"[A] certifiable masterpiece" from the acclaimed chronicler of New York City's old money elite (The New York Observer). Widely considered Louis Auchincloss's greatest novel, The Rector of Justin is an astute dissection of the social mores of the Northeast's privileged establishment. The story centers on Rev. Frank Prescott, the charismatic founder and rector of a prestigious Episcopal school for boys. With laser-sharp insight, Auchincloss delivers a prismatic portrait of this commanding and complicated man through the eyes of those who knew—or thought they knew—him best. Seamlessly interweaving multiple points of view—from an adoring teacher to that of a rebellious daughter—The Rector of Justin presents a social history of the eighty years of his life: the sources of his virtues and failings, his successes, his love, and his crises of faith. As Jonathan Yardley put it in the Washington...

A novel about a powerful public intellectual—and about what is true in the end—by an acclaimed New York Times–bestselling author. Felix Leitner has been a celebrated lawyer and political commentator, an advisor to presidents, an author of influential books, and a Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist. For decades he professed an unswerving commitment to intellectual truth. His stands weren't always popular, but in the eyes of millions, he had the stature of an oracle. Now he is in his eighties and confined to a nursing home, and his longtime research assistant and protégé, Roger Cutter, is determined to compile a chronicle of his mentor's life—for complex personal reasons as well as for posterity's sake. The House of the Prophet presents Felix from the point of view of multiple narrators, including his two ex-wives, his stepdaughter, and a former law partner. The portrait that takes shape from...

In The Headmaster’s Dilemma, Louis Auchincloss revisits the prep school world of his most famous novel. That book, The Rector of Justin, published in 1964, took the form of a fictional biography, giving the reader the full life story of a much beloved and revered, if also feared, headmaster of an exclusive New England prep school. In The Headmaster’s Dilemma, we see up close what happens when a school’s ideals and founding principles collide with the exigencies of change.The Headmaster’s Dilemma is the story of Michael Sayre, the handsome, avant-garde headmaster of Averhill, the great New England prep school as he is faced with a school administrator’s worst nightmare: a lawsuit brought by fervent parents in response to an incident involving their son and an upperclassman. To make matters worse, Michael is losing support from both the board of trustees -- led by the conniving Donald Spencer -- and senior faculty members. With the help of his supportive wife, Michael attempts to right these wrongs, while keeping Averhill’s best interests in mind.From Publishers WeeklyAuchincloss sets his sights on a big, familiar target: the rich and shallow elite, and the peculiar troubles specific to them. In this case, the setting is Averhill, a New England boarding school. It's 1975, and headmaster Michael Sayre has a crisis on his hands: there's been a homosexual assault in the boy's dorm. His attempt to handle the matter quietly and fairly plays directly into the hands of sinister Donald Spencer, Michael's old classmate, chief nemesis and chairman of the board of trustees. Determined to ruin Michael's efforts to transform Averhill into a progressive institution (Michael initiates co-education, among other reforms), Donald foments outrage among the parents of the two boys involved and plots to force Michael's resignation and return Averhill to its stodgy old ways. The narrative flows smoothly, but the prose-especially dialogue-is pockmarked with linguistic anachronisms ("all wet," "pinkos," "what a lark!"), as if the novel has been sitting in a drawer for 50 years and underwent a hurried updating. Though old-fashioned feeling, this newest offering from a veteran writer (Auchincloss has published more than 60 books) entertains with its depiction of American aristocrats. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistNew England prep school Averhill, a bastion of traditional WASP values, is changing with the times (it's the 1970s), thanks in large part to the popular and progressive headmaster Michael Sayre. Among his many assets is wife Ione, who, although she gave up her own career in law and now feels adrift, is steadfastly supportive. But Michael runs afoul of Donald Spencer, a member of the board of trustees, who wants to donate a grandiose sports complex. A former classmate, Spencer always resented the ease with which good fortune seems to attach itself to Michael, and dislikes the modernizations at the school. An opportunity to bring about the headmaster's downfall seems to present itself when a scandal erupts over a sexual incident involving two students, and parents and faculty start to question Michael's fitness for his role. The reliable Auchincloss may seem quaint at times, but he has an audience for his careful documentation of a rarefied world of manicured lawns and moral quandaries. Quinn, Mary Ellen

