num_pages: 175
description: In his latest collection of essays, Louis Auchincloss discourses with engaging zest on a wide range of subjects encompassing literature, eminent jurists, the creative process and the fascinations of biography and history.Mr. Auchincloss offers an impressive variety of discerning portraits and critical appraisals, viewing both past and present with a novelist's mind and eye. Among the eighteen fine selections are appreciations of the rare talents of justices Holmes and Cardozo; a moving commentary on Emily Dickinson and her very private world; a lively -- and surprising -- analysis of the male chauvinism exhibited by Proust's Swann; a charming study of the romantic search undertaken by Henry Adams and John La Farge in their voyage to the South Seas; a revealing personal account that describes the origins of The Rector of Justin. Whether he is discussing Jane Austen or Theodore Dreiser, Versailles or the Vanderbilts, Corneille or Trollope, his provocative observations are as astute and illuminating as his novels -- and equally entertaining.Life, Law and Letters is happy proof that the art of the literary essay, as practiced by Louis Auchincloss, is very much alive and prospering.
language: English
title: Life, Law and Letters: Essays and Sketches
titlecomplete: Life, Law and Letters: Essays and Sketches
ratings_count: 6
publisher: Houghton Mifflin