The Los Angeles Times has lauded Louis Auchincloss as "a novelist committed to examining the complicated layers of character, psychology, and society." In The Friend of Women, that dedication shines on every page in the singular, epigrammatic style of an American master.
The mysteries of character are at the heart of these six previously unpublished pieces. In the title story, a teacher at a private girls' school ruminates on a long career, wondering if he was right to encourage his students to find a life less constrained than the conventional one prescribed to them or if he cruelly raised unrealistic expectations. In "The Country Cousin" -- a delightful one-act play -- a wealthy woman's dependent niece unwittingly serves as the vehicle that reveals her rich relatives' self-involvement. Ranging from a boyhood friendship tested by the fabrications of the McCarthy era to an Episcopal priest tormented by an autatic headmaster, Auchincloss's fiction illuminates the complications that ensue when our perceptions of other people's character -- as well as our own -- are upended.

From Publishers Weekly
It's easy to understand why the prolific Auchincloss (East Side Story) has been hailed as a "Living Landmark," writing as he does about a mannered New York of bygone days. His latest book, a collection of six stories, doesn't stray from this familiar, still fertile ground, with mixed results. The title story's narrator, a retired English teacher from a tony Manhattan school for "young ladies," recalls his three favorite pupils (class of 1937); in detailing his involvement in their lives as they grow into adulthood, marriage and motherhood, he reveals just how far he will go to remain a confidant and friend. A New England prep school provides the setting for a contest of wills between a young priest and a tyrannical headmaster in "The Devil and Rufus Lockwood," and a different clash of personalities is on display in "The Country Cousin," a light, predictable drawing room comedy of manners fashioned as a one-act play. Class conflicts, anti-Semitism and McCarthyism needle the WASPy characters, and personal transformations take place against the changing meanings of marriage and shifting social mores. Though there are few surprises and the waters aren't deep, Auchincloss turns over his own turf with consistent charm. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
The prolific Auchincloss has fashioned a brilliant career out of charting the course of the East Coast upper crust. In this collection of five previously unpublished short stories and a one-act play, he reaches back in time to the mid-twentieth century, providing behind-the-scenes glimpses into the often-peculiar customs, lifestyles, and rationalizations of the rich and privileged. In the title story, an English teacher from an exclusive day school for young ladies--a male Miss Jean Brodie--remembers how he influenced the lives of his three favorite pupils for better or for worse. The other stories touch upon familiar themes that include McCarthyism, the awakening of latent passions, self-absorption, and hypisy. In typical Auchincloss style, twists, turns, and gently humorous surprises grace the pages of these insightful society set pieces. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Table of Contents:
Dedication
1. L'Ami des Femmes
2. The Devil and Rufus Lockwood
3. The Call of the Wild
4. The Conversion of Fred Coates
5. The Omelette and the Egg
The Country Cousin