The romantic egoists

L. Auchincloss

A collection of short stories containing "The Great World and Timothy Colt," narrated by one character, Peter Westcott. These days the general public, though fascinated by the superficial trappings of privilege, seems to have little interest in the deeper truths with which Mr. Auchincloss is passionately concerned -- with, that is, the beliefs, principles, hypocrisies, prejudices and assorted strengths and defects of character that typify the American WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) civilization that produced what was for a long time the country's undisputed ruling class.