Last of the Old Guard

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• ISBN13: 9780547152752

Description

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Customer Reviews

Partnership
Prolific novelist Louis Auchincloss' new novel is titled Last of the Old Guard. On these pages, protagonist Adrian Suydam reflects wistfully on his life and that of his recently deceased law partner, Ernest Saunders. Set at the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Auchincloss presents with a formal detachment the relationships and behavior of those times. While the primary relationship is that between two life-long friends and law partners, other relationships are also critical to the novel: husbands and wives; fathers and children; and employers and employees. This brief glimpse into another time provides a striking contrast to modern times. Last of the Old Guard conveys the sense of responsibility, formality, manners and expectations of a time that has passed, but dimensions of personal character and integrity that survive and can thrive in any era. Reading Last of the Old Guard is like visiting a museum and coming away with impressions about other times and places. Readers who want to visit an old New York will find pleasure on these pages.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

2009-06-13 (Oak Park, Illinois) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Old New York
Auchincloss is splendid as always! He never has a word out of place, his every book is a perfect little package.

2009-02-20 (Savannah, GA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Like A Personal Invite Into The Author's Drawing Room...
As a rule, I am not interested in the writing of lawyers or writing about lawyers, but I found this book thoroughly enjoyable. It felt so 'personal' that I wondered how much of the author's life was intertwined into it. That's the mark of good fiction. The story felt so 'real' I often felt like the author was in a chair next to me, telling the tale.

Auchincloss knows the subject which he speaks, he's one of the last of the faded "WASP" elite that pretty much now only a memory in NY society. The only thing I found wanting, was the seeming lack of self reflection of some of the more self destructive tendencies of that elite, including a naive misguided altruism and misplaced trust.

I almost wanted to ask the character, is it now a better place for us? and will the 'new elite' be as kind? So far the answer is a resounding no. But to ask would be to mis-understand the book; It's a story of a character, not a society.

2009-02-19 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Lawyers and friends
Louis Auchincloss is best known for his writings of a more genteel age, usually focusing on the early part of the twentieth century.

And he sticks to that formula in "Last of the Old Guard," a bittersweet little novel about the lifelong friendship between two very dissimilar lawyers. Along the way he addresses the many troubles and trials that they face -- as husbands, fathers and lawyers -- but the whole story is seen as a wistful flashback.

With the death of his parter Ernest Saunders, Adrian Suydam looks back on their intertwined lives -- born and educated in privileged surroundings, they met and became fast friends in college. And upon graduating, each man married a very different wife and joined forces in a law firm of their own -- which soon became a legendary force in Old New York.

But Ernest's devotion to his firm left him incapable of devoting much love to anyone, except the idolized son tragically killed in World War I. With his softer heart, Adrian tries to navigate many problems -- his wife's dislike of Ernest, treacherous associates, flaky daughters, and a rapidly changing society. But his friendship with Ernest holds out against everything.

There aren't a lot of stories about fraternal love between friends -- Auchincloss acidly observes that usually such friendships are interpreted as being about sex. But he does a good job with that difficult subject, revealing gradually how the "old guard" world of Gilded Age New York has changed over time -- both in good and bad ways.

Auchincloss also has the dignified, slightly distant prose of that bygone age. It's full of refined dialogue and reflection -- even the death of a beloved child is handled with a grave dignity. And since this style doesn't lend itself well to character development, many chapters are seen through letters, memos and other papers that Adrian reads after Ernest's death.

Framing the partners' friendship are plenty of signs of the changing times (female lawyers), as well as ethical dilemmas that mark their way -- both large (the immigrant steel-workers and their rotten treatment) and small (the divorce of Ernest's immature ne'er-do-well daughter from a blatantly unfaithful husband... who happens to work for Ernest).

The one thing that stuck out was the constant name-dropping of Theodore Roosevelt. I'm not sure why -- he had little bearing on the book -- but it became rather disruptive.