In his newest novel Louis Auchincloss explores the circumstances under which America's "best and brightest," or at least richest and most socially secure, came to such grief over the moral issues of our time.Chip Benedict appeared to have the best of everything: wealth, education, good looks, charm, and intelligence. Shortly before entering law school, he married Alida, a pale beauty with the slinky attractiveness of the day. But Alida had more than physical beauty. She had the cunning and talent to become the debutante of the year, thereby escaping the progressively threadbare world of tarnished elegance and unpaid bills to which she was born.Alida's life continued in a storybook fashion with her marriage to Chip, a seemingly perfect and certainly honorable man. Called to serve in World War II, he returned a hero, decorated for bravery at the Normandy landing. Following in his father's footsteps, he became chairman of the board of the prestigious Benedict Glass Company...

Each of the three stories--"The Epicurean," "The Realist," and "The Stoic"--in this collection introduces the richly satisfying and morally intriguing situations for which the author is known. 12,500 first printing.From Publishers WeeklyThe lives of three New York WASPs come under the scrutiny of Auchincloss's ( False Gods ) meticulous eye and deep moral vision. He examines them in his usual accomplished--if somewhat chilly--prose, laced with French phrases, references to the Great Books and acerbic, sometimes precious dialogue. Two novellas are narrated by their male protagonists, and as their titles--"The Epicurean" and "The Stoic"--indicate, they illuminate extreme approaches to life. The man of leisure at the heart of "The Epicurean" uses his family money to cushion his escapades as an artistic dilettante in Paris and a game hunter in Africa. When WW II brings an abrupt end to this pattern, the denouement seems coy rather than ordained. Related by a woman, the middle tale, a miniature novel of manners called "The Realist," has a more moderate outlook. Its story-within-a-story structure is contrived and proves frustrating. The most polished entry is the final tale, set in the early part of the 20th century, Auchincloss's favorite setting. "The Stoic" inhabits the world of finance, arranged intimacies and measured obligations to society. Harshly judgmental, he lives by his own rigid set of rules and resentments and is happy only when his hatred bears fruit. Reading about this rarefied milieu may make readers glad that they do not inhabit it. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThe writer of these stories, a former lawyer and prolific author of fiction and nonfiction, again uses his knowledge of law and upper-class New York society to present in his inimitably elegant style three sympathetic characters. Wealthy Nat Chisolm, whose remorseless grasping after pleasure illustrates the tale "The Epicurean," eventually finds life emotionally unsatisfying; Alida Vermeule, "The Realist," uses her restricted station in life to shape her husband's career; and George Manville, "The Stoic," shields himself from human contact by wrapping himself in the ascetic certainties of commerce. Challenged intellectually and morally by their dilemmas, and shaped by the demands of their society, Auchincloss's protagonists wrangle with their destiny. Recommended for public libraries.- Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A cat may look at a king, says an old proverb. The king is the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, whose fabled court at Versailles was the wonder of Europe; the cat is the watchful chronicler, Louis de Rouvroy, second duc de Saint-Simon, author of the famous Memoirs which are the definitive record of Louis' reign.Auchincloss has conceived his novel as an extension of the Memoirs, in which Saint-Simon reveals his own story—as well as a great deal about the private lives of the great and near-great that did not find its way into the published record. With his inimitable gift for characterization, Auchincloss portrays Saint-Simon, the meticulous, proud aristocrat of the old school who is at once fascinated and threatened by the powerful centralized monarchy Louis is building and by the king's plot to bolster his position by marrying off his illegitimate children to princes of the blood.Elegant, crisp, and abounding in authentic detail, The Cat and...

From Publishers WeeklyIn his 40th book, the author continues the fictional chronicles of the New York elitist establishment and their insidiously controlling power plays. "Auchincloss is not as successful in portraying credible liaisons as he is in making real the ways in which art is big business," remarked PW. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalAuchincloss examines the moral ambiguities involved in mixing art and commerce in this mildly entertaining satire. A wealthy art collector, trying to match up her young protegee with the ambitious museum director, has been persuaded to grant the Museum of North America some freedom over her collection's disposition. Upon her death, love, revenge, and respect for great art all enter into the battle among rival factions. While the dialogue is brightly written, there could have been more descriptive detail. Oddly colorless for a novel dealing with the visual arts. Laurie Spector Sullivan, Transportation Authority Archives, BostonCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Embezzler, first written in 1966, uses conflicting narrative voices and viewpoints to illuminate the fabled dimensions of American economic history as it was then understood. Inspired by the documented facts of the Wall Street fraud case that led the United States government to take control of the American stock market, Auchincloss then describes the case and its main players with credibility and skill, reinventing the facts of this historical event with skill. Given the financial crisis of 2008, and similar fraudulent schemes that have been exposed since, this is must reading.The Embezzler tells the life story of Guy Prime, who was born into wealth, enjoyed his youth, and eventually ended up in prison after he tried to secure loans against money he did not have and his embezzlements were revealed. Whatever the reasons for his gradual lapse into crime and his eventual disgrace, Guy Prime remains one of Louis Auchincloss's most engaging characters. Guy's gravest flaw appears not to be greed but rather a chronic tendency to misread human character. The story itself is told from three different viewpoints and narrators. Auchincloss's multi-narrator technique allows the reader to have a vivid sense of what transpired. This is classic Auchincloss, on a subject that illumines current events.About the AuthorLouis Auchincloss is an American novelist. He may well be the most prolific chronicler of the New York upper classes, a novelist of manners and morals in the tradition of Edith Wharton. Among his many works are Last of the Old Guard, The Headmaster’s Dilemma, and East Side Story. He is also the literary executor of the late Walter Lippmann.

With his customary wit, humor, and irony, along with a fine sense of the period, Louis Auchincloss artfully brings to life an exciting and dramatic facet of eighteenth-century England. On the Continent, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, is laying waste to the lowlands in a bloody combat with Louis XIV At the British court, Queen Anne, aging, ill, and surrounded by sycophants, is coping with the intrigues of those who wish to promote Marlborough's dangerous ambitions. Chief among the plotters is his headstrong wife (and court favorite), Sarah Churchill.Into this tense and steamy environment comes young Abigail Hill, Sarah's impoverished cousin. Sarah has arranged for her to be a maid to the Queen. But Abigail will discover that she has been marked by destiny for a special mission, which is nothing less than to bring to a halt a bloody and destructive world war. How she accomplishes this is the subject of this unusual but historically justified tale.The drama of court life and high politics, the growing antagonism between Sarah and Abigail, and an engaging cast of characters make for a lively narrative. And the portrait of Queen Anne is a tour de force that lends further depth to this vivid and engaging book.

An evocative and elegant collection of new stories from an American master.Bringing together twelve previously unpublished pieces, The Young Apollo and Other Stories sparkles with Auchincloss's singular style, and, like East Side Story, his most recent book, reveals in precise, aphoristic prose "not only the textures of this world but also its elemental and evolving truths" (New York Times). From Edwardian garden parties to the Manhattan demimonde of the 1970s, Auchincloss travels with economical grace and agility in this collection, which illuminates the moral ambiguities, both personal and professional, of New York's moneyed class.A loving chronicle of a waning world, this new collection is nonetheless an acute and gimlet-eyed portrait that refuses to shy away from its characters' less than savory ambitions and desires. In the title story, an older man eulogizes his young friend, the golden Lionel Manning—muse to the artists he gathered round himself and preserved...

Louis Auchincloss, known to most people as the author of best-selling novels, is also a practicing lawyer. In Powers of Attorney he combines his two vocations in a graphic and authoritative account of the internal workings of a big New York law office. Each of the twelve episodes which make up the book concerns a member of the fictional firm of Tower, Tilncy & Webb and their plots are interwoven as inevitably as are the lives of the characters involved. Clitus Tilney, the senior partner, has set his stamp on the firm. He is responsible for the growth that makes envious competitors refer to it as a "law factory" and responsible too for the retention of ethical principles considered old-fashioned by certain of his colleagues. The realm he rules is contained in two floors of a vast new office building on Wall Street, and it is there that most of the rivalries, victories, disappointments, and compromises are worked out, to the satisfaction of Mr. Tilney and of the reader. Mr. Auchincloss's understanding of human relations in general and the ramifications of the law in particular expose in clear relief the maneuverings and power struggles of a group of people disparate in all but their calling: Harry Reilly, the bright young man from Brooklyn; Rutherford Tower, last of the founding family; Mrs. Abercrombie, whose forty years with the firm give her a special status; Chambers Todd, driven to questionable tactics by his insatiable ambition; and many others. Mr. Auchincloss guides us through the byways of the legal world glimpsed in his earlier novel, The Great World and Timothy Colt. With superb craftsmanship, he shows us the denizens of this world in all their human and often touching frailty, balancing humor with warmth, incisiveness with tolerance. This is a book to savor and to lend only to those who can be trusted to return it.

In what may be his finest novel since The Rector of Justin, Louis Auchincloss offers his richest portrait yet of the manners and mores of the Establishment world he knows so well.The lady of situations is Natica Chauncey, the daughter of a ruined financier who is forced to rely on a kindly matron for her glancing acquaintance with the aristocracy of Long Island. But Natica is too clear-sighted to pretend that such a life, as much as it dazzles her, would satisfy her intellect. Coming of age at a time when anything more than a modest show of ambition does not become a lady, she must seek her own fortune in the fortunes of others. And so, with little more than her wits and determination, she makes her way through the social shoals of New England prep schools, Hudson Valley estates, and New York drawing rooms.Natica sees herself as a Bronte sister "without the moors and without the genius"; her doting Aunt Ruth, a woman of less imagination but considerably more compassion, would contend merely that she has "an attractive personality and a first-class mind." But Natica has one thing more: a gift for finding opportunity in improbable situations, even at the risk of scandal. Almost in spite of herself, she emerges as an unlikely, and unforgettable, femme fatale.Shrewd, observant, and always graceful, The Lady of Situations is Auchincloss at his best, the work of a master storyteller.From Publishers WeeklyIn his 43rd book, Auchincloss again picks up where Wharton and James left off, with another stylish, tasteful novel of manners focusing on the moneyed Establishment. The daughter of a financier ruined in the Depression, Natica Chauncey is hungry for the social status her family has lost. She turns entrapping "situations" to her advantage, three times marrying men she uses for self-advancement and refusing the idle female existence prescribed by society. Auchincloss's hallmark skills are evident here: meticulous prose, colorful depictions of idiosyncratic personalities, intelligent treatment of women's changing roles and descriptions of subtle intricacies of social climbing. But his characters' very lack of depth robs them of the reader's sympathy. Natica's manipulations may be "the needed armor of a brilliant woman in a man's world" but, combined with her emotional thinness, they render her rather unappealing. The most profoundly drawn character, headmaster Rufus Lockwood, owes much of his vivid personality to literary predecessor Frank Prescott of The Rector of Justin. Still, Auchincloss's portrayal of the bonds and battles between the sexes and the ethics of loyalty and responsibility result in an acute study in human motivation. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalAuchincloss's latest novel is the Brahmins' answer to Judith Krantz. It chronicles the professional adventures of Natica Chauncey, airy and ambitious daughter of decayed gentry, as she manipulates her way up the social ladder and, eventually, the pay scale. From marriage to an Episcopal minister at a boys' boarding school, through variously rewarding affairs, to financial security as a lawyer, she is consistently dull and pretentious. Her maiden Aunt Ruth's fond observations dot the narrative, as do various character's comments on literature and art. This novel reiterates Auchincloss's oft-made point (he's written some 40 books) that the old guard doesn't have any particular claim to gentility, but the book itself isn't of any inherent interest. Not recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/90.- Molly McCluer, Alameda Cty. Law Lib., Oakland, Cal.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bob Service, the protagonist of this deft and chilling novel of contemporary ambition and greed, is a thirty-two-year-old crack lawyer with blood as cold and clear as a five-dollar martini. Bob's god is power and his morals are ever tempered by expediency. His goals far exceed an imminent partnership in a big New York law firm.Bob's "perfect' marriage to the graceful and intelligent Alice is no match for the ardor of his corporate drive. And it certainly pales beside his explosive affair with Sylvia, whose naked ambition matches his own and whose social connections provide the ultimate bridge to the pinnacles of success.How Bob Service marches toward his fate while trampling on his associates and crippling his marriage forms the plot of this fast-paced novel about modern mores and life on the fast track of the big law firms. Office intrigue and duels for power rival anything that Machiavelli could have conjured up. And in Louis Auchincloss's hands, it all has an unnerv-ingly authentic ring.Louis Auchincloss began his law career at a Wall Street firm after attending Yale and the University of Virginia Law School. He is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and president of the Museum of the City of New York. This is his thirty-eighth book, the most recent being The Book Class and Honorable Men.From Library Journal"You're only wrong if you get caught" is the credo of 32-year-old Bob Service, who handles corporate takeover cases for a large New York law firm. Thirty years ago, people would have called him a shyster. The finer side of his character (he reads Wordsworth and Walter Pater) is buried behind a warlike exteriorand it works for him. Despite rifts with his wife and his mentor, Service gets everything he wants. This brief contemporary novel explores the ethics of loyalty in business, love, and friendship. Auchincloss, a prolific novelist of manners, is also a Wall Street attorney, and his shallow, ambitious characters ring true. The title is unfortunate, but it may help increase the readership for this subtle, memorable book. Joyce Smothers, Ocean Cty. Lib., Toms River, N.J.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's only twelve miles long and two miles wide, but it has more money for its area, more history packed into its relatively brief settlement, and more emotional and intellectual energy coursing through its streets than any other place on earth. Manhattan is the setting for all of Louis Auchincloss's fiction, and it is the stage on which those New Yorkers whose roots go down to its bedrock play out the drama of their lives.From the turn of the century to our present urban follies, these stories follow the fortunes of the socially secure and powerful as they try to cope with the changes shaped by the momentous events and growing anxieties of recent decades. Taken together, the tales weave a larger pattern of human strengths and foibles that bemuses the mind and touches the heart.The elegant prose, crystalline dialogue, immense insight into the mores, preoccupations, and afflictions of the rich, and the connoisseur's sense of both art and life that are characteristic of Auchincloss—all are here, but with a depth of passion and irony exceeding anything he has accomplished in the past.From Publishers WeeklyOnce again, Louis Auchincloss has raided the till of his social register to depict the travails of Manhattan's upper class. In 12 stories proceeding chronologically from the 1870s to the present, his protagonists try to accommodate themselves to the roles seemingly assigned them at birth. Few succeed. The robber baron of the first story is no more or less rapacious than the corporate raider of the last: 100 years of "progress" have merely taught the gently bred to meet defeat with increased grace and alacrity. Some of the book's women seem better able to forge their own destinies: one perseveres in her passion for avant-garde art despite the derision of family and friends; another, a widow whose children consign her to a life of baby-sitting and basket-weaving, instead forms a friendship with an effeminate but life-giving companion. Others seem only too willing to share their male partners' glum acceptance of the status quo, even when their golden chains limit both creativity and sexuality. Still, few give way to total despair. Their author has imbued them with a stubborn but lasting resilience that augers well for their continuing survivaland his, as their most inspired chronicler. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"Louis Auchincloss has an enveloping story to tell and a perfect, understated knowledge of those who inhabit it," said the New York Times of The Scarlet Letters. The same can be said of Auchincloss's new novel, a tour de force that charts the rise of one uncommon family in America's grand city.How did the families who live on Manhattan's Upper East Side get to where they are today? As much a penetrating social history as it is engaging fiction, East Side Story tells of the Carnochans, a family whose Scottish forebears establish themselves in New York's textile business during the Civil War. From there they quickly move on to seize prominent positions in the country's top schools and Manhattan's elite firms. As the novel unfolds, family members across the generations recount their stories, illuminating lives steeped in both good fortune and moral jeopardy. From women who outsmart their foolish husbands, to ambitious lawyers who protect the Carnochan name, to the family's...