The Rector of Justin (Modern Library)

Louis Auchincloss has been celebrated as one of the best American novelists of our time. The Rector of Justin, originally published in 1964, is widely considered to be his most ambitious novel and his greatest achievement.

The terrain is familiar, vintage Auchincloss, in its astute dissection of the social mores of the Northeast's privileged establishment. The story centers on a prestigious Episcopal school for boys and its commanding, charismatic founder, Frank Prescott, a man whose lifelong goal was to head such a school. With laser-sharp insight, Auchincloss portrays the evolution of this man and the sources of his virtues and failings, his successes, and his crises of faith. Seamlessly interweaving multiple points of view—from an adoring teacher to that of a rebellious daughter—Auchincloss captures the brilliant totality of a man. Through the personalities and memories of six intense observers, a psychologically complex social history of the eighty years of his life emerges.

This new edition contains an Afterword by the author.