But the bond between Adrian and Ernest is handled well, with delicacy and no theatrical gestures. They fit together well because they're complete opposites that complement each other, while also sharing mutual respect and trust. And although Ernest's self-admitted chilliness towards others can make him seem like a jerk at times, the final meeting with Adrian is deeply poignant.

"Last of the Old Guard" is a glimpse into the lives of two very dissimilar men from a very different age -- and after his disastrous previous novel, Louis Auchincloss recaptures a bittersweet magic.

2008-12-07 | ea_solinas (MD USA) | Helpful Votes: 7 | Rating: 4

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Manhattan Monologues: Stories

Description

He is our sublime master of manners, our "most astute observer of moral paradox among the affluent" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.), and "one of the essential American writers" (Kirkus). Now, in his fifty-seventh book, Louis Auchincloss delivers a brilliant collection of ten new, previously unpublished, stories; once again, he unfailingly "voices truths with elegant precision" (Publishers Weekly).
MANHATTAN MONOLOGUES charts a colorful New York century through a series of personal accounts from the rarefied circle that fills Auchincloss's best short fiction. Here are characters who confidently finesse their way through society's uppermost tiers and yet are just as easily undone by the smallest upset in a day. Like all of Auchincloss's richest creations, they bump up against their consciences, with often surprising results. What, for instance, is a woman to do when she must choose between true love and high society when making a marriage? How can a man stay true to himself, his family, and his country when it goes to war? How can a determined marriage broker salvage matters when the young man she has so painstakingly steered toward a love match becomes charmed by another woman?
These tales, and many more, fashion a glamorous, yet all too human, societal portrait -- from the aristocratic loyalties of the early twentieth century to the complicated twists of modern-day mergers and acquisitions. MANHATTAN MONOLOGUES is Louis Auchincloss at his most clever, his most discerning, his best.

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Customer Reviews

But Hasn't Mr. Auchincloss Always Been Writing `Manhattan Monologues'?
Louis Stanton Auchincloss writes such elegantly escapist fiction that I find it easy to forgive in him what I am quick to condemn in other writers, namely repetition of plot themes, settings, characters, circumstances. I overlook all this with Mr. Auchincloss simply because there is no one else today or going back at least three generations into our literary past, who cares to do or can do what Auchincloss does. No other writer today chronicles the New York upper class of yesteryear and "nearer today" in quite the same chilled manner or with the same panache.

With all that out of the way let me say right off that Manhattan Monologues is extraordinarily good. Its prose is spotless, its characters precisely crafted, and as I read it I kept feeling that here alone among a thousand books were to be found stories in which no word was either out of place or wasted. Still, I'd not put this in the top five of Auchincloss' collections, for it lacked the sense of daring, of revelation, of confidence, of damning passive intrusion that made other Auchincloss anthologies so fulfilling.

Divided into three sections that are roughly segregated by the era of their occurrence, Manhattan Monologues describes Auchincloss' beloved and de rigueur East Coast aristocracy, yet it travels far in so doing. From Nazi-occupied France to a marshy Atlantic Eden, to boardrooms, law firms, schools, and inside bedrooms frequently besmirched by illicit trysts, from stories told by a man condemned to self-defeat in his struggle to live up to his militant father's ideals, to exploitive industrialists suddenly done in by an unwanted attack of conscience, there is a restlessness in these ten tales that bestows more energy to what is being said than in many an obese novel I could name.

Quotable, erudite, ever obscure yet ever in fashion, Louis Auchincloss' books show that at times an era and its people can only be comprehended once they have had their moment on the stage, and moved on.

Oh! And before I forget to mention it, doesn't Manhattan Monologues have one of the loveliest book covers ever? Does anyone know where the painting came from, or the identity of the beauty it depicts?

