Auchincloss belongs among the masters of American short fiction, Kirkus Reviews recently noted, calling for a fat collection spanning his forty-plus years of story-writing. Here at last is just that book, a treasury of Louis Auchinclosss finest stories and novellas, selected by the author. In his introduction to this volume, Auchincloss writes, The fashion in short stories of the past half-century has tended to favor those that deal with a single episode . . . the turning on of a light, so to speak, to illuminate a dark room. But I have stuck to the leadership of Henry James and Edith Wharton . . . in giving my tales the scope of months, even of years. Indeed, Auchincloss deftly condenses time in much of his fiction, and the light he sheds on his startlingly real characters their choices, their foibles, their delusions, their alliances is all the more revealing for it. Essential for Auchinclosss loyal followers and a perfect introduction for initiates, The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss offers a wealth of delights from the pen of one of the most distinguished, prolific, and entertaining standard-bearers of American letters.