Louis Auchincloss

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...

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...

From a New York Times–bestselling author, short stories of the privileged class, spanning a century of New York history. 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 Now, in his fifty-seventh book, Louis Auchincloss delivers a brilliant collection of ten new, previously unpublished, stories; once again, he unfailingly...

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-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...

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...

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,...

A New York Times–bestselling novel of love, money, and ambition among the employees of a white-shoe law firm. Louis Auchincloss is writing here at the top of his remarkable powers as an observer of contemporary America. The Partners is a group portrait of men - and women in what is mostly a man's world - whose common bond is their work. Within that bond each one pursues different answers to the search for money, power, love, revenge, or a meaning...

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...

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...

At the time of his death, Louis Auchincloss-enemy of bores, self-pity, and gossip less than fresh-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 has created. No traitor to his class but occasionally its critic, he returns us to his Society which was, he maintains, less interesting than its members admitted. You...