2008-10-22 (Under Your Skin) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Gifted writer but...
While its easy to enjoy his work, I cannot for the life of me see any difference between this and the other works of his I have read. He accurately depicts the lives of wealthy New Englanders but I had to press myself to drive through this book once I had read his other works.

2005-10-05 (Washington, DC) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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All the characters are good at playing bridge.
This is the type of book where all the characters are very good at playing bridge, and the men are mostly either successful lawyers and bankers or unsuccessful businessmen; the women don't work. It is kind of fun to read, and while I cannot take it very seriously, Auchincloss is deeply interested in the characters and society he writes about, and to a great extent he draws the reader into this world. Auchincloss also does very well with the short story form, in that few of his stories come across as mere "trifles". The story about a son who cannot measure up to his father's expectations, and a father who does his best to love his son, is the most meaningful of the stories.

2003-03-23 | algo41 (cinnaminson, nj United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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PENNED WITH GRACE AND PERCEPTION
One of America's most respected authors, Louis Auchincloss has just given us a gift - his 57th book, Manhattan Monologues. As one expects from this celebrated chronicler of upper-class society, the prose is precise and telling. He reveals rather than explains, writing with grace and perception.

This collection of ten stories opens with "All That May Become A Man," the chronicle of a son who cannot meet the expectations of his daring father, a former Rough Rider who considered Teddy Roosevelt both "god and friend."

Agnes Seward is the heroine and narrator of "The Heiress." By way of explanation we learn that in her day it was accepted "that any ambitious and impecunious young man who elected to enter an unremunerative career......would do well to avail himself of a dowry."

She did have a dowry, albeit a modest one compared to her wealthier relatives. Agnes sometimes wondered if it were not possible to be loved for herself alone rather than the financial stability she might bring to a marriage.

In "Collaboration," a revelation of a couple's differing relationships with the Nazis, our narrator is an only son who finds joy in lonely rambles through the marshland of his family's summer home. It is there that he meets Mr. Slocum, a like-minded gentleman who "...was the first adult who had ever listened to me." Their friendship will deepen throughout the years.

Each story is a mini masterpiece impeccably crafted and imaginatively told.

- Gail Cooke

2002-08-08 (TX, USA) | Helpful Votes: 11 | Rating: 5

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Auchincloss Monologues Chronicle Our Lives
Louis Auchincloss' lateset collection of short stories is a welcome addition to his considerable body of work. Every new contribution helps define Auchincloss as a major force in American literature.

In "Manhattan Monologues," Auchincloss views the seminal events of our last century as they affect and are affceted by characters from his world: upper east side, Hamptons, Mount Desert Isalnd, New England boarding schools.

His characters -- on the surface people of welath, power and priviledge -- slog through their lives just as we common folks do, with much the same results.

As he so often has done in the past, Auchincloss has held up a mirror which helps us better understand the world in which we live.

2002-06-15 (Roanoke, VA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 4

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A Writer's Capital

Description

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Customer Reviews

A-OK
Book arrived timely & was in excellent condition as promised. I would purchase from this vendor again.

2010-06-24 | MEM (Benzie County MI USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Rector of Justin: A Novel

Description

Regarded as one of Louis Auchincloss's most accomplished novels, THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN centers on Frank Prescott, the founder of an exclusive school for boys. Eighty years of his life unfold through the observations of six narrators, each with a unique perspective on the man, his motivations, and the roots of his triumphs and failings.

