victorian hair on four separate occasions to attend lavish fancy-dress balls unequalled in the nascent Dominion. In Ottawa, Toronto, and Montreal, bankers, judges, and even the odd gate-crashing commoner partied to pay homage to the power and glory of the Empire, personified by their hosts, the Governors-General. Magnificent Entertainments by costume historian Cynthia Cooper presents the author’s research in exhaustive detail and engaging prose, set (with little innovation) alongside more than 100 photos. Cooper points out that Victorian ethics required a justification for pleasure – in the case of the balls, they provided work for milliners and educated socialites about the dress and costumes of their ancestors. Cooper finds educational and political value in her own travails too, though one questions the need to judge each event – as Cooper does – in the light of 20th-century advances by women and minorities.