The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss - Hardcover

Auchincloss, Louis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395710391 ISBN 13: 9780395710395

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1994

Synopsis

A collection of the author's most noted short works includes ""The Romantic Egoists,"" ""Skinny Island,"" and ""Tales of Yesteryear,"" and features the author's non-traditional style of the passage of time.

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Reviews

Spanning Auchincloss's distinguished career from the first story to appear under his own name up to the present, this hefty collection displays consistent excellence in observing the spheres of art, law, money and society. In the tradition of Henry James and Edith Wharton, even the briefest pieces, "The Reckoning" and "The Novelist of Manners," offer a novel's richness of character and plot, as people and art, morality and etiquette mix uneasily. Auchincloss adds historical and aesthetic twists to the psychologically ambiguous ghost story "The Prison Window" and to "They That Have the Power to Hurt," about the late-blooming affair between a lady novelist and a writer manque. Many entries contain enough material for two or three narratives, such as the stories of the law clerks of "The Mavericks" or of the pre- and post-Civil War careers of a Virginia aristocrat in "Ares." Conversely, the novella "The Stoic" effortlessly compresses a great deal of history into a small space of literature through a financier's life. Only the author's portraits of ethnic outsiders among his WASPs are occasionally flawed, and the two weakest pieces, "The Money Juggler" and "The Fabbri Tape," where he makes central use of such characters, are thinned with essay-like tendentiousness. Overall, though, this superb collection evinces a master's sure touch for both the intimate and the social.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This comprehensive selection of Auchincloss's short fiction couldn't be better timed. With critical taste leaning away from slick minimalism and neo-proletarian fiction, perhaps there's finally room for a true expansionist among the canonized story writers. Spanning more than 40 years, this collection attests to Auchincloss'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'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 (``Maud'' and ``Greg's Peg'') prove as supple and graceful as his most recent, which include choice work from Three Lives (1993) and Tales of Yesteryear (1994). No longer lost among the bulk of his out-of-print books are some of his very best stories, among them three linked tales about a major Manhattan law firm (``The Colonel's Foundation,'' ``The Mavericks,'' and ``The Single Reader'') that chronicle vanity and ambition at the profession's highest levels. Auchincloss's ambivalence about the ``Great World'' (as he calls it) of Wall Street and New York society comes through vividly in two mid-career stories: ``Billy and the Gargoyles'' highlights the attractions and repulsions of conformist behavior at a New England boys' school; ``The Gemlike Flame,'' perhaps his masterpiece, is a hypnotic, strangely oedipal tale of romantic egoists in Venice. Auchincloss schools us in all the social differences we're taught don't exist. At the same time, his work reflects our collective loss of soul and the corrupting power of political and social resentment. Time and again, he implicates his narrators in the fate of his protagonists- -one of many sure signs that we're in the presence of a subtle master. Further proof, if any is needed, that Auchincloss ranks among the best in American literature. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

It is right and proper that Auchincloss' fiftieth book is a retrospective collection of his short stories. In his introduction, Auchincloss confides that it was "surprisingly easy" to select the best of his tales; they "simply jumped out" at him. He goes on to tell us what is obvious from his meticulous style, rarefied milieu, and subtle yet dramatic moral and psychological conflicts--that his greatest influences have been Henry James and Edith Wharton. Auchincloss' fascination with old and wealthy New York is a fascination with his own roots. He followed in his father's footsteps and became a Wall Street lawyer who practiced for 45 years. For Auchincloss, the law nurtured his writing; he explains: "For what is a case but a short story? What was the law but language?" Prolific without once cheapening his pristine prose or skimping on his modulations of character and careful rendering of their particular brand of dilemmas, Auchincloss has been called one of America's most underrated writers in spite of some early successes. This strong and varied set of 19 stories will do much to correct any such neglect. It begins with one of his first stories, the perfectly composed and quietly tragic "Maud," originally published in 1949, and continues on to the roguish "They That Have the Power to Hurt" from Auchincloss' last sterling book of new short stories, Tales of Yesteryear. Donna Seaman

Auchincloss doesn't write legal fiction exclusively, but his best work is law-related. In contrast to colleagues John Grisham and Scott Turrow, he focuses on law firm culture and office politics, not on high-profile crime and courtroom drama. In the typical Auchincloss story, a talented outsider tries to gain, or to maintain, access to an exclusive in-group. In "The Mavericks," a rebellious junior associate begins to date a senior partner's daughter. In "The Fabbri Tape," an Italian immigrant's son jeopardizes his law career for a country club friend. In "The Novelist of Manners," a lawyer with artistic ambitions becomes obsessed with a novelist client. Written over a 45-year period and arranged in the order they were published, these stories have a distinct 19th-century feel. This is a world where men are "cads" and a working woman is an anomaly. Recommended as an excellent introduction to this prolific author.
Edward R. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0395710391
• ISBN 13: 9780395710395
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 465