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Customer Reviews

Perhaps the best "school" of the 20th century
Auchincloss writes about the world of upper-class privilege in New England, a world he knows well, having been a Groton and Yale man himself. His stories often are set in the recent past, giving them a somewhat old-fashioned feel. This one, regarded as one of his best works (it's certainly the one everybody recommends), is an extended portrait of Dr. Frank Prescott, born at the end of the Civil War to an old Boston family with broad connections, taking Harvard and Oxford almost for granted, assuming he can do pretty much whatever he wants in life. And so he does, becoming first a minister and then a schoolmaster. Almost everything to do with religion in this book, by the way, even the word "church," should be understood to mean "American Episcopal," though that's never explicitly stated. After all, in Boston, there is no other denomination worth mentioning, not among the upper class. Dr. Prescott builds a Groton-like institution called Justin Martyr and serves as its only headmaster into his 80s, which means until World War II. We experience the history of both the school and the man through the eyes of a number of other people, including a young teacher who comes in almost at the end and who idolizes Prescott -- until he discovers why he shouldn't. Other viewpoints include Prescott's oldest friend, from their own school days, and the chairman of Justin's board of trustees, and his youngest daughter (a Bohemian rebel), and the chairman's son, and so on. Every POV but Prescott's own, in fact. This gives the reader a variety of takes on the man, whom Auchincloss develops in many dimensions, and whom the reader is encouraged to both admire and dislike, depending on the circumstances. The style is very readable, very un-stilted, and there are a great many highly quotable lines because the author is a master of descriptive metaphor and wry observation. Auchincloss is still writing (his first novel was published in 1947 and his most recent in 2007), though he seems to have receded into the background of the literary world somewhat. But this is an excellent place to begin and I recommend it highly.

2009-10-04 (Gonzales, Louisiana) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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A Flagship of the Boarding School Genre
Boarding school novels are a genre of their own, and the Rector of Justin feels like an essential part of it: the description of the charismatic overarching headmaster, the Leitfigur -- a theme that Rowling draws on with Dumbledore. For anyone interested in exploring that theme, this is an extraordinary book.

The writing is a little mannered, almost hankering after the 19th century, and, at the risk of seeming too critical, Auchincloss on occasions struggles to carry it off. The narrator is overdoing meekness, and getting in the way of it all.

Nevertheless, this book does open up a lot of questions about what education really is, how to carry it off, how authoritarian it can be and what damage charisma (and boarding schools) end up doing. It's also an endearing defence of a vanishing world. Somewhere else (1980) Auchincloss said that the "tragedy of American civilization is that it has swept away WASP morality and put nothing in its place". That isn't my view, but this book makes a case that deserves its hearing.

It's a very good read, exactly what literature should be.

2008-10-19 (Tbilisi, Georgia) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Elegant writing
This is writing at its most elegant. It has everything: poise, lucidity and an outstanding ability to create athmosphere.

2007-12-19 (Dublin, Ireland) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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Auchincloss - One of the Top 10 Writers in the 20th Century!
This is #6 on the bestsellers list in 1964, the year I was born. I had a hard time at first getting into the story but it was magnificent! Auchincloss is a tremendous writer and probably, in my humble opinion, one of the best writers in the 20th century. He has a unique writing style. This book is unusual in the fact that it is told by 6 different individuals. This is the story of a man from schoolboy age to his death at age 85.

Frank Prescott was a man of God and of honor. His calling to be a minister and of a teacher was fulfilled and he was very successful in building his dream of a Christian boy's school, although it was not exclusive to that religion. Dr. Prescott had respect for any boy of any religion. He was diligent, proud, and yet humble. He was willing to admit his faults and apologize for his mistakes. A respected man like this is very hard to find in this day and age. Dr. Frank Prescott was revered by any who met him, even if they disliked him.

This was my favorite line & one of the last: "Dr. Prescott was greater than the school which he created and by which he was ultimately disillusioned, and it is my ambition to distill for future generations of Justin boys some bit of the essence of that greatness."

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has lost someone in their lives they truly admired; it will open your heart to the sentiment of greatly appreciating those who have gone before us to set a pure example of respect & honesty.

