John P. Marquand is best remembered as a highly accomplished novelist of manners, whose ironic portraits of the foibles and burdens of the privileged classes enjoyed enormous popularity during the 1940s and 1950s. Though his critical reputation has declined significantly since his death, during his most productive years he was among the most widely read and admired writers of his generation. As a satirist he is frequently compared to Sinclair Lewis, with whom he shared mutual respect, though as Granville Hicks once remarked, "his eye is as good as Sinclair Lewis at his best, and his ear more dependable than Lewis ever was" (Harper's Magazine, April 1950). Nor was such praise isolated. At the height of his fame, at mid century, Marquand's work received important attention from many of the most respected critics and reviewers then passing judgment on American literature--including Alfred Kazin, Arthur Mizener, and Malcolm Cowley.

As...