Auchincloss, Louis | James Stern (essay date 1954)
James Stern (essay date 1954)
SOURCE: A review of The Romantic Egoists, in The New York Times Book Review, May 16, 1954, p. 4.
[Stern was an Irish short story writer and critic. Here, he discusses The Romantic Egoists, admiring the book's innovative design and skilled characterization.]
[The Romantic Egoists] reveals Louis Auchincloss as a writer of unusual brilliance. In it he combines a Henry Jamesian knowledge of upper-class New York society with an economy of style, an alertness of eye, an artful disarming modesty reminiscent of the stories of Christopher Isherwood. Mr. Auchincloss, however, does not carry a camera; he sees, or rather sees through people, with the piercing lens of an X-ray. Peter Westcott, the "I" of The Romantic Egoists, is a young man in whose company, one feels, even silence might not be sufficiently discreet, discretion not always the better part of valor.
The Romantic Egoists is...
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