2006-07-11 (Portland, OR USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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Creative and Clever, But With Unresolved Tension
Louis Auchincloss recommended The Rector of Justin to me as a starting point, as I was unfamiliar with his writing. Then he chuckled and said that he doesn't claim that it's his best, only that it has enduring popularity and is the most commercially successful of his novels. The story portrays the fictional biography of an exclusive New England prep school's willful headmaster, Francis Prescott, and it portrays, too, the characters who "live under the shadow of the Prescott legend." The story is related through six persons in that shadow. They are a former student, Brian Aspinwall, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, David Griscam, an old friend, Horace Havistock, his youngest daughter, Cordelia Turnbull, her common law husband, Charlie Strong, and another student, Jules Griscam, son of the above-mentioned trustee. Each relays impressions of the great man which derive from their own association with him. These glimses portray Prescott's multifaceted character, yet the portrait which emerges leaves the reader unsatisfied, as with a puzzle in which there are not only missing pieces, but also duplicate pieces. Auchincloss' writing is creative, and very clever, and there are hundreds of sentences which beg to be re-read, and which are every bit as fresh on the return leg. Another characteristic of the author's prose is numerous references. He invokes authors, their characters, and countless others: Omar Khayyam, King Lear, Meissonier, Parsifal, Steinbeck, Tom Brown and Arnold, Marlowe and Webster, the Count of Monte Cristo, Anne Boleyn, Rupert Brooke, Mrs. Browning, Billy Budd, Walter Gay, Tannhauser, Freud, Molvina Hoffman, Plantaganet Palliser and Lady Cora, Joseph Andrews, Henry Thoreau... And here are a few examples of the author's craft: "I am the youngest child of a marriage of June and January, and, alas, I cost June her life." "He had all the jauntiness, guile, and charm of a papal bastard in the Renaissance." "We became well-known hosts to the floating expatriate world that made a fetish of disillusionment." "I had not expected that so little oil would settle such troubled waters." "He was uneasy with children, for like a dictator visiting a free country, he knew that his power was suspended." "He knew that his God was as mean as himself, and would never let him get away with anything as easy as that." Unfortunately, though, the story's denouement fails to resolve its creative tension. The eclipse of Prescott's power, in his old age, is portrayed as dramatic and illuminating, but it is neither. Prior to the conclusion our protagonist is a self-absorbed demigod. In that conclusion he becomes yet more self-absorbed, though mortal, and simply fades away. A God as mean as himself, however, would not have let him get away with anything as easy as that.

2005-11-04 (New England) | Helpful Votes: 12 | Rating: 4

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The Embezzler

Description

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.

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Customer Reviews

Auchincloss' Story Is Told In The Form of Memoirs
THE EMBEZZLER
By Louis Auchincloss
7 - 1.5 hour cassettes
Read by Dan Lazar

AUCHINCLOSS' STORY IS TOLD IN THE FORM OF MEMOIRS by the leading participants in the story.
Guy Prime, convicted of misappropriating bonds during the Depression,
first gives his apologia which is followed by the narratives of his closest friend,
Rex Geer,
and Prime's wife Angelica,
who marries Geer after Primes's self-exile.

The three overlapping and mutually contradictory versions create patterns of deception and ambiguity,
resulting in a tantalizing psychological mystery that probes the wellsprings of human motivation.
[from the back cover of cassette tapes]

2010-02-04 | www.amazon.com/shops/ahtun (1022 1/2 Stophlet St. Fort Wayne IN 46802-4318) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Inside Madoff's head
Although written in the 1960s, and covering a period between 1900-ish and the 1930s, reading this book allowed me to imagine I was in Bernie Madoff's head, learning why he did what he did.

Mr. Auchincloss has an elegant writing style I enjoy, using a sentence structure that sometimes makes me pause to re-read, to make sure I've understood his meaning correctly.

This is a good read. The topics covered - Wall Street, intrigue, love, deceit, manipulation - remain timely.

If I were going to quibble, it would be on behalf of the character, Lucy (Rex's wife). Although she was intellectually and emotionally strong, intelligent, insightful, and loving, the author really did her wrong by allowing the main characters to universally dismiss her as "poor creature."

