Loosely paralleling Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, with its themes of love and betrayal, honor and adultery, this novel of manners is also a morality tale in which Auchincloss shines the spotlight on a prestigious New York law firm in 1953, along with its internal workings and the elite families which run it. With a smoothly elegant style, he traces the history of the law firm of Vollard, Kaye, and Duer, meticulously recreating the pedigrees and family connections of his characters--who is married to whom, which families have merged through which marriages, and whose fortunes are rising and whose are falling. As the marriages of the principals of Vollard Kaye are negotiated, consummated, and/or dissolved, the reader is brought into living rooms and board rooms to watch as the characters wrestle with their overlapping family responsibilities and business obligations, and to observe them dealing with important issues: What, exactly, is justice, and on what inalienable truths, if any, does it rest? Does the concept of right change as times change? Is idealism possible in a pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts world?
Auchincloss's style is refined and formal, with sentences which never lose their way, even when the sentence structure itself is convoluted. Old-fashioned in his approach to his characters, Auchincloss conveys the impression that he does not want to invade their privacy by showing them in their weakest moments. His is a buttoned-up sort of characterization, one which is appropriate to a novel in which ideas are more important than the uniquenesses of character. As a result, the characters are somewhat wooden--illustrative of traits, rather then real, breathing humans--and their actions are sometimes hard to fathom. He has a tendency to announce, rather than show through the characters' actions, the ideas he wants to convey.
Auchincloss is a confident and practiced story-teller, however, with a clear belief that fiction is capable of conveying ideas at the same time that it is entertaining. His themes are clearly illustrated, and his characters, with their foibles and worries, share many of the same concerns as the rest of us, despite their elevated social status. Though the ending is a bit melodramatic, the story is intelligent and fun to read-a fascinating reflection of life and mores of just fifty years ago. Mary Whipple