"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 Auchincloss's 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 Auchincloss's 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.