2009-11-03 (Missouri) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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A look at a different side of snobbery
The Embezzler comes from a time when Americans still remembered the great depression and the old-money blue-bloods hadn't entirely released their hold on New York. Auchincloss captures their views of themselves more realistically than a lot of writers probably have done. That, if no other reason, probably makes this book a worthy expenditure of time.
However, Embezzler is also a study in the tension between honor of the old-time variety, loyalty, and gratitude (or the lack of those).

Prime, member of a poor-relations line of wealth meets Rex Geer, a minister's son with a promising future, struggling through Harvard early in the century. Geer is on the brink of needing to drop out of school. Prime, before they become friends, sympathizes enough to visit a key authority and arrange for Geer to continue his education. He brings Geer to his home many times for summer stays, to the dismay of his family and societal equals, introducing him to the people who eventually give Geer the openings necessary to his future.

Late in his life and many years after his Wall Street disgrace and prison, Prime observes, "today I'd be snubbed by Rex Geer who'd probably be a haberdasher in Jersey City if it weren't for me".

Thanks to interventions in his life by Prime and thanks also to Geer's own talent and initiative, Geer becomes one of the most financially powerful men of the time.

Midway through the depression and at the peak of his career Prime secures loans against his sinking fortunes, using a foundation's resources he's responsible for illegally to stay afloat. As the stocks creep further downward he finds himself on the brink of discovery. He goes to Geer (who's meanwhile having a long-term affair with Prime's wife)in hopes of a loan. Geer refuses in the name of honor and justice, leaving his former friend ruined, imprisoned, shunned by his class. Geer's testimony becomes a factor in Prime's conviction and imprisonment.

The book is a great illustration of human perspective and frailty, the story told from the three key viewpoints of Prime, Geer, and Prime's wife. The spoiled playboy old-family Prime, flawed in many ways, understands compassion and honor at a personal level and lives by it. Geer, of poor-class antecedents understands honor societally and legally and shows little grasp of those other qualities in his behavior.

This book has been out of print for a long while, but I recommend it.

2003-09-25 (Placitas, NM USA) | Helpful Votes: 10 | Rating: 5

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A fine, enjoyable read
This novel, one of Auchincloss's best and from his prime period, is the life story of ill-fated Guy Prime, who was born into a minor blueblooded branch of New York society, enjoyed a gilded youth, eventually earned lasting ignominy when his embezzlements were revealed, resulting in his indictment, trial, Congressional hearing (it's 1936 and he is made a poster boy for Wall Street corruption by the New Deal), and imprisonment, and spent the nondescript remainder of his life in Panama isolated from all his family, friends, and associates, waiting to die. He is an intriguing, complex character, by no means all bad, and his story is told by three narrators: himself, his best friend (and eventual nemesis), and his wife. This multiple-narrator technique, "surrounding" the central character from a Rasohomon-like multiplicity of differing perspectives, had been successfully employed by Auchincloss in his most famous novel, The Rector of Justin (1964), the novel immediately preceding this one, and it works effectively here too. The book is well written, the right length, and compulsively readable. I first read it when it came out in 1966, have just re-read it, and find that it holds up quite well.

2002-09-20 (Plano, TX USA) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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The Scarlet Letters (Auchincloss, Louis)

Description

With such classic works as The Rector of Justin and, more recently, Manhattan Monologues, Louis Auchincloss has long established himself as one of our "most useful and intelligent writers" (New York Observer). Now this American master offers his cleverest novel yet: a triumphant modern twist on the legendary Hawthorne tale, in which secrets, sin, and suspense collide among the fabulously rich.
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's son-in-law, junior partner, and most likely successor. Until now Jessup has been admired for his impeccable morals and high ideals, so what could explain his affair with a woman of fading charms? All is on the line for Jessup, who threatens to upset Glenville'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, rich, and exuberantly entertaining, The Scarlet Letters posts a seductive missive to anyone ever tempted by power, wealth, or passion.

