From a bestselling novelist, this "cultural phenomenon" is a fascinating foray into the hearts, minds, and mating habits of modern-day New Yorkers and the inspiration behind the television series (Oprah). Enter a world where the shocking and hilarious dating rituals of the privileged are exposed by a true insider. In essays drawn from her witty and sometimes brutally candid column in the New York Observer, Candace Bushnell introduces us to the young and beautiful who travel in packs from parties to bars to clubs–and forever changes the conversation about women, friendships, love, and sex.  Wildly funny, unexpectedly poignant, wickedly observant, Sex and the City blazes a glorious, drunken cocktail trail through Manhattan.  "Fascinating... hilarious... welcome to the cruel planet that is Manhattan." – Los Angeles Times   "Compulsively readable." – Marie Claire  "Jane Austen with a martini."– Sunday Telegraph   Sex and the City By Candace Bushnell Warner Books Copyright © 2006 Candace Bushnell All right reserved. ISBN: 9780446617680 Chapter One My Unsentimental Education: Love in Manhattan? I Don't Think So ... Here's a Valentine's Day tale. Prepare yourself.     An English journalist came to New York. She was attractiveand witty, and right away she hooked up with one ofNew York's typically eligible bachelors. Tim was forty-two,an investment banker who made about $5 million a year. Fortwo weeks, they kissed, held hands?and then on a warmfall day he drove her to the house he was building in theHamptons. They looked at the plans with the architect. "Iwanted to tell the architect to fill in the railings on the secondfloor, so the children wouldn't fall through," said thejournalist. "I expected Tim was going to ask me to marryhim." On Sunday night, Tim dropped her off at her apartmentand reminded her that they had dinner plans for Tuesday.On Tuesday, he called and said he'd have to take a raincheck. When she hadn't heard from him after two weeks,she called and told him, "That's an awfully long rain check."He said he would call her later in the week.     He never did call, of course. But what interested me wasthat she couldn't understand what had happened. In England,she explained, meeting the architect would have meant something.Then I realized, Of course: She's from London. Noone's told her about the End of Love in Manhattan. Then Ithought: She'll learn.     Welcome to the Age of Un-Innocence. The glittering lightsof Manhattan that served as backdrops for Edith Wharton'sbodice-heaving trysts are still glowing?but the stage is empty.No one has breakfast at Tiffany's, and no one has affairs toremember?instead, we have breakfast at seven A.M. and affairswe try to forget as quickly as possible. How did we getinto this mess?     Truman Capote understood our nineties dilemma?thedilemma of Love vs. the Deal?all too well. In Breakfastat Tiffany's , Holly Golightly and Paul Varjak were faced withrestrictions?he was a kept man, she was a kept woman?butin the end they surmounted them and chose love overmoney. That doesn't happen much in Manhattan these days.We are all kept men and women?by our jobs, by our apartments,and then some of us by the pecking order atMortimers and the Royalton, by Hamptons beachfront, byfront-row Garden tickets?and we like it that way. Self-protectionand closing the deal are paramount. Cupid hasflown the co-op.     When was the last time you heard someone say, "I loveyou!" without tagging on the inevitable (if unspoken) "as afriend." When was the last time you saw two people gazinginto each other's eyes without thinking, Yeah, right? Whenwas the last time you heard someone announce, "I am truly,madly in love," without thinking, Just wait until Mondaymorning? And what turned out to be the hot non-Tim AllenChristmas movie? Disclosure ?for which ten or fifteen millionmoviegoers went to see unwanted, unaffectionate sex betweencorporate erotomaniacs?hardly the stuff we like to thinkabout when we think about love but very much the stuff ofthe modern Manhattan relationship.     There's still plenty of sex in Manhattan but the kind of sexthat results in friendship and business deals, not romance.These days, everyone has friends and colleagues; no one reallyhas lovers?even if they have slept together.     Back to the English journalist: After six months, some more"relationships," and a brief affair with a man who used tocall her from out of town to tell her that he'd be calling herwhen he got back into town (and never did), she got smart."Relationships in New York are about detachment," she said."But how do you get attached when you decide you want to?"     Honey, you leave town. LOVE AT THE BOWERY BAR, PART I It's Friday night at the Bowery Bar. It's snowing outside andbuzzing inside. There's the actress from Los Angeles, lookingdelightfully out of place in her vinyl gray jacket and miniskirt,with her gold-medallioned, too-tanned escort. There'sthe actor,