Louis Auchincloss Summary

Louis Auchincloss's clear and accessible style, dry wit, compelling plots, psychological acuity, and strong moral sense characterize his short fiction as it surveys the troubled lives of its generally... Read more

Critical Essay by Granville Hicks The thirteen stories in Louis Auchincloss's Tales of Manhattan are divided into three groups: "Memories of an Auctioneer," "Arnold & ... Read more

Critical Essay by John Leonard "Life, Law and Letters" is a series of observations, all of them agreeable, like good talk after dinner. Mr. Auchincloss has a way of being interesting wi... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert Kiely Mr. Auchincloss has written primarily about well-educated, decently-behaved professional people very much engaged in their work. And he has done so with considerable mo... Read more

Critical Essay by Francis King [The literary device of viewing a man through the use of multiple narrations] is, of course, an old one; and the use to which it is put—to show, that if one seek... Read more

Hay was an American poet and critic. In the following review, she discusses characterization in The Injustice Collectors and praises Auchincloss for his "excellent portrait studies. " ... Read more

Tuttleton is an American educator and critic whose books include The Novel of Manners in America (1972). In the following excerpt, he compares Auchincloss's fiction to that of Henry James and m... Read more

The author of such works as Visit to a Small Planet ( 1956), Myra Breckenridge (1968), Burr (1973), and Lincoln (1984), Vidal is an American author particularly noted for his historical novels and ico... Read more

In this excerpt from an interview conducted between October 1985 and July 1987, Auchincloss discusses various subjects related to his work, including characterization and the evolution of his career. ... Read more

Cameron is an American short story writer and critic whose short fiction collection One Way or Another (1986) earned him recognition as a skilled and highly promising young author. In the following re... Read more

In this chapter from his book on Auchincloss's work, Parseli discusses the author's short story collections, commenting on the manner in which they experiment with long and short forms. ... Read more

Bernays is an American author and educator. In the following review of False Gods, she declares that Auchincloss's "language, world view and subject matter seem to be in a time warp,�... Read more

Hicks was an American literary critic whose famous study The Great Tradition: An Interpretation of American Literature since the Civil War (1933) established him as the foremost advocate of Marxist cr... Read more

In this excerpt, Kane compares Auchincloss's treatment of lawyers with those of other American writers. A pat declaration of faith in mankind and the bar is among the inevitable platitudes ... Read more

Tucker is an American educator and critic. In the following review, he discusses Auchincloss 's narrative technique in Tales of Manhattan and finds that the author's frequent use of pass... Read more

In the following review, Ruffin discusses the puritanical nature of the characters in Second Chance. The Puritans are always with us. They are particularly with American literary men, even today... Read more