The Young Apollo and Other Stories — Louis Auchincloss

Short stories from a New York Times�"bestselling author, in settings ranging from Edwardian garden parties to 1970s Manhattan.
 
While bringing to life stories of the past filled with privilege and glamour, these tales also explore their characters' less than savory ambitions and desires. In the title story, an older man eulogizes his young friend -- a muse to the artists he gathered around himself -- only to reveal that despite the young man's burgeoning reputation as a poet, he could only inspire genius, but not produce it. The Young Apollo and Other Stories takes us inside upper-class lives, crystallizing a world now gone but forever fixed in our romantic imaginations, uncovering its flaws and all too human foibles, as well as its considerable charms.
 
“This elegant . . . collection continues [Auchincloss's] unflinching examination of New York's wealthy socialite class.” -- Library Journal
 
“Auchincloss has a talent for pulling the curtain back on perfection, for peering behind the sublime facade.” -- The Seattle Times