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Customer Reviews

The Scarlet Letters
Hi, I have found a new Love, a new author. This book is apparently one of many by Louis Auchincloss who is a master at drawing characters and drawing out his story in clear pleasing lines.Some consider his story to be passe but their worth has come to be pertinent to our new hard times. I have enjoyed his glimpse into New York society from before the great crash to the fifties. enjoy

2009-01-02 (Pasadena, CA United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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But Auchincloss has his own voice and manner as author
We don't expect great writers to reproduce exactly ordinary speech. Nobody talks like the characters in Moby Dick, or Hamlet. Auchincloss is not Melville or Shakespeare, but he is writing on a different plane than the run-of-the-mill bestseller. Granted the dialogue in Auchincloss' novels is not ordinary speech, but this is clearly intended for literary effect by the author--it is not that he has a tin ear.

I like Auchincloss' books. I liked The Scarlet Letters. I enjoy a peek into the world he knows so well and most of the rest of us only imagine. And I enjoy novels where the quotidian is made interesting. There is no murder or mayhem, or sexual perversion, in The Scarlet Letters. But it is about life and love, and honor. A book by Auchincloss is like a quiet walk in the woods on a weekday afternoon. You get to think about things in repose, not necessarily important things, but just things.

2004-08-07 (Ithaca, NY USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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"Beautiful" writing does not necessarily a good book make...
This is a well-written book. Of course. Mr. Auchincloss is a master wordsmith, an erudite, highly educated, celebrity auteur...we can hardly expect any different. I started the book with high hopes, but as the reviewer below remarks: "When was the last time you said 'plethora'?"

Actually, I DO use the word on occasion, probably because I am a writer, but I don't think I've heard it twice in my life from the lips of a lawyer or society matron. And that was the rub for me in The Scarlet Letters: Mr. Auchincloss puts into the mouths of usually-dull people brilliant speechifying and allusions to rarified poetry. He has the most unlikely, UN-educated dolts spouting impossible mouthfuls of ancient Greek verse and perfectly-pertinent quotes from a variety of literary figures - all this in the midst of a slight society soap opera. I sense he wants to be our modern-day Galsworthy, but Galsworthy stopped short of being precious. I find Mr. Auchincloss's writing and themes a tad contrived. Also: the book morphs into several different relationships, different from the ones it started with, and not particularly interestingly related to the others. The end is a de-flation. The 'hero,' having lunch with his mother-in-law, suddenly capitulates to all he has deemed unholy. Why? I suddenly found myself thinking, "Who cares?" and "Well, at least it was short," and flinging the book aside with a tiny soupcon of resentment stemming from my feeling that I had been led on by "good writing."

So - many of the paragraphs are exquisitely penned...but the whole is, on the whole, a Giant Yawn. Oh - the best thing about the book is the cover. The artist is to be congratulated.

2004-06-22 | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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Amazing writing, like poetry�.
While it does indeed share some of the same themes of The Scarlet Letter, I think this novel is incredible in it own right. Wonderfully detailed, with lots of back-story included, helped me really get a good sense of place and the characters. The plot itself focuses on elite families in New York during the 1950s and the extremely successful law firm they run. The scandal at the very beginning (one of the powerful lawyer's son in laws has committed adultery) is only the very beginning. The writer explores the web of relationships between the families and all the secrets and lies their lives are built on. While some people complain that the author's writing is a bit old-fashioned, I personally think it added to the story, but I admit, I did have to look up a few words! Overall, quite an enjoyable read, and I will be checking out more of the author's work.

2004-03-21 | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 4

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when did you last say "plethora"?
Auchincloss has a tin ear: people don't use words like "plethora" in everyday conversation. Not only is his style wooden, he hasn't progressed an inch in his story-telling beyond "The Great World and Timothy Colt," which I read 50 years ago. In fact, "Timothy Colt" was better!

2004-01-28 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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