<div>An &ldquo;entertaining and occasionally even moving&rdquo; personal recollection by the lawyer, historian, and renowned chronicler of old-money WASP society (The Boston Globe). At the time of his death, Louis Auchincloss&mdash;enemy of bores, self-pity, and stale gossip&mdash;had just finished taking on a subject he had long avoided: himself. His memoir confirms that, despite the spark of his fiction, Auchincloss himself was the most entertaining character he ever created. No traitor to his class, but occasionally its critic, Auchincloss returns to his insular society, which he maintains was less interesting than its members admitted&mdash;and unfurls his life with dignity, summoning family (particularly his father, who suffered from depression and forgave him for hating sports) and intimates. Brooke Astor and her circle are here, along with glimpses of Jacqueline Onassis. Most memorable, though, is Auchincloss&rsquo;s way with those outside the salon: the cranky maid; the maiden aunt, perpetually out of place; the less-than-well-born boy who threw himself from a window over a woman and a man. Above all, here is what it was like to be Auchincloss, an American master, a New York Times&ndash;bestselling novelist, and a rare, generous, lively spirit to the end. &ldquo;[Auchincloss] concentrates on bringing back to life&mdash;literary alchemy, after all&mdash;the people who loved him: his mother, father, aunts, uncles, school friends and colleagues. He understands how lucky he was to have them, and &lsquo;A Voice From Old New York&rsquo; is his thank-you note.&rdquo; &mdash;The New York Times</div>

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A Voice from Old New York

<div>A &ldquo;novel of power and hypocrisy in upper-class New York&rdquo; that follows the rise of one prominent family, generation after generation (The New Yorker). How did the families who live on Manhattan&rsquo;s Upper East Side get to where they are today? This engaging saga by a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author charts the rise of an uncommon family in America&rsquo;s grandest city. East Side Story tells of the Carnochan family whose Scottish forebears established themselves in New York&rsquo;s textile business during the Civil War. From there they quickly moved on to seize prominent positions in the country&rsquo;s top schools and Manhattan&rsquo;s elite firms. As the novel unfolds, Carnochans across generations recount stories about their 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&rsquo;s artists and writers, all weigh the question that infuses so much of Louis Auchincloss&rsquo;s fiction: What makes for a meaningful life in a family that has so much? &ldquo;Some writers inform, some instruct, and some tell how rewarding good prose can be,&rdquo; John Kenneth Galbraith once observed. &ldquo;Louis Auchincloss does all three.&rdquo; In its starred review, Kirkus Reviews called East Side Story &ldquo;a rich chronicle . . . that succeeds in humanizing a rare and much-maligned species of Americans for those who don&rsquo;t come across them very much.&rdquo; Auchincloss&rsquo;s superb novel is both a loving and wicked look at New York&rsquo;s Yankee aristocracy as only this sublime master of manners can provide.</div>

East Side Story

<div>A New York Times&ndash;bestselling novel of love, money, and ambition among the employees of a white-shoe law firm. From a renowned chronicler of American high society, this is a novel set in the small but distinguished New York law firm of Shepard, Putney &amp; Cox in the early 1970s. The son of a rich mother and a socially ambitious father, Beekman &ldquo;Beeky&rdquo; Ehninger makes a successful career for himself in the narrow upper echelons of his profession. For years, he has quietly guided his firm through numerous periods of transition&mdash;not to mention marital strife, forgery, and fraud. But as times have changed, Beeky and his colleagues must decide whether to join forces with a new and different breed&mdash;tough, but undeniably successful. The Partners is a masterful characterization of moral men navigating an amoral world, of lawyers, their families, and the rich and powerful people they serve. &ldquo;Vintage Auchincloss&mdash;sensitive, ironic, sympathetic, affecting. Auchincloss is particularly good with the interior reality of seemingly minor conflicts; he also shows, over and over again, that seemingly large and dramatic conflicts are often not the important ones.&rdquo; &mdash;New York magazine</div>

The Partners

<div>Tales that take you behind the scenes of a powerful New York law firm, from the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of The Partners. Ambition, jealousy, desire, hatred, deceit&mdash;they&rsquo;re all there inside the Wall Street law offices of Tower, Tilney &amp; Webb, the setting for these interwoven stories set in the 1960s from Louis Auchincloss, who practiced law while also writing acclaimed and bestselling fiction. Senior partner Clitus Tilney is not about to let a detestable, hard-drinking partner make a mockery of all he&rsquo;s worked for. Harry Reilley is a clerk who pines for Tilney&rsquo;s daughter. Jake Platt is an associate willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals, including setting a rival up for failure. Rutherford Tower struggles with the fact that he owes his position with the firm to nepotism and not hard work. And then there&rsquo;s Mrs. Abercrombie, who&rsquo;s waiting for her sixty-fifth birthday, when she plans to retire&mdash;and get her revenge. These twelve linked stories capture the struggles, rivalries, victories, disappointments, and compromises in the day-to-day lives of lawyers, and a portrait of professional men and women in mid-century New York.</div>

Powers of Attorney

<div>From a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author, short stories of the privileged class, spanning a century of New York history:&ldquo;Urbane, humorous . . . a treat to read.&rdquo; &mdash;Library Journal Sublime master of manners, exquisite critic of the upper crust, and beloved American author Louis Auchincloss is at his wry, brilliant best with this collection of ten short stories about New York aristocracy. Drawing on a century of Manhattan high society, Auchincloss weaves a set of perfectly crafted, intimate portrayals of the struggles and dramas of the elite. From a woman faced with choosing love or prestige when marrying to a man torn between loyalty to his family and country when called to war to a matchmaker handling a rogue romance, these glamorous yet all-too-human tales present a remarkable tableau of the American upper class. A series of &ldquo;finely etched portraits of the kind of men we&rsquo;ve become used to meeting in [Auchincloss&rsquo;s] fiction,&rdquo; Manhattan Monologues stands as a remarkable achievement of short fiction, a legend of American letters at his insightful best (The New York Times Book Review). &ldquo;For the sheer elegance of his prose, Louis Auchincloss deserves a large and enthusiastic following.&rdquo; &mdash;The Baltimore Sun</div>

Manhattan Monologues

<div>&ldquo;[A] certifiable masterpiece&rdquo; from the acclaimed chronicler of New York City&rsquo;s old money elite (The New York Observer). Widely considered Louis Auchincloss&rsquo;s greatest novel, The Rector of Justin is an astute dissection of the social mores of the Northeast&rsquo;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&mdash;or thought they knew&mdash;him best. Seamlessly interweaving multiple points of view&mdash;from an adoring teacher to that of a rebellious daughter&mdash;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 Post, &ldquo;Auchincloss is one of the most accomplished and distinctive writers this country has known . . . [and] Frank Prescott is one of the great characters in American fiction.&rdquo; &ldquo;A daring and ambitious book . . . Its poise and taste and intelligence strike one on every page, as do its unerring knowledge and literary skill.&rdquo; &mdash;The New Yorker &ldquo;[The Rector of Justin] should sit on the shelf of any serious reader of American fiction.&rdquo; &mdash;Jay Parini, The New York Observer &ldquo;A taut and elegant study of a distinguished American whose closest friends cannot decide whether they like or detest him.&rdquo; &mdash;The Times Literary Supplement &ldquo;Fascinating . . . We do come to feel the reality, the complicated reality, of Francis Prescott.&rdquo; &mdash;Saturday Review &ldquo;My favorite of Auchincloss&rsquo;s novels. Both decadent and demanding, high-hat and frank . . . A subversive in lace-up oxfords and rep tie.&rdquo; &mdash;Amy Bloom </div>

The Rector of Justin

<div>A New York Times&ndash;bestselling author puts a modern twist on the Nathaniel Hawthorne classic with this novel of wealthy 1950s society. The year is 1953, and the coastal village of Glenville, on the opulent north shore of Long Island, is shaken by scandal. Ambrose Vollard, the managing partner of a prestigious Wall Street law firm, gets word of an alleged affair in his family. Most astonishing, the adulterer is Rodman Jessup, Vollard&rsquo;s son-in-law, junior partner, and most likely successor. Until now Jessup has been admired for his impeccable morals and high ideals&mdash;so what could explain his reckless affair with a woman of fading charms? All is on the line for Jessup, who threatens to upset Glenville&rsquo;s carefully calibrated social order. As each family member learns of the affair, the story reveals layer upon layer of abiding loyalties and shameless double-crossing. Wise and exuberantly entertaining, The Scarlet Letters is an absorbing tale about the temptations of power, wealth, and passion. </div>

The Scarlet Letters

<div>A novel about a fortunate man tripped up by temptation, from the New York Times&ndash;bestselling author of The Embezzler and The Partners. Tony Lowder is the able and good-looking grandson of an Irish immigrant who prospered as a contractor&mdash;and left behind a family whose station in life is on the decline. That is except for Tony, who has a promising future in politics. He has married into an old New York family, and his wife, Lee, cares for their two children and tolerates Tony&rsquo;s continuing affair with wealthy Joan Conway, the mistress who dates back to his single days. But there is always pressure for more money, and it has become acute with a recent drop in the market. Suddenly, temptation emerges from a brokerage house under investigation, and some Mafia figures ready to pay for a slight change in timing that may rescue the firm. What follows shocks the city&mdash;and upsets the tightrope upon which Tony has been balancing . . . &ldquo;Auchincloss is one of the most accomplished and distinctive writers this country has known.&rdquo; &mdash;The Washington Post</div>

I Come as a Thief

<div>Short fiction examining the mysteries of human character, from a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author acclaimed as &ldquo;among the best in American literature&rdquo; (Kirkus Reviews). In the title story, a teacher at a private girls&rsquo; school ruminates on a long career, wondering if he was right to encourage his students to find a life less constrained than the conventional one prescribed to them&mdash;or if he cruelly raised unrealistic expectations. In &ldquo;The Country Cousin,&rdquo; a delightful one-act play, a wealthy woman&rsquo;s dependent niece unwittingly serves as the vehicle that reveals her rich relatives&rsquo; self-involvement. Ranging from a boyhood friendship tested by the fabrications of the McCarthy era to an Episcopal priest tormented by an autocratic headmaster, Louis Auchincloss&rsquo;s fiction illuminates the complications that ensue when our perceptions of other people&rsquo;s natures&mdash;as well as our own&mdash;are upended. Praised by the Los Angeles Times as a writer &ldquo;committed to examining the complicated layers of character, psychology, and society,&rdquo; Louis Auchincloss presents a treasure trove of short fiction that showcases both his insight and his literary talent.</div>

The Friend of Women and Other Stories

<div>This New York Times&ndash;bestselling author&rsquo;s story collection &ldquo;displays consistent excellence in observing the spheres of art, law, money and society&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly). Whether set in the world of Wall Street, the nineteenth-century Virginia aristocracy, or a boys&rsquo; school in New England, the short stories of Louis Auchincloss reveal a remarkable insight into the things that drive us and make us human. In this volume, the author collects a wide range of his finest work, taking us on a journey through decades of outstanding short fiction. &ldquo;Spanning more than 40 years, this collection attests to Auchincloss&rsquo;s durable talents: flawless prose, keen social observation, and a refined moral sensibility. The compromises between society and the individual, art and commerce, ego and restraint all figure into his finest fictions. Arranged chronologically, the 19 selections together suggest the author&rsquo;s profound sense of American history, with all of its political and social eruptions. He seems to have emerged as a writer fully formed, since the earliest pieces here prove as supple and graceful as his most recent. . . . Auchincloss schools us in all the social differences we&rsquo;re taught don&rsquo;t exist. . . . Further proof, if any is needed, that Auchincloss ranks among the best in American literature.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews</div>

The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss

<div>Short stories from a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author, in settings ranging from Edwardian garden parties to 1970s Manhattan. While bringing to life stories of the past filled with privilege and glamour, these tales also explore their characters&rsquo; less than savory ambitions and desires. In the title story, an older man eulogizes his young friend&mdash;a muse to the artists he gathered around himself&mdash;only to reveal that despite the young man&rsquo;s burgeoning reputation as a poet, he could only inspire genius, but not produce it. The Young Apollo and Other Stories takes us inside upper-class lives, crystallizing a world now gone but forever fixed in our romantic imaginations, uncovering its flaws and all too human foibles, as well as its considerable charms. &ldquo;This elegant . . . collection continues [Auchincloss&rsquo;s] unflinching examination of New York&rsquo;s wealthy socialite class.&rdquo; &mdash;Library Journal &ldquo;Auchincloss has a talent for pulling the curtain back on perfection, for peering behind the sublime facade.&rdquo; &mdash;The Seattle Times</div>

The Young Apollo

<div>The New York Times&ndash;bestselling author &ldquo;picks up where Wharton and James left off, with [a] stylish, tasteful novel of manners&rdquo; (Publishers Weekly). Natica Chauncey, the daughter of a financier ruined by the Great Depression, is determined to regain the social status she has lost. She relies on a kindly matron for her glancing acquaintance with the aristocracy of Long Island&mdash;but she is haunted by a yearning for more. 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 has a gift for finding opportunity in improbable situations, even at the risk of scandal&mdash;and almost in spite of herself, she will emerge as an unlikely, and unforgettable, femme fatale.</div>

The Lady of Situations

<div>From a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author: A collection of short fiction &ldquo;reminiscent of the work of Henry James and Edith Wharton&rdquo; (Library Journal). Crisscrossing a tumultuous century, these stories evoke lives both blessed and cursed by good fortune and reveal the quotidian conflicts of a wonderfully rich milieu. Here are vignettes that capture the loves and jealousies of marriage and friendship, recall days of a rarefied aristocracy, and hint at a new, ambitious young elite. In the title story, a tour de force of humor and emotion, a clergyman prepares a toast for his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary but gets stuck when it comes to his wife&rsquo;s five-year affair. The narrator in &ldquo;DeCicco v. Schweizer&rdquo; imagines the lives of the plaintiff and defendant and spins a wicked tale about a 1902 marriage born more of convenience than of love. And in &ldquo;The Last of the Great Courtesans,&rdquo; we meet the unforgettable Milly Marion, born in 1917, who has bewitched everyone she has met in her long, colorful life. Whether these stories concern an anxious draft dodger, a repentant headmaster, or a mischievous writer who ill-advisedly draws from her own family for her fiction, they all offer soulful glimpses into an uncommon world, preserved in our past and yet surprisingly close to our hearts. &ldquo;His themes are universal&mdash;ambition, greed, disappointment, compromise. Some of the most memorable characters are women, trying to find their way in a time of more restricted choices . . . It&rsquo;s easy to get lost in the author&rsquo;s elegant and restrained prose.&rdquo; &mdash;Booklist</div>

The Anniversary

<div>A novel about a powerful public intellectual&mdash;and about what is true in the end&mdash;by an acclaimed New York Times&ndash;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&ndash;winning columnist. For decades he professed an unswerving commitment to intellectual truth. His stands weren&rsquo;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 prot&eacute;g&eacute;, Roger Cutter, is determined to compile a chronicle of his mentor&rsquo;s life&mdash;for complex personal reasons as well as for posterity&rsquo;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 Roger&rsquo;s memories, from documents willingly or reluctantly supplied by Felix&rsquo;s family and associates, and from Felix&rsquo;s own accounts, is that of a man whose lifelong aim has been to stay free of any ties that might impinge on his quest for truth, be they emotional, religious, patriotic, or even humanitarian. Was Felix, then, a heartless egotist or a saint? And did his integrity justify the human toll it exacted? With a rich supporting cast and scenes that range from New York to Paris, from a resort in Maine to Georgetown dinner parties, The House of the Prophet is a novel of great psychological depth, about a man obsessed with truth&mdash;and another man&rsquo;s quest to pin down the elusive truth about his character. &ldquo;Auchincloss ranks among the best in American literature.&rdquo; &mdash;Kirkus Reviews</div>

The House of the Prophet

<div>From a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author: A novel about a member of the Greatest Generation wrestling with moral choices over the next generation&rsquo;s war in Vietnam. 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 who also had the cunning and talent to become the debutante of the year, escaping the progressively threadbare world of tarnished elegance and unpaid bills to which she was born. Alida&rsquo;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&rsquo;s footsteps, he became chairman of the board of the prestigious Benedict Glass Company founded by his grandfather. And yet, with all of his gifts, Chip is haunted by dark guilt that drives him to excel, conform, and embrace a righteousness that he fails to perceive as hypocrisy. In business he becomes the perfect corporate executive, lauded in Fortune and Forbes. He serves his community, supports the arts, and patriotically honors his government. But when it comes to choosing sides on the issue of Vietnam, he will make a decision that casts aside the deepest ties and loyalties of his life. &ldquo;Through a series of flashbacks the narrators come to realize how outside events have influenced their lives. Auchincloss uses their story to show us the frailties of human nature when confronted with politics and morality. This psychological novel is perceptive, elegantly spare, and well crafted.&rdquo; &mdash;Library Journal </div>

Honorable Men

<div>A prominent lawyer in 1940s New York investigates the mystery of his partner&rsquo;s life and death in this novel by a New York Times&ndash;bestselling author. Nearing the end of his days, Adrian Suydam, half the partnership of the law firm of Suydam &amp; Saunders, reflects on his lifelong friendship and business relationship with Ernest Saunders&mdash;a tragic and complicated man incapable of properly loving anyone. In this perceptive novel, set against the backdrop of old New York, Louis Auchincloss exposes the temptations and vicissitudes that thrust his characters toward unforeseen fates. Drawing on his own career as an attorney, Auchincloss &ldquo;effortlessly conjures a bygone world of privilege&rdquo; and elegantly brings to life a lost era (Publishers Weekly). Through interwoven tales of family members, clients, and such notables as Teddy Roosevelt and the Astors, readers get an insider&rsquo;s look at a secretive world. Touching, comical, and erudite, Last of the Old Guard is a revealing portrait of both a high-profile law firm and a poignant friendship between two men&mdash;from an author whose works &ldquo;have rightfully earned him a literary place alongside Edith Wharton and Henry James. His old-fashioned sensibility remains charming, even refreshing in an era of literati hipsters&rdquo; (Los Angeles Times).</div>

Last of the Old Guard

<div>The author of Exit Lady Masham explores the lives of twelve members of a high society ladies’ book club in New York over the course of sixty years. “If I have a bias it is in my suspicion that women are intellectually and intuitively superior to men,” writes Christopher Gates, the narrator of this book. “But,” he adds, “I certainly never thought they were “nicer.” And I very much doubt that anyone could think so who was raised, as I was, in a society in which the female had so many more privileges than the male.” Thus, he describes the twelve women who—as debutantes— instituted his mother’s “book class” in 1908 and met every month for over sixty years to discuss a selected title, old or new. During their lifetimes, these women did not have any real political or economic clout comparable to that of the men of their day. Only Adeline Bloodgood had ever held a regular job, and only Polly Travers, as a State Assemblywoman, ever played a formal role in politics. For Georgia Bristed, “the hostess had largely consumed the woman,” and Leila Lee was “a beauty in a day when simply being beautiful was considered an adequate occupation.” Although most of them were surrounded by a staff of servants and had no discernible responsibilities, these women still lived with serious intent backed by a considerable and undeniable power that in no way derived from “the snares and lures of womanly wiles.” Within the protected discipline of their surroundings, their lives were filled with drama and challenge—moments of passion, of betrayal and loyalty, of sweet revenge and joyless conquest, of irony and illumination . . .</div>

The Book Class

<div>In this novel by the author of Honorable Men, a hot-shot corporate lawyer will sacrifice anything for success in 1980s Manhattan. Bob Service is a thirty-two-year-old crack lawyer with blood as cold and clear as a five-dollar martini. His 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 Alice, a graceful and intelligent literary agent, 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 marches toward his fate while trampling on his associates and crippling his marriage forms the plot of this fast-paced novel about 1980s 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 it all has an unnervingly authentic ring... Praise for Diary of a Yuppie “Absorbing and fun . . . It is refreshing to find characters who are willing to discuss the spiritual dimensions of their business decisions, the ethics of their trade.” —New York Times “Because greed and glory aren’t exclusive to Wall St.—Auchincloss turf—this most moral of fictions deserves a wide audience.” —Kirkus Reviews “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 . . . [A] subtle, memorable book.” —Library Journal</div>

Diary of a Yuppie

<div>In this novel by the author of Three Lives, a blue blood New York lawyer recounts his life through stories of people he has encountered along the way. Linking three generations of a Wall Street law firm, The Education of Oscar Fairfax provides a revealing portrait of the American upper classes throughout the twentieth century. The story opens in 1908, as St. Luke’s Cathedral rises stone by stone on lower Broadway, and young Oscar learns a lesson in compromise from his grandfather, the bishop. Oscar’s schooling continues at St. Augustine’s, where he sees a schoolmaster’s high ideals exposed as fantasy, and at Yale, where Oscar’s literary ambitions are tempered by a brilliant but ruthless classmate who proves that “the juiciest tidbit for many a writer is the hand that fed him.” As an adult, Oscar is one who profoundly affects others, whether he is subtly influencing a Supreme Court justice during the New Deal era, acting as mentor to a talented local boy in a Maine resort town, or probing the ethical dilemma that tempts his own son to resign from the family firm. “As Auchincloss charts his hero’s education, he considers human nature in all its arenas, from religion to law, love, war, and art.” —Booklist “Much satisfaction is generated as Auchincloss, in his 38th book of fiction, reliably affirms his craft, depicting the maturation of character through time.” —Publishers Weekly “Auchincloss . . . tells the saga of the American Century as only he knows how, through a fictional memoir by someone well poised to witness the high social dimension of political events . . . . [A] perfect character study, all the more profound for its modesty and measure.” —Kirkus Reviews</div>

The Education of Oscar Fairfax

<div>In this witty historical novel by the author of Watchfires, a poor woman joins the eighteenth-century court of Queen Anne and ends a war. On the Continent, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, is laying waste to the lowlands in a bloody combat with Louis XIV. Meanwhile 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 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. Perfect for fans of the Yorgos Lanthimos film, The Favourite, starring Olivia Coleman and Emma Stone.</div>

Exit Lady Masham

<div>Six stories blending ancient Greek mythology with modern, upper-class Manhattan, from the author of Skinny Island. Louis Auchincloss once again evokes the beguiling world of New York society that he has made his own special literary landscape. Inspired by the colorful mosaic of ancient Greek myths, he has created six equally rich contemporary fables—six lives governed by false gods. Hermes, or in Auchincloss’s interpretation, “god of the self-made man,” is a Jewish lawyer who finds acceptance into WASP society only at greatest personal cost; Hephaestus is a bachelor designer of Palladian villas whose young bride, enamored of newfangled things, compels him to “go modern.” In other stories, a former World War II naval officer, guided perhaps by the goddess Athene, escapes a sinking cruise ship by disguising himself as a woman; and a Catholic convert, distracted by the muse Polyhymnia, is torn between his priestly duties and his worldly social and artistic ambitions. In every tale a unique moral sensibility holds sway, revealing how the pagan impulse may surface in the most unlikely and provocative situations, compromising even the noblest of spirits. Keenly insightful, flawlessly executed, False Gods is the work of a National Medal of Arts winner, widely acclaimed as American society’s most entertaining and intelligent critic. Praise for False Gods “These modern-day tales subtly describe the effects of moral conflict and compromised values . . . . These fables are finely crafted and eloquently written.” —Library Journal</div>

False Gods

<div>A young Manhattan art museum curator goes to questionable lengths to garner success in this dramatic novel by the author of Diary of a Yuppie. In a world of opulent museums, lavish homes, and extravagant dreams, public spectacle pales before private intrigue, and the pursuit of power is the finest art. Welcome to the world of master storyteller Louis Auchincloss. “In a small but distinguished museum on Central Park West, battle lines are arranged, pitting a brash young curator, imbued with a craving for personal grandeur and a lust for the directorship of the museum, against colleagues whose main concern is the integrity of the collections they guard . . . . Auchincloss . . . is a deft guide through a closed-in world.” —Publishers Weekly</div>

The Golden Calves

<div>The author of The Vanderbilt Era examines sixteen famous friendships, from Boswell and Johnson to Hawthorne and Melville. This delightful series of short essays explores friendship in its various forms—from true intimacy to professional detente between rivals. The friendships, literary and political, span two continents and three centuries—Boswell and Johnson, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Richelieu and Father Joseph, FDR and Harry Hopkins, Edith Wharton and Margaret Chanler—sixteen sketches in all. Auchincloss approaches his subjects with grace, tact, and insight, subtly defining the peculiar, gentle chemistry on which platonic bonds depend. The result is a surprising array of social patterns and personal destinies, all stemming from the simple desire for human company.</div>

Love Without Wings

<div>Twelve stories contemplating destiny and detailing the life of Manhattan’s upper class over the course of one hundred years, from the author of Honorable Men. 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. Praise for Skinny Island “Many of Auchincloss’ wealthy and Waspy protagonists, caught in such fine conflict, find it difficult to defend their dwindling kind or, conversely, to rebel against their confining values . . . . With this, his 40th book, Auchincloss has yet to exhaust his art, or his loyal readers.” —Kirkuks Reviews</div>

Skinny Island

<div>Spanning three centuries, these nine stories share the conflicts of a wealthy New England family while portraying the rise and fall of the Puritan ethic. The Winthrop Heritage begins in the stern confines of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—Governor John Winthrop’s covenant with God versus Anne Hutchinson’s compulsion to martyrdom. The burden of conscience falls in varying ways to the Governor’s descendants. To his grandson, a judge in the Salem witch trials, it means dying in torment. To Rebecca Bayard, wife of a Hudson Valley patroon, it becomes an obsessive sense of duty leading to ironic consequences. It persuades an American diplomat, negotiating in Paris with the canny Talleyrand, to reject the easy gain of private power. On the eve of the Civil War, Winthrop Ward, pillar of rectitude in New York society, finds himself playing God at the price of his own humanity. At the century’s turn, there is Adam Winthrop, wealthy clubman and cultural arbiter, and his protégée Ada Guest—the passionate bluestocking novelist who opts to escape his stifling patronage. In a New England boarding school in the 1920s, the headmaster’s bedeviled Winthrop soul becomes a strange challenge to the chaplain. On the current scene, young and fashionable Natica Seligmann yearns for salvation from an empty life. And finally, there is John Winthrop Gardiner, staunch State Department hawk, whose son is an Army deserter—and whose alcoholic ex-wife perceives only too clearly the latter-day perversions of the Puritan spirit. A compassionate, searching, and wholly arresting view of a moral strain that, for better or worse, has marked our national character, The Winthrop Covenant is one of Louis Auchincloss’ highest fictional achievements.</div>

The Winthrop Covenant

<div>Twenty-three biographical essays on writers admired by the National Medal of Arts–winning author of The Education of Oscar Fairfax. For Louis Auchincloss, life and letters are not two things but one. It therefore comes as no surprise that when he writes about writers, their lives are considered as closely as their works. He takes what today is a refreshingly unpopular position: that the artist and his art cannot be teased apart, that biography of criticism and criticism biography. For Mr. Auchincloss, it all boils down to that maxim of Buffon’s: “the style’s the man,” the man behind the book. The twenty-three writers discussed here are a mixed lot—English, American, and French; novelists, poets, and playwrights; Jacobeans, Victorians, and moderns—yet each has meant a great deal to Mr. Auchincloss as a reader and a writer. Some of them are classics, and familiar Auchincloss subjects: Sarah Orne Jewett, Henry James, Ivy Compton-Burnett. Others, among them Prosper Merimee, Harold Frederic, and Amy Lowell, were famous once but are now obscure. In their cases it is Mr. Auchincloss’s self-described task “to explore the reasons for their fall from grace,” reasons that prove to be unfailingly personal as well as artistic. But as Mr. Auchincloss would rather praise and share than damn and dismiss, it is also his task “to seek the portions of their work that may still merit attention.” Alfred Kazin once noted that Mr. Auchincloss’s essays are marked by “perfect literary grace and wit.” These qualities have never been so evident as in this volume, an informal study of some of the author's favorite books and the fascinating artists behind them.</div>

The Man Behind the Book

<div>The author of False Gods and winner of the National Medal of Arts offers eight stories looking into the lives of the wealthy—but troubled—elite. Set in various decades throughout twentieth century, this entertaining short story collection reveals the inner lives of America’s upper classes in the polished, elegant prose that is Louis Auchincloss’s signature. The intricate balance of power in a marriage, the artist’s hunger for inspiration, the responsibilities of privileged youth on the eve of war—Auchincloss casts a knowing yet sympathetic eye on such dilemmas as they play themselves out in the salons, clubs, boarding schools, Park Avenue drawing rooms, and summer hideaways of the moneyed classes. In “The Man of Good Will,” an aging Seth Middletown finds himself unable to save a beloved grandson torn apart by the sixties — a boy carefully protected from a family secret. Dick and Joyce Emmons, in “The Lotos Eaters,” are surprised to find their new marriage subtly undermined by their own enchanted existence on a paradisal Florida island. A theatrical grande dame and an admiring young actor are “Priestess and Acolyte” —until they realize that the passions that rule them are irreconcilable. Evident on every page of the eight stories contained here are Auchincloss’s superb ear for dialogue and his ability to suggest what lies beneath the surface of human relationships. Tales of Yesteryear will give Auchincloss’s loyal readers cause to rejoice, and newcomers a delightful introduction to one of America's most distinguished authors. Praise for Tales of Yesteryear “His word is as graceful and insightful as it’s ever been. These eight stories, with their familiar social types and elegant settings, are vintage Auchincloss: moral tales that resonate with the history of our times, albeit from the top down . . . . Auchincloss belongs among the masters of American short fiction, as this volume demonstrates.” —Kirkus Reviews “Auchincloss’s keen social observation, pitch-perfect dialogue and gift for dramatic confrontation are as effective as ever.” —Publishers Weekly</div>

Tales of Yesteryear

<div>Twelve stories observing modern American life and morals in the twentieth century, from the National Medal of Arts–winning author of The Cat and the King. With this collection of short stories, Louis Auchincloss will delight his already devoted followers and win many more into the ranks. The stories, which range from studies of family manipulation to the secrets of artistic inspiration, are in fact subtle fables that probe the heart of modern American life to examine the moral confusion that exists there. In the title story, a wealthy muralist and patroness of the arts succumbs to the near compulsion of posing in the nude for a fellow artist who then blackmails her. In other tales, a clergyman conceives of adultery as a valid means of sharing Christian charity; a socially prominent family conspires to entrap a girl into a “front” marriage with their homosexual son and heir; an art student writes his thesis on some startling theories as to why a famed painter of elegant interiors never includes a human figure in his pictures; a federal judge sells his opinions to the highest bidder with a recklessness that seems, almost suicidally, to invite detection. Combining his powers of storytelling and observation, Auchincloss creates in Narcissa and Other Fables a penetrating glimpse into the ethical malaise of our century. Praise for Narcissa and Other Fables “This book of short stories by America’s leading novelist of manners is a textbook in how to write fiction in miniature. It begins with “fables” of normal short story length and ends with tour de force one-pagers . . . . The confused ethics of Americans in the dying years of a revolutionary century are put under the microscope for a moment of breath-taking clarity.” —Frederick M. Winship, UPI “Auchincloss is a worldly philosopher who writes with confident authority of the law office and the board room, but he is also a social historian and an amused observer of the prosperous at play. The venue may be a cruise ship or a minor stately home in Virginia, an urban chateau on Fifth Avenue or a great bibliophile’s private library overlooking the East River. His characters tend to be “tribal creatures” who pay lip service to social taboos but who live by the laws of self-interest.” —Frances Taliaferro, New York Times</div>

Narcissa & Other Fables

<div>In this novel by the author of The Golden Calves set in 1930s high society, a young man recounts the people in his life and what he’s learned from them. This superb gallery of portraits gathers its wit and resonance from the discerning eye of the central narrator, Dan Ruggles, who in the course of unraveling the dreams, doubts, and loyalties of those around him inevitably reveals his own. Dan spends his boyhood in the company of old-money aunts from Bar Harbor and polo-playing uncles from Argentina. He stumbles upon the complexities of adulthood at Yale in the 1930s, and grows to worldly maturity at the Wall Street law firm that provides him not only with a vocation but with seemingly endless material for his fiction. Fellow passengers are the people in his life, each one a story and each one a lesson. Only Auchincloss can ferret out with such precision and understanding the secrets, foibles, and ironies that lie just beneath the proper Establishment surface. This is Louis Auchincloss at the top of his form—a book to please his many admirers and delightful introduction for new readers as well. Praise for Fellow Passengers “This gallery of American upper-class characters, Auchincloss’s 41st book, reflects the acutely perceptive insight that distinguishes much of his fiction. Lineage, the right schools, clubs and marriages are of crucial concern to the matrons, debutantes, establishment bankers and lawyers whose vapid lives, as revealed in these stories, often founder on underpinnings of dark secrets and skewed loyalties . . . . Richly entertaining vignettes.” —Publishers Weekly</div>

Fellow Passengers

<div>Gaze into the lives of the twentieth century’s wealthy and declining WASP establishment in these twelve stories by the author of The Education of Oscar Fairfax. No one else writes about the moral life of America’s moneyed class with anything approaching Louis Auchincloss’s understanding, sympathy, irony, and humor. In this, his first book of short fiction since the acclaimed Collected Stories, he again brings us news that no other writer can deliver, news about how America’s great families and fortunes are run and the axes and crises on which they turn. Here is how the privileged view their privilege—some with smugness, some with style, some with a crushing sense of civic and personal responsibility. Here is how the rich marry, how they divorce, and, more important, why. Here, definitively and indelibly, is the eastern seaboard’s Wasp establishment—sometimes in its glory, more often in its decline, and always with its values, assumptions, and increasingly fragile sense of self held up for our scrutiny by a master, the most subtle critic of American manners since Edith Wharton. Praise for The Atonement and Other Stories “The 12 stories collected in “The Atonement” reveal a writer at, or very near, the top of his form.” —Los Angeles Times “In this PC world, Auchincloss’ crisp, confident tales of the WASP elite almost qualify as guilty pleasures. These 12 stories . . . will satisfy longtime fans and initiates alike with their portraits of investment bankers, lawyers, and socialites testing the limits of silver-plated social niches . . . . As usual, Auchincloss etches out the moral dilemmas of the blue-chip social stratum with reassuring clarity. A” —Entertainment Weekly “Fragile, often smug, and sometimes silly characters populate this noteworthy collection . . . . these glimpses of the Eastern elite’s manners and moral quandaries will provide an accessible first taste for the Auchincloss novice and an enjoyable read for longtime fans.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review</div>

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Books By Louis Auchincloss